When I was in college, a friend of mine was dating my roommate, so it alarmed me when I heard him having sex with the other roommate. When my friend confronted me about it, I had a choice: either tell the truth, or lie to cover for my roommate. It struck me that in situations like that, the truth is the only place to stand. Only truth has integrity. Because if you lie, you are lying FOR somebody. My friend was crushed to learn that her boyfriend was cheating on her, but she was grateful I had told the truth.
What does this story have to do with the current political landscape? It turns out, a lot.
Can we remember when Russia first invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea back in 2014? Russia lied about it by claiming ignorance about the “little green men” who had seized the peninsula. After the second invasion, the lie was that Ukraine (!!!) had started the war. Putin’s supporters and Russian media enthusiastically confirmed his version of events. However, the fact that these claims were laughable misses the point. The goal of the lies is to rewrite history and thereby control the future. Importantly, the lies offer a simple challenge to the faithful: will you fall in line behind the party line (the party lie)? Because if your allegiance is to the truth, you are against us comrade.
Does this sound familiar? It should. This is exactly the playbook that Trump displayed when he claimed (just like Putin) that Ukraine had started the war. The terrifying thing was watching his loyalists fall in line behind his absurdity, suddenly arguing how beautiful the emperor’s clothes were. Or remember the “Covfefe” butt-Tweet? Instead of recognizing it as a simple accident, the far-right went into overdrive insisting it was some sort of legitimate message, further evidence of Trump’s brilliance. Of course, the biggest example of this is the lie that the 2020 election was stolen — about 70% of Republicans suspected voter fraud, despite (or perhaps because of) there being no concrete evidence to support that claim.
When our “leaders” are falling all over themselves to demonstrate their loyalty to a lie, we are witnessing the fascist toolkit to undermine democracy and pluralism. It goes hand in hand with attacks on universities and education or anything that might provide critical inquiry into the kind of myths that are required for authoritarian/fascist politics. Critical thought? Free elections? A free press? No comrade, those do not conform to our authoritarian vision.
Our country is in real trouble when our elected officials are looking more and more like North Koreans who believe that Kim Jong Un was sent by God and never needs to defecate or that Kim Jong Il invented the hamburger. They either genuinely believe the insane claims, or they are too terrified to disagree with them when loyalty is critical for survival. How pathetic are we when a prerequisite for party membership is that our “leaders” must lie to demonstrate their loyalty? We can disagree on policy, we can disagree on solutions, but when we disagree on truth itself, we are sliding towards fascism because when you lie, you are lying for somebody. And when you live in that propaganda dream world, you cannot solve any real problems because you have prioritized lies over the truth. Can we as a country at least recognize the importance of the truth as the only antidote to the lies? Can we call out the enablers before it’s too late?