You know that your democracy has entered the danger zone when Dr. Timothy Snyder (“On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century”) comes knocking. As an expert on 20th-century Germany and Russia, he knows a bit about the demise of democracy and the rise of absolute power.
One of the keys in each case is the eradication of truth. According to Snyder, this starts with the outright denial of facts. For Donald Trump, this has been a habit since at least 2017. In fact, there were people who made it their jobs to count the number of lies he told a day. Dr. Snyder points out that the number grew from some six times a day on average in 2017 to 27 in 2020. Snyder concludes: “This figure is so high that it makes correct assertions seem like unintended oversights on the path toward total fiction” (Page 66).
Of course, some lies stick out more than others do. Most recently, we have heard whoppers like “Portland, (Oregon,) is burning down to the ground” and “Democrat-run cities are hellscapes.” Lies like these are more scary than, say, “I have ended seven unendable wars,” since their intended consequence is clearly to justify using the military against civilians. But they all serve the general purpose of making people doubt their senses and, in so doing, accept whatever they are being told.
According to Snyder, Trump wins when truth ceases to exist: “If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so.”
But Trump has not won yet. One truth that clearly keeps him up at night is hiding in the Epstein files. One could argue that the main reason for the government shutdown is to keep this truth hidden. Stay tuned.
Frederick Longacre
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
