Your analysis of why big lies matter is excellent, Lisa. Unfortunately your attachment to representative democracy clouds your judgement later in the article. Plato, some 2,500 years ago, pointed out that all democracies ultimately become tyrannies precisely because a significant minority will always fall prey to the blusterings of demagogues and thereafter the majority will fall quietly into line (because that’s what group animals do). Today we’re seeing all around the world a confirmation of the accuracy of Plato’s analysis: Trump, Brexit, Bolsonaro, Duterte, Modi, Babis, Orban, AfD, PiS, Edrogan, Le Pen, Salvini, and of course our prime example of a democratically elected dictator: Vladimir Putin. (There are many more such democratically elected tyrants; I merely cite the most obvious for the sake of brevity but the actual list runs to over 100 leaders and soon-to-be-leaders.)