Legislating Facts

Newspeak is Here

A free and open press helps protect us in a democracy and prevents the takeover of our government by a totalitarian regime. If Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani have their way, the free press won't be a problem. They're doing their best right now to undermine a free and unfettered press. Giuliani comments, "They will have their facts and we'll have ours" and "Truth isn't Truth," only scratch the surface of what the neo-conservatives have been saying for over a decade. These same arguments have been part of the political scene for a while. Newt Gingrich and Kellyanne Conway talk freely about alternative facts. They want to cast seeds of doubt. No matter the legal outcome, they want to cast its legitimacy in doubt.

Once the press is marginalized, they will be free to legislate the facts.

Nations Built on Lies

Earlier this year Poland made it illegal to speak about their collaboration with Nazi Germany in World War Two. The new law imposes a prison term of up to three years for anyone who asserts that the anyone from the Polish Republic is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes.”  According to Robert Kinzer who wrote this piece published in the Boston Globe, "The purpose of this new law is entirely political. It wins cheers from chauvinistic nationalists, of whom there are evidently many in Poland. That provides votes to politicians who rail against the world and picture their nation as an innocent victim of history." Since Kinzer wrote the article, it looks as if the law will be watered down or reversed after international condemnation.

Not the First Time

Kinzer points out in his article that this is not the first time a country has tried this and it is easy to imagine what it would be like if other countries tried to change history by simply lying. His list includes:  

Austria: It is illegal to say that Hitler was born here, that most Austrians were thrilled when he absorbed Austria into the Third Reich, and that he was welcomed with delirious enthusiasm when he visited in 1938.

France: It is illegal to say that our troops supported Rwandans who carried out the 1994 genocide, and then, after their defeat, moved them into the Congo, where they have been rampaging ever since.

Great Britain: It is illegal to say that British imperialism was one of history’s most monstrous projects, brutally looting nations and sparking much of the chaos and hatred that now shakes the world.

Israel: It is illegal to say that our country sits on land that once belonged to Arabs, or that we chased them away in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in order to make room for victims of a crime that Arabs did not commit.

Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, and Ukraine: It is illegal to say that our citizens joined Nazi death squads and concentration camp detachments in extraordinary numbers.

.United States: It is illegal to say that our country was built on the bones of slaughtered Indians and enslaved Africans.

Rewriting History - Altering the Facts 

Altering the facts can happen subtly. Civil War history was rewritten with the help of a wave of nostalgia created by Hollywood through "Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind."

It can also be very unsubtle. The BBC recently published a report on the most dangerous places to be a journalist. These are places that do not allow a free press. The government wants to have total control over the flow of information. At his rallies Trump places the journalists in a pen in the middle of the crowd. He then singles out journalist in the pen encouraging violence against them. It is clearly an attempt to intimidate the press while inciting his base.

Most Dangerous Places for Journalists

North Korea is not on the list because they have complete control over the flow of information. It is interesting that Russia and the Philippines are in the top five. Two countries led by people Trump admires.  Murder isn't the only way silence journalists. Putting them in jail is another. According to the BBC 272 were put in jail in 2017. The BBC says, Countries with the highest numbers of journalists imprisoned for doing their jobs are: Turkey with 73 journalists, China with 41 and Egypt with 20.

Given the president,s propensity to lie, it does not seem far fetched that he is altering  the facts to suit his purposes. In fact, that is what he is doing now, and the pace of lies is increasing. The New Yorker reports, "In his first year as President, Trump made 2,140 false claims. According to the Washington Post, in just the last six months, he has nearly doubled that total to 4,229. In June and July, he averaged sixteen false claims a day. On July 5th, the Post found what appears to be Trump’s most untruthful day yet: seventy-six per cent of the ninety-eight factual assertions he made in a campaign-style rally in Great Falls, Montana, were “false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.” 

The founders of this country thought a free and unfettered press so important that they put it in the Constitution ahead of the right to bear arms.  They understood that information could provide a check and balance against the excesses of the powerful.  Think of it this way, There are facts and there are opinions. They are not the same thing. When people say they have differing facts, they actually mean they have a different opinion based on their perspective. It is not the same thing.