All of these protests -- "B-b-but they're lying! We can see it ourselves! What are they thinking?" -- it is so frustrating that 2 years in and people still don't understand! They do not lie *despite* the fact that the truth is easily known. They do so *because* of it. Once again:
Ordinary politicians lie to deceive. They want you to believe an untruth. Fascists lie to assert dominance over truth itself. They bait their enemies into disputing them, which causes their supporters to rally to their side. The factual basis of the claim itself is irrelevant.
Some supporters may understand this on some level, others may not, it doesn't matter. The point is to declare that only the Leader determines what is true. Once truth is only an objective in a power struggle it can never be used to challenge the Leader. That is the goal.
Fascists lie about easily-checked things precisely in order to position fact-checking as a weapon of the enemy that should always be rejected. They lie to obliterate the idea of objective truth itself. openculture.com/2017/01/hannah…
Of course it is still important to call out lies and affirm facts. But the media's failure to grasp and explain the context in which those lies are being told is disheartening to say the least.
The reason I know this stuff is because a lot of people much smarter and more well-read than me have been writing about it for 2 years. I didn't link to more articles only bc have been so many I've forgotten where I saw them. One of my follows has a book on the subject I think?
Anyway, if you remember any good articles on the topic of the fascist approach to truth and falsehood, please post them in this thread for people who want more information. I'll start with this: newyorker.com/news/our-colum…
I found who wrote the new book I was thinking of! It’s @ThePlumLineGS of course!
Related thread
If I had more time I'd put together a whole syllabus
