Fresh Eyes

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. … Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
N.B. Author grew up in Nazi Germany, attended the universities of Berlin, Freiburg, Marburg and received her PhD from Heidelberg. She was detained by the Gestapo for being a Jew researching antisemitism.

“The political lie has existed since the dawn of politics. Yet something changed in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Mr. Trump presented falsehood upon falsehood throughout his campaign. While US journalists tried to hold him accountable, the falsehoods, or lies, had few consequences. He won. Many expected Mr. Trump to change after the presidential inauguration. He didn’t. According to a list published in the New York Times, Mr. Trump lied in public at least once every day in the first 40 days of his presidency.”

Heidi Taksdal Skjeseth, All the president’s lies: Media coverage of lies in the US and France (2017)
N.B. Author has experience reporting from over 40 countries, holds two masters degrees (international politics and journalism) and speaks 5 languages.