Two years ago to the month in my ‘Three-lie leeway’ Stray thoughts column, I wrote of my despair and disgust of the impunity with which society leaders and politicians didn’t just shade the truth but buried it six-feet deep and then gleefully stomped on it. In the past week a couple of things reminded me of that column and about the role truth plays in our public discourse. One was a Facebook post and the other delivery of council voting papers.
The Facebook post purportedly quotes German historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt saying: ‘This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people you can do whatever you want.’ First, a disclaimer. I cannot guarantee Arendt said those words. It did come from Facebook, a cesspit of misinformation, and a cursory Google search indicates it may be the result of some judicious paraphrasing.
But it sums up for me how the news over the past two years has been making me feel. Last year’s Voice Referendum was full of untruths and misinformation, the Russian UN envoy talks about the Ukraine invasion almost as if it was Ukraine that invaded Russia. Israel maintains it is solely targeting Hamas strongholds as somehow the rest of the world is not seeing the death and injury of men, women and children, and the destruction of Palestinian lands. (One understands the deep complexity of the situation, but the truth is innocent people on all fronts are dying, being injured or made homeless.)
The Australian Federal Government has recognised the dangers of misinformation and has introduced the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 into Parliament. The Bill aims to increase the transparency and accountability of major digital platforms and their response to seriously harmful mis- and disinformation. In its fact sheet about the Bill, the government says, ‘Seriously harmful online mis- and disinformation poses a threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians as well as to our democracy, society and economy.’
Which leads me to the US elections and Donald Trump. Trump is mendacious to his core, but it seems for