The truth about Trumpist lies

“Behind the apparent absurdity of fake news and conspiracy theories hide a very solid logic. »

I thought about Giuliano da Empoli’s analysis of Trumpist tactics in The Chaos Engineers while listening to JD Vance multiply lies during the vice-presidential debate last Tuesday.

Many commentators applauded this debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz for its civilized and courteous character, a far cry from the sad boxing fight between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last month. Even if Vance, a Yale law graduate and skilled orator, is obviously a less boorish version of Trump, I rather saw in this debate a worrying trivialization of false and hateful speech in politics. Such speeches, even expressed in a saccharine tone by an Ivy League graduate, are no less dangerous. They are perhaps even more so.

Thus we saw Donald Trump’s running mate dare to loudly assert his right to polite lies during prime time when one of the moderators of the debate recalled that Haitian migrants from Springfield, Ohio, contrary to what he claimed, enjoyed legal status.

“The rules were that you weren’t going to check the facts!” “, Vance said, looking furious. Free translation: let me lie in peace!

Much has been said about the racist rumors that Trump and Vance have been spreading about so-called “illegal” Haitians “eating cats and dogs” in Ohio. It’s so absurd that it’s laughable, we say.

But the truth about this type of Trumpist lie is that their apparent absurdity is completely intentional, observes Giuliano da Empoli. His essay dissects the terrifying strategy of populist leaders who are reinventing the rules of the political game.

Under these new rules, which are more like cynical and absurd theater than lectures, narrative intensity, which can give the impression that a corrupt billionaire is really interested in the fate of the underprivileged, takes precedence over accuracy. facts.

For politicians like Trump or Vance, repeating “alternative truths” that capture the fears and anger of a growing share of the electorate is not just an instrument of propaganda, explains essayist Giuliano da Empoli. It is a powerful vector of cohesion.

“In many ways, nonsense is a more effective organizational tool than the truth,” American alt-right blogger Curtis Yarvin, known under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug, once wrote. “Anyone can believe the truth, while believing the absurd is a true demonstration of loyalty. And who has a uniform, an army¹ ».

It turns out that this same Yarvin is not only a friend of Vance, but also one of his mentors. This former computer programmer, often cited as a guru ofalt-rightis one of the main ideologues to have shaped his vision of the world, according to Politico². In the same way that you reset a faulty computer, Yarvin proposes a radical reset of the American government that could be carried out by a dictator.

“If Americans want to change their government, they will have to overcome their phobia of dictators,” he once declared³.

In 2021, Vance said in a conservative podcast that it would be appropriate to draw inspiration from Yarvin’s ideas in the event of Trump’s return to power, in particular by firing a significant number of civil servants to replace them. by “people from our area [our people] “. People who, we guess, are united by the same lies – like the one that consists of believing that Trump did not lose the election in 2020. People who, proudly wearing the Trumpist uniform, could even be ready to take up arms to defend them, as was seen during the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

During the vice-presidential debate, Vance also refused to refute the lie about the supposed victory stolen from Trump. To Walz’s very clear question – “Does [Trump] lost the 2020 election? » –, the Republican running mate responded in a diversion: “I am focusing on the future”.

This reinvented future, where the truth is nothing more than a trivial detail and the verification of facts, a violation of the rules of the game, is nothing to cheer about.

At a time when it is no longer our opinions on the facts, but the facts themselves that divide us, the wise words of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts” , is no longer politically viable, believes Giuliano da Empoli. “And all those who strive to rehabilitate it against the [Matteo] Salvini and the Trumps are destined to lose,” he warns, referring to the Italian far-right leader.

In short, the sad truth about Trumpist lies is that underlining them with red pencil will not thwart them. To the engineers of chaos, the Democrats, if they want to win, will have to oppose even more creative and smarter engineers.

1. The extract is cited by Giuliano da Empoli in The Chaos Engineers (JC Lattes).

2. Lisez « The Seven Thinkers and Groups That Have Shaped JD Vance’s Unusual Worldview » (en anglais)

3. Read “Rachel Maddow sounds alarm on JD Vance’s pro-dictatorship influences”