“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”
–Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny
In his YouTube video on this tenet, Snyder argues that if we succumb to the nihilist belief that nothing is really true and everything is just opinion, then we’re disempowering ourselves. Believing in truth, he argues, is about asserting a value–we may never get to truth, but the hunt for it is important. He goes on to say that truth isn’t just out there waiting for us but is only uncovered because people work hard to find it; and in many cases truth is hidden by those in power.
In the book, Snyder lays out four ways that truth can be undermined and attacked. The first is perhaps the most obvious and presents itself as an “open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts (66).” We have become used to this form of “untruth” and have to assume it’s present in the majority of the information we are fed—among which there is plenty of “spectacle” to be found by those with deep pockets.
The second way truth can be weakened is through shamanistic incantation, or repeating phrases and words over and over again until they start to gain a sense of normalcy. They also function as a distraction, so we don’t notice other ways truth is being obscured. Some examples of this are chants like “build the wall” and “lock her up”–or repetition of nicknames like “Crooked Hillary” or “Lyin’ Ted.”
The third way is through magical thinking, or “the open embrace of contradiction” (67). For example, when public policy is supposed to lower taxes, eliminate the national debt and increase spending simultaneously: this form requires “a blatant abandonment of reason” (68). Finally, the fourth is through misplaced faith in a leader, believing they alone can solve the problems at hand.
Snyder argues that many people are both cynical and gullible, two qualities that lend themselves to authoritarianism. He says we should instead aim to be “skeptical hunters,” or people who question the information we are fed while continuing to seek–and believe in–truth.
Hear Timothy Snyder speak about this lesson on YouTube.
This lesson was letterpress printed with Pantone 389 ink on a Vandercook proofing press.
