It used to be that politicians lied out of shame or to cover-up a crime or a misdeed or a compromising position from their youth. Or maybe they’d lie about a controversial policy or practice or a misjudgment made in office. Sometimes they are lies of omission. Sometimes they are overt lies told to cover up the truth. Those lies are a tacit admission that the liar knows the truth is unacceptable to the public. And that means there is at least some consciousness of guilt or an acknowledgement that the truth is a threat to their hold on power. Most importantly, lies told to hide the truth are rooted in the public’s grasp on reality. Reality and truth still hold the trump card and the liar knows it.
Not coincidentally, that's how we got conspiracy theories. Back when lies were used to cover-up things, conspiracy theories helped the public pick apart the official stories that those lies were designed to protect. Factual inconsistencies became fodder for speculation. Theories spawned questions. Questions led to more research and more uncovered facts. Newly revealed facts further refined the theories … and on the dialectic went. Yes, it could be fanciful. And some told tales of Roswell and Bigfoot. But it could also be trenchant, particularly when applied to the military-industrial complexities of an expanding US empire. Many so-called conspiracy theorists did the hard work of trying to unpack Cold War cover-ups and the lies those cover-ups depended upon.
But those days are gone.
Now a politician's lies serve as a gold-plated ticket to a magical kingdom where followers suspend disbelief to participate in a collective reality. The more fanciful the lie, the greater the access to the kingdom. It's a declaration of loyalty. One has to actively resist the truth to embrace lies that stretch the bounds of credulity. And that resistance is your entrance fee to the collective reality created by the politician's lies. More lies are just more opportunities to publicly declare one's fealty to both the liar and to the collective’s identity. And the bigger the lie, the bigger the investment in that collective identity. Those tall tales also build ideological walls that keep out the apostates.
There is safety in believing the lies ... and there is built-in belonging.
And, in one of the great ironies of the last half-century, the conspiracy theories we once used to expose lies and reveal cover-ups now serve as a valuable weapon in the arsenal of the political liar. Politicians can use them to paper-over cracks in the magical kingdom or to plug holes in the collective's alternate reality. Conspiracy theories act like an ideological missile defense system that shoots down incoming volleys from reality.
On the flipside of that coin, a conspiracy theory can also be the big lie that exposes the heresy and evil intent of the non-believer. They usually reveal heretofore secret plots and betrayals by the malicious apostates who will not rest until the magical kingdom is destroyed. These high stakes mean the big lie is also the biggest test of one's identity. To give up on the big lie is to actively betray "your own people." Perhaps that why the conspiracy theory is often the biggest lie of all. Belief in ever-bigger lies is the ultimate demonstration of your loyalty.
It's not a unique dynamic. It's obviously happened before. And once it starts it is very hard to stop because the magical kingdom is perpetually under threat from the truth. It is also under threat from anyone who refuses to believe the lie. The agents of reality lurk around every corner. Constant vigilance, or paranoia, is required. That embattled mindset puts the vigilant (or vigilante?) in a reality that constantly confirms their biases. Every fact-check vindicates their beliefs. Facts are merely deceptions designed to undermine their faith. And the motivation to deceive them only shows the rightness of their cause.
It is a zero-sum game between the stewards of the "good" reality and the "evil" reality being peddled by wicked deceivers who "hate" the “good” people. They seek the destruction of the magical kingdom and, because that kingdom is built on lies, the truth about its fallacious foundation are inherently malicious. Therefore, “truth-tellers” pose an existential threat not just to individual believers, but to the collective and their entire magical kingdom. If history is any guide, life or death threats from "the enemy within" are not a threats they can ultimately live with.
And that's probably why I find it so demoralizing to hear a lie about an invasion of evildoers from foreign "mental institutions" and from "The Congo" being loudly and defiantly retold on a daily basis without any significant effort to rebut and rebuke it.
Or maybe it's demoralizing because rebuttals and rebukes no longer matter.