“There are three kinds of lies,” said the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Welcome to Facebook.

And Twitter.

And social media of all sorts and species.

Oh, and welcome to Election 2016.

There’s a connection here if you’ll hang on for a second or two while I explain.

I was watching the political commentary on TV this morning. Jeff Greenfield, the well-known and seasoned analyst of CBS, CNN and ABC fame, was ruminating about Donald Trump’s rather fascinating ability to say stupid and often untruthful things and get away with it. His supporters seem to give him a pass on whatever lies, damned lies or phony statistics he offers. And his poll numbers go up! Greenfield neglected to mention that Hillary Clinton shares that skill. Did you listen to her explanation of the consulate attack in Benghazi or any of her 800 different lies about those nasty emails sent to and from the private email server in her home?

In former times, Greenfield said, a Presidential candidate would be in big trouble with the electorate for anything that remotely resembled an untruth, mistake or falsehood. Lies, damned lies and phony statistics don’t sit well with the American electorate and candidates have paid dearly for their dishonesty.

But no longer.

Greenfield observed that people seem to be setting aside the filters they once had for evaluating candidates. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore if our leaders tell the truth so long as they reflect our political preferences and get our “guy” (male or female) elected.

Reflecting upon Greenfield’s words I find myself thinking about Facebook, Twitter and all the other vessels of social media. You cannot open an app these days without being slapped in the face with someone’s re-post of a re-post of a re-post of someone’s highly slanted, mostly untrue take on what a candidate did, said, thought about, or was accused of twenty years ago or in some past life. An average day in my social media life is filled with friends’ posts of…well…lies, damned lies, and phony statistics. And these deliberate twists of the truth are posted there by folks on the right and the left alike.

Social media has given the public a very effective platform from which to proclaim their heartfelt convictions to whoever will pay attention. And we Americans are using this new form of communication with great fervor, especially in the political realm.

That’s great!

However, our willingness to personally participate in the dissemination of lies, damned lies and phony statistics just may be creating a world in which truth and honesty no longer matter.

And that may be the reason our political candidates get away with the shit they do.