(1) As we approach a new US election, let’s remind ourselves of what the brilliant Hannah Arendt said about the use of lies and propaganda by authoritarians, and how followers are manipulated to accept and defend those lies, even when they are exposed as such.

(2) Hannah Arendt, “Origins of Totalitarianism” (1951)

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and nothing was true...”

(3) (Arendt, 1951, con’t)

“The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day (...)”

(4) (Arendt, 1951, con’t)

“(...) and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along (...)”

(5) (Arendt, 1951, con’t)

“(...) that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”

Arendt goes on to note that this process of accepting blatant lies forever links the authoritarian to supporters...

(6) Arendt shows that making people repeat what they know to be lies is a form of authoritarian power, and it forces followers to be complicit. The alternative is to admit that you knew they were lies all along, which would be an indictment of not only the leader, but yourself.

(7) Finally, Arendt writes that deliberately flooding the public sphere with lies to sow perpetual doubt means that: "the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed."