What is the cost of lies? The price we all pay for disinformation and spin

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The world is being consumed by a toxic ‘service’ industry: lying. Lies are distributed to over 3.5 billion smartphones, 1.67 billion TV’s and 1.5 billion PC’s daily: any interruption to the populace’s access to disinformation is regarded a calamity. Who benefits from keeping a majority of the population addicted to and hypnotised by lies?  

Politicians, celebrities, and PR companies feed churnalists with factory friendly quotes and titbits every day. Over 90% of all news ‘coverage’ is comprised of rehashed press releases, wire copy, PR stunts, media conferences and the carefully policed propaganda of salaried opinionators.

This global production of lies is consumed by four types of people:

(a) Politicians, hacks, lobbyists and spin doctors who use lies to advance their salaries and promotion prospects.

(b) People addicted to being soothed who avoid the discomfort, moral dissonance and work that engaging with reality would bring.

(c) People addicted to being outraged. Social media purposefully favours polemic and inflames egoistic self-righteousness as a consumer product.

(d) People with material power and agency who seek to defend (and extend) their advantages by limiting the terms of debate and hiding their sins.

Muddying the truth is actually quite easy and there are many ways to do it. If society valued truth then it would assiduously avoid misinformation and elect leaders capable of informed dialectic. Instead we elect tricksters who deploy generic templates for the production and consumption of lies. This is how we got Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Jair Bolsonaro.

With so many invested in lies: it begs the question of what people genuinely searching for truth can usefully do to remedy the situation. We must surely begin by conceding that the search is at step minus one. As Legasov ruefully admits in the closing scene of Chernobyl:

“To be a scientist is to be naive. We are so focused on our search for truth, we fail to consider how few…actually want us to find it.”

This is where we must begin. As a species we are collectively in flight from the truth along crowded escape routes of distraction. This avoidance isn’t limited to cabals of evil wealth, the political class or sections of the media – it is pandemic. What Legasov directed at Soviet Russia applies everywhere:

“We’re on dangerous ground right now, because of our secrets and our lies. They are practically what define us. When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there.”

Seeking the truth (especially now) will not make anyone happy in the conventional emotional sense. Truth is a demanding mistress, once engaged she cannot ever be truly divorced.  

One thing that we can try, is to strip away the illusion that talk – and particularly lies – are cheap. Lying comes at a savage cost – both to individuals and society. History echoes with the bitter harvests sown by lies: the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, Chernobyl, Bhopal, Palestine…the list goes on and on. 

Lies about Covid-19 have cost 60,000 lives in the UK, 100,000 in the USA.  Lies about money, industrialised society and our twisted moral norms are driving climate change and biodiversity loss – so we lie about them as well. Telling the truth is an effortful, risky and mostly thankless task within a society fuelled by lies. In any conversation with liars and those who consume lies without thought of the consequences, one is at a disadvantage: liars can say anything with hubristic swagger, truth seekers can offer neither certainty nor cheap reassurance.     

It is wise to be fearful of speaking truth to what passes for power in contemporary society. People are imprisoned, tortured and murdered for truth telling: it is the ultimate crime against the puppet masters, the greatest taboo amongst cave prisoners.

But as Legasov soberly concluded in Chernobyl: 

“Where once I would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask, what is the cost of lies?”

Whether we seek the  truth – or peddle lies – about the issues of our generation there will be a cost. What costs we choose and to what extent are for individual consciences: they cannot be delegated to activists, politicians, governments or the media.

Let us at least not lie to ourselves about the contemporary ubiquity of lies and the current and likely future costs of them.  Let us remember in every moment and every word that…

“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth”

“Sooner or later, that debt is paid.”

Since 2013 I have worked between 4-6 hours a day on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and uncovering truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.

I am a home schooling parent on a low income – paying for the domain, web hosting and security entirely out of my own pocket.  

If you found this article useful and could spare us a few shillings to help keep our lights on, it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.     

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