On February 24, 2022 the Russian army, under the orders of Vladimir Putin, invaded Ukraine in the absence of any obvious provocation. This “special military operation” that Putin insists on calling it, has led to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians, destroyed entire cities and caused more than four million refugees to flee to other countries. So far this atrocity has not diminished Putin’s popularity inside Russia, and that is for one basic reason: tyrants like Putin, stay in power through their ability to spread lies. If the Russian people had access to an independent press and were made aware of the brutality of the Russian invasion they would be more likely to reject Putin. But by shutting down the independent media Putin has created a truly “captive” audience that now sees nothing but his lies. The very phrase “special military operation” is a deception, evidenced by the harsh fifteen year prison sentence that awaits anyone in Russia who dares call it a “war”.
Putin’s reason for waging a “war” against Ukraine is based on the lie that The Soviet Union was once a mighty Empire. “Make Russia Great Again!” Putin’s war actually started in 2014 when he invaded Crimea and helped manufacture a Russian separatist movement in the Donbas. Part of this “war” also involved massive flows of misinformation from Russian trolls and hackers to the West, starting in Ukraine, and then the rest of Europe. This led to the amplification of extremist right wing groups all over Europe, to Brexit, and in America, to Trump’s election. Whether or not Putin’s help actually got Trump elected, it is indisputable that the Trump campaign learned a lot from Russian disinformation tactics. They eagerly incorporated the same conspiracy theories and techniques for spreading lies that had been spearheaded by the Russians.
This is an important moment in history that needs to be heeded. I’m a philosopher and it’s my job to point out to you why the two worst leaders in recent world history have come to power and wreaked death and destruction because of their lies and their lying.
Generally in a democracy, a good leader will represent the majority of the people, but sometimes we get opportunistic leaders who go out of their way to represent not the majority, but instead a specific minority, a minority who feel the most aggrieved, the greatest indignation, over losing their former status and influence. The reason this kind of leader reaches out to such a minority group, is because the kind of people who nurse their grievances are easy prey. People who are consumed with hatred and resentment will be happy to believe lies that support their resentments. And, It’s easy enough to produce these lies on demand, because to tell people what they want to hear is always easier than telling them the truth.
Donald Trump campaigned and governed on a platform of lies, from the Birtherism of the Tea Party, to his sharing conspiracy theories about global warming and the covid pandemic, to his use of lies about election fraud to try to overturn the 2020 election.
On January sixth 2021 the entire world witnessed Trump’s sustained use of “election fraud” lies to spearhead the first violent attempt to overturn a legitimate election in U.S. history. Trump did not have a total monopoly on the U.S. media, but he did have a captive audience that was receptive to his lies, and that is what made January sixth possible.
Allowing politicians to use lies as weapons to gain tyrannical power is a very bad idea. Fortunately, the weaponization of lies can still be stopped if we do something about it now. Putin is able to make very effective use of lies only because he has monopoly power in Russia. By eliminating a free press, Putin easily magnifies the power of his lies.
America is now in a crisis, held hostage by Trump’s “stolen election” lies. As long as one of the main political parties is supporting Trump’s leadership, they are supporting his corrupt modus operandi - the weaponization of lies. And this directly threatens American democracy by driving extreme polarization and by destroying the people’s trust in a peaceful transfer of power. Lies pave the way for totalitarianism. This is obvious in the case of Putin. Unfortunately, it is less obvious with U.S. politics, because the erosion of democracy seems to be happening in slow motion. Make no mistake, we will see U.S. democracy fail if we don’t stop the proliferation and use of this weapon of mass destruction now.
