Mendacious Rulers

The disintegration of public truth is great for those who weren't terribly keen on truth in the first place. Populists who rise to power by telling "comforting lies" to the most disgruntled parts of their constituency depend on the survival of their "alternative facts" in the minds of their loyal followers.

Although we can debate whether Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are mere self-centered scoundrels or full-on criminals, there's no such room for debate when it comes to their moral bankruptcy, rooted in an utter contempt for truth. I would like to remind everyone that Trump rose to political infamy by spearheading the "birtherism" movement based on unfounded conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship, and that he started his reign with a blatant lie about the size of the crowd attending his inauguration, boldly rejecting the truth visible in photographic evidence. His counselor, Kellyanne Conway, used the term "alternative facts" during a "Meet the Press" interview, defending White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. Trump is by far the most mendacious president in US history, not known for one big lie, although the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election results features prominently, but a constant stream of exaggerated, invented, boastful, purposely outrageous, spiteful, inconsistent, dubious and false claims.

But I've spent more than enough words and posts on Trump's unrelenting dishonesty, and if you still support this man, who doesn't give a damn about you, the country, truth or law and order, that's on you. I will now briefly talk about Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister who's about to suffer the same fate as Trump; Johnson is under parliamentary investigation for misleading the parliament in the whole "Partygate" scandal. If you don't know, Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about parties and other gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff held during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when public health restrictions prohibited most gatherings. Johnson and his cronies prohibited British citizens from gatherings, but at the same time attended private parties, without wearing masks.

But much like with Trump, it has been known for a long time before Johnson became England's Prime Minister in 2019 that he was a dishonest narcissist prick who cares about no one else but himself. Max Hastings was Boris Johnson's boss when he was the Brussels correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. Hastings said about Johnson in a 2012 Mail Online article that "if Boris ever becomes PM, I'm on the first plane out of Britain" He also said that "I would not take Boris's word about whether it is Monday or Tuesday." When asked about Partygate, Johnson first claimed that he knew nothing about gatherings at all, then claimed that he knew of the gatherings but that he never attended, then that he knew of them, attended, but was unaware that they were parties, and eventually had to admit that he knew about them, attended, knew that they were parties, and that he's sorry for not telling the truth from the start.

Also the reactions from the supporters of Trump and Johnson are quite similar. After the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, Trumpists whine about the "Deep State" to make excuses for their dear leader's clear misbehavior. Same across the Atlantic; Johnson and his supporters also blamed the Deep State in an attempt right his obvious wrongs. Supporters of these men are running out of excuses for their chosen cult-leaders. Yes, they are cults, where everything the dear leader says must be true, no matter how blatant the divergence from actual, observable reality. Every time the media say something against these men, it's "Fake News!" This behavior reminds me of that scene in The Matrix when Cypher says, while delighting on a virtual steak, "I know this steak doesn't exist... Ignorance is bliss..."

And that's the dangerous situation we're facing now: the supporters of these megalomaniacs know that they're not telling truths, they want to be lied to, because the lies are so comforting. All politicians lie and they ultimately will do what's best for themselves and their position of power; that's the uncomfortable truth we're resigned to believe. The best thing I can say about Trump and Johnson is that at least they don't try to hide their lies, their lies are blatant and out in the open, that they're honest about their dishonesty, so to speak. And I can understand, even respect their supporters if they own up to this fact, this undeniable observable fact. My problem is with those who still defend these men as purveyors of truth. Linked below is a podcast from British radio station LBC with host James O'Brien, discussing with listeners and callers about Partygate, the similarities between Johnson and Trump and Alex Jones from Infowars who's been convicted because of the lies he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre.

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