I wrote this statement a couple of weeks ago: “The truth matters less than a lie that makes one feel good.  And lies become the truth when repeated often enough.”

I’ve been reading a lot lately, much of it has been about prior periods in our history where we almost lost our democracy as well as a general overview of how democracies have died in other countries.  As an example, I knew some of what happened prior to World War II with Nazism and the “America First” movement here in the United States, but I didn’t previously understand how deep the threat truly was.  And we are facing a similar threat again.  Rachel Maddow wrote in Prequel of the pre-WW2 period and the similarities then to the MAGA movement today.  It left me wondering about MAGA America and lead me to the statement above.  (note: I’m really just summarizing what others have said before)  The statement sums up the approach of Paul Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propaganda minister.  And it’s what we hear from Trump today.  His followers believe that the 2020 election was stolen because he keeps saying it.  The facts don’t matter, they can feel the truth.  They believe his repeated lies.  Why?  Because people with a certain view of this country feel that they’re being threatened, so called “losing their country”.  The Nazi lies blaming most everything on the Jews were easy to believe because the antisemitic feeling was already strong enough in pre-WW2 Germany.  The lies are easy to believe because they fit a false narrative and make people feel good.  The feeling matters more than the facts.  So here’s the problem: I, like most of you who read what I write, believe in a world of facts and following facts to find a better truth.  We believe in science, that vaccines are safe and effective, that climate change is real and is threatening life on this planet.  But how do we connect to people that base their decisions on feel rather than reality?  Trump summed it up years ago when he said knowing in his gut was more important and more correct than what any expert could tell him.

So how do we change what people feel?  If we can’t?  Democracy in this country may end.  Trump’s team is already planning for the largest mass deportation in this country’s history.  This includes detainment camps such as were used to hold the Japanese during WW2.  He’s made clear that he plans a revenge tour, that he will use the Department of Justice to hunt down and control his enemies.  January 6, 2021 showed clearly that his followers are comfortable with the violence that will make another Kristallnacht possible.  Nazism was built on hate and fear.  So is Trumpism and MAGAism.  How do we change this when feeling something matters more than the truth?  If we can’t change it then what will be left?  Which of us will survive?  Democracies rarely die in a single, spectacular event, but rather through a death of a thousand cuts.  And ours is already badly bleeding.

Lastly, I’m considering reading Mein Kampf.  I don’t really want to, but feel that I need to so I can better understand the parallels to today.  My only fear?  That ordering the book on Amazon will add me to an antisemitism watch list.  But all thing considered?  Compared to the alternative it’s a risk I think I need to take on.

I don’t write and do the work I do so you don’t have to, but rather to remind us of what we all need to do.

Be the Pebble