I remember my parents generation talking a lot about compartmentalising - men were supposed to do it all the time but I think we all do it - all the 4 sexes - I remember when I exited the cult I had this sense that my brain was full of ideas which needed to be put in the same compartment and tested because I was believing mutually exclusive things.
and the reason it was like that was because of core beliefs I had been fed like don't doubt which turned my mind from questioning but now I did and when I had done all that I became aware I still had areas that were spongy. They cleared up 15 years later when I realised my marital circumstance.
which leads me to believe that there is something different about lies to uncertainties - I don't need to compartmentalise this idea I get when I look at the moon that there's a rabbit on it which is clearly silly, or the idea that might be a snake in the rocks which potentially was true though it turned out to be a lizard - these wrong ideas are congruent with my ability to assess reality in a way that lies are not. No some part of me that I'm not conscious of must be dumping some of the lies and putting some of them into compartments and though they get sorted left to my own devices, while I remain in the purview of the liar I don't question and I end up down the road thinking how could I have believed that, or why didn't I put two and two together.
I'm pretty certain the way Trump is able to exploit this to such a degree is also instinctive behaviour rather than conscious knowledge.
