Trump's Ear wound

[Asherah]

We are in the middle of an election campaign. It's important. When someone with a minor scratch on his ear wants to profit from "stolen valor", he and his handpicked doctor want to spin that to his advantage.

It is perturbing that Trump might be stretching the truth for political gain, but there is not enough evidence to make a strong case that he's actually stretching the Truth here. He's told much bigger lies (e.g. "the election was stolen") that are easy to refute on strong evidence, and are more insidious. Energy is much better spent on communicating those lies than worrying too much about this possible lie.

 

[NoParty]

It is perturbing that Trump might be stretching the truth for political gain, but there is not enough evidence to make a strong case that he's actually stretching the Truth here. He's told much bigger lies (e.g. "the election was stolen") that are easy to refute on strong evidence, and are more insidious. Energy is much better spent on communicating those lies than worrying too much about this possible lie.

I would agree that--in the big picture of Trump's constant lies--this would be 108,548th down the list.

On the other hand, every lie revealed contributes to the body of evidence that might move an objective

person who, so far, has been reluctant to believe that anyone could be that militantly dishonest.

 

[deirdre]

Here's 5 decades worth of data:

i dont think using the original "Summer of Love" (counter culture movement) as a start date really helps debunk his point, just his number of decades.

Try going back to the Old West. Those numbers dance circles over yours. and yes, leaders advocated for gun control back then too. of course these are 'cattle towns', so maybe economic hardship or inadequate police force is the predictor vs guns?.. but still

Article:

Even in Oregon, 1850-1865, which had the lowest minimum rate yet discovered in the American West (30 per 100,000 adults per year), an adult faced at least a 1 in 208 chance of being murdered.

Source: https://cjrc.osu.edu/research/interdisciplinary/hvd/homicide-rates-american-west

 

[Ann K]

Energy is much better spent on communicating those lies than worrying too much about this possible lie.

For political advocacy, I would agree with you, but that is not the purpose of Metabunk. On the other hand, this forum spent a long time debating the Patterson-Gimlin "Bigfoot" film of more than half a century ago. (Nit-picking is often what we do at this site!)

 

[John J.]

there is not enough evidence to make a strong case that he's actually stretching the Truth here.

Agreed.
Whether Trump "took a bullet" or not is a matter of opinion based on what that phrase means,
but he was certainly shot at and wounded (albeit a very minor wound), probably by a 5.56mm round which was fired with the intent of killing him.
That's got to be a major event in his life, and if he makes political capital out of it, well, that's what (many) politicians do.

 

[Mendel]

I think it's a bit of a "boy who cried wolf" situation:

Trump has often blamed others when something adverse happened in his life that he was responsible for. And now that he really isn't to blame, many people still assume he's somehow responsible (especially since he seems to profit from it), and a conspiracy theory appears.

As with other conspiracy theories, there's some belief defense at work, only now the general belief being defended is somewhat well-founded; it just doesn't apply to this instance (as opposed to, say, Flat Earth, which is ill-founded to begin with).

 

[captancourgette]

Agreed.
Whether Trump "took a bullet" or not is a matter of opinion based on what that phrase means,

Did I ever tell you about that time I took a bullet in Laos