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Few phenomena in the human world have given rise to as many winged words as lies. Phrases are often surrounded by an air of healthy generosity that rhymes badly with the seriousness of the content, as in the famous observation by the German “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck that he never lies as much as before an election, during a war and after a hunt.
This time it is time to update the preposition. In America today, it is after the choice found has reached both a new frequency and a new magnitude.
One of the most frequently cited quotes is the one usually attributed to the German Nazi regime propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels: “If a lie is repeated enough times, it becomes the truth.”
Like many famous quote, it is false. Goebbels never wrote or said that, although he probably thought so. Instead, the expression can be derived from the content of the passage from Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf”, where the future Führer declared that a big lie worked better than a small one. What he meant was that it is easier to get people to believe in an actual robbery story, such as that of a Jewish worldwide conspiracy, than a mere fabrication. The reason is simple: most people occasionally lie to themselves and understand the mechanics of the little lie. However, few are willing to believe that one can really lie as rudely and shamelessly as is required of the authors of the great lie.
Most people occasionally lie to themselves and understand the mechanics of the little lie.
Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler. But the propaganda technique that he developed last week in the eyes of an unfaithful world is the same. Back on election night, Trump claimed that he had won even though not all the votes were counted, and when the loss was a fact, he refused to admit it and stood firm in his victory, launching allegations of election fraud, fraud and theft. It was not just a coincidence that one of his sons spoke of “total war” against his opponents, an expression that Joseph Goebbels actually used when it was clear to everyone that Germany would lose the war.
Donald Trump knows, of course that what he says is a big lie. In fact, he has built his entire political career and presidency on lies (remember that it all started with his campaign that Barack Obama was not born in the United States). In Trumpism, it doesn’t matter what you lie about or why you do it. The main thing is that the big lie works.
And it does, for more reasons than we want to believe. In the past week, many have laughed at failed press conferences outside garden stores or MAGA beanie chairs echoing Trump’s shamanic chants about cheating, theft and fraud. It’s a laugh that runs the risk of getting stuck in your throat. Today’s big lie is more dangerous than ever.
The German-Jewish linguist Victor Klemperer, who survived Nazism, is today best known for his analysis of the language of the Third Reich and the almost dissected observation that the language of hate is like small doses of poison that are ingested completely unnoticed and at first. it seems to have no effect but that after a while it still works.
Less frequently cited is Victor Klemperer’s reminder of how his former friends are also “infected” by the language of lies.
Less frequently cited is Victor Klemperer’s reminder of how his former friends are also “infected” by the language of lies. Without realizing it, they internalize the language of the Nazis and therefore their way of thinking: “None of them were Nazis. But they were all poisoned. “
This is how it can work even today, everywhere. Lies penetrate the smallest components of language, where they run the risk of poisoning and destroying all communication and all thought, even those who believe they are resistant.
The technique of the big lie is therefore a reminder of the timeless fragility of both the individual and the institutions of society. The lie enters as a natural part of the cycle, where it can eventually corrode the democratic model of the democratic public: education, journalism, science, everything.
The media have a special role to play in this, which is to try to describe a basically completely baroque situation with the means of a clear and conventional language. A communicative model built on rationality, transparency and reason collides with a reality where these values are no longer valid. It is not possible to verify the facts of fascism.
When P1 interviews an angry Trump supporter, it’s not the journalist’s initial reservations, but the strange incantations that linger afterward.
Maybe we imagine that Swedish media consumers are immune to madness. The lessons learned from Victor Klemperer show that this is not the case. When newspapers in the preface and headlines repeat the words of the big lie about “electoral fraud” or that the election is “stolen,” it is the words themselves that get stuck. When P1 interviews an angry Trump supporter, it’s not the reporter’s initial reservations but the strange incantations that linger afterward. When the SVT allows a voter who claims that “cats and dogs have voted in elections” give his analysis of extensive electoral fraud, he is in the service of propaganda. It is unreasonable for the Swedish media to broadcast pure lies without comment. The media think they are impartial. But fairness instead becomes part of the lie.
Donald Trump himself will never do what the most sensible people expect him to do: give up. And because you know you can’t compete in “real” reality, you continue to create your own side. There, lies about the illegitimacy of the elections will haunt Joe Biden for years to come, while Republican enablers will continue to undermine democracy. In the fantasy land of the big lie, the gaps deepen and people finally start to hate each other.
We can be sure that all the little Trumps in the world see and learn from the technology of the fallen tyrant.
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