Kellyanne Conway tells America that the administration isn’t lying about the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration; they’re just sharing “alternative facts.”
The day before, White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed that Trump had the largest inauguration audience in history. That was a lie.
What they’re trying to do is establish power: they are lying to flaunt power. They are saying to us: “We know that you know that this is a lie, and we don’t care, because there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.”
Sarah Kendzior speaking on MSNBC
Campaigns against the press and the dressing up of lies with language like “alternative facts” are common techniques of fascism.
Fascist politics exchanges reality for the pronouncements of a single individual, or perhaps a political party. Regular and repeated obvious lying is part of the process by which fascist politics destroys the information space. A fascist leader can replace truth with power, ultimately lying without consequence.
How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSrEEDQgFc8
Hiding In Plain Sight by Sarah Kendzior, p.18
Photo: Phillip Cohen (Edited)
