Greater truths
Under fascism truth and lies have a complicated relationship. Small lies about specific facts are not as important as the larger truths essential to establish and maintain a fascist regime.
In his discussion of Hitler, Mussolini and Goebbels, historian Federico Finchelstein observes:
At some level…they recognize that these lies were lies. But even then, the idea was that these lies were servicing the truth, or were enabling the truth, or were at the service of the truth. Sometimes in a minimal way, they were acknowledging to some extent that they were lying for the truth, rendering these in a way smaller than the truth, which was an ideological one, such as racism. … at the end of the day, what mattered was the big truth, as they understood it. Even Hitler himself will say about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, …“Even if there are aspects of the Protocols that are not correct or true, they speak to a greater truth.”
That greater truth is wound deeply in myths of a scared past in which all white men were superior to women, people of color, immigrants, queers, and people with disabilities. It is a truth that establishes a collective identity, offers possibilities for violent action and affirms a world view unsustainable in fact.
Trump’s lies are not intended to help us think about reality, about problems we might need to solve, relationships we might need to care about, or dangers we might need to avoid.
He is not simply ignoring facts, he finds them irrelevant. He uses lies to establish his own greater truth, surrounded by physical and psychological violence in service to his own power and privilege.
Trump doesn’t have to check the nation’s unemployment and inflation rates to assert that “we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.” He doesn’t have to know anything about the Paris Accord to claim it is “costing us trillions of dollars.” It doesn’t matter.
What matters to Trump and all fascist leaders is to use ‘truths” to convey an attitude of power and purpose to his followers.
What we have seen in the few weeks is that the essence of that attitude is cruelty and violence. From the smallest slight of refusing to address the lone transgender congresswoman by the appropriate title to the kidnapping of students who dared protest genocide, and the chaotic slashing of government programs, Trump and his followers continence actions that diminish our common humanity and do real harm to millions of people.
This distortion of reality to serve the truths of a world view based on lies cannot be sustained.
Nowhere is this more clearly understood than in Trump’s efforts to make America great by bringing back industrial manufacturing.
Almost any person on the streets of Detroit will tell you that mass industrial production does not mean mass employment. It certainly doesn’t mean high wages. The industrial might of post WWII era is long gone. Automation and the assault on unions have taken their toll. Just this week it was revealed that Stellantis, the number 4 car manufacturer in the world, has shed 50,000 jobs in just 4 years. Over the last five years layoffs and buyouts have been relentless in the auto industry. And there is no doubt that the Trump tariff war will accelerate these trends.
Trump promises the restoration of an American Dream that was secured for some by a nightmare for people around the globe and many here at home. Anyone who was not male, white, able-bodied and under 65 bore the pain of an unjust system. American manufacturing disregarded the health and safety of those who produced goods and services for an ever-fewer number of people. It has brought our ecological systems to the brink of collapse.
These truths, based in reality, will not be long silenced. It is upon them that we can base new economies and ways of living that are life-affirming and grounded in the real concerns of people and the health of our earth.