The illusory truth effect explains that if someone repeats a lie over and over again, people will slowly start to believe it is true.
And that’s exactly the strategy the liberal Maine People’s Alliance is employing with their front group the “Maine Small Business Coalition.”
Even though it has been well-documented that the Maine Small Business Coalition is nothing but a side project for the MPA, the most notorious dark-money organization in Maine, the group continues to repeat the lie that it is a legitimate operation and not a liberal outfit.
For example, in this recent Bangor Daily News article about the upcoming income tax increase ballot initiative, the Maine Small Business Coalition rallied in support of the measure and called for higher taxes and government spending.
If this was a real ‘business coalition,’ this would be newsworthy, as small businesses often oppose tax increases and big government policies that stifle economic growth. But they aren’t an authentic coalition; they’re simply a well-disguised liberal entity with a hidden agenda.
Unfortunately, the group (and the author of the article) failed to disclose that the Maine Small Business Coalition is an integral component of the state’s largest liberal special-interest group.
The Maine Small Business Coalition is clearly masquerading as an independent group that supports the income tax ballot initiative, while in reality, they only support this initiative because of their allegiance to their parent group, the MPA.
However, this shouldn’t come as any surprise, as it fits perfectly with the Maine Small Business Coalition’s traditional MO. The group routinely advocates for liberal economic and environmental causes, while also pretending that it isn’t owned and operated by liberal political activists. They endorse legislators (but only Democrats), organize advocacy events and take sides on ballot initiatives such as the minimum wage.
In short, the group plays a crucial role in spreading liberal propaganda to unwitting voters and citizens.
Side note: The Maine Small Business Coalition recently proclaimed that 600 of their small-business-owning members support raising the minimum wage. However, they supposedly have 3,400 member businesses – meaning over 80% of their own members aren’t backing in this initiative. Not exactly something worth bragging about.
But the worst part of all of this dishonesty and leftist propaganda?
Members of Maine’s media fall for this ruse and treat the Maine Small Business Coalition as a reasonable and fair organization. Journalists are actually starting to take this group seriously and failing to acknowledge that they are just another dark-money front group.
But don’t expect the MPA and the Maine Small Business Coalition to admit the truth anytime soon.
If the illusory truth effect tells us anything, we know they are just getting started.
