Lie politics and living in post-truth reality

 

Considering recent elections in US I decided to write a piece about this, as in Poland we also lived through a rise of post-truth politics and hopefully we will see soon it's final collapse. This is based on my own observations and experiences and hopefully you'll find a glimmer of hope in this writing, because it most probably get worse before it will get better. I will relate this mostly to Polish situation as I don't want to force narration on US state of things. Also as many EU countries face the same dangers these days more people will be able to relate and compare. I'm simplifying stuff here for brevity sake, and keep in mind that there are no "good guys" in politics. There are bad guys that make some policies work barely, just so they get re-elected and there are horrible people that will lie to you about why they couldn't do what they promised and how they will make future even better.

How did we get there?

There were actually two major events that let to post-truth government with their president to be elected. First was an air disaster in 2010 where 96 passengers died with a majority of political and military figures, including president - a twin brother of a future leader of post-truth government. This event lead to many conspiracy theories that were publicly suggested as truth by government controlled media figures and politicians. What was alleged in these suggestion was participation of a opposing party leadership alongside Russians that lead in that event. Naturally, since then, there were many reports confirming that the only cause of that could be pointed to pressure on pilot to land quickly by the top brass.

The other event was "tapes of truth" scandal from 2014. Published recordings of then ruling governmental and elites figures from one of restaurants. This resulted in bunch of them resigning, but in the end the only convicted people were the ones responsible for making the recordings.

First event suggested that shadowy figures conspired to cause the disaster (it was tragedy, but nothing else) and the next one that they're talking about... nothing really - typical "off the record" politicians talk by not-so-great people. These discussions were mild compared to what came later from the post-truth government and these didn't resulted in convictions either.

But we're entering post-truth and this became a platform in 2015. Suggesting conspiracy against president and showing how corrupt other politicians are behind closed doors.

Who voted for them?

Well, here's the uncomfortable truth: I did. In 2016 I already realized what I did, but full realization on how bad was it hit me a year before they got reelected again in 2019, this time against my vote. Messing up is one thing, but I knew that if I won't look into myself why I did that - I'll just repeat it again. So why I possibly did such a foolish thing?

• Government policies at the time were called a "lukewarm water", meaning there were no significant changes, no no major improvements. I believed when I was told that once they get full power in government, they'll finally fix things instead of debating endlessly. A strongman politics if you will that will "get things done".
• Lack of prosecution for elites. I was told about many scandals involving politicians, but no one actually had been prosecuted and they promised to change that.
  
• Confusing agenda: from one source I heard about policies that I didn't liked but from another that they totally won't do that. When I heard the same for policies I liked, I naturally ignored the side that said they won't actually do it. I biased myself into believing only what sounded good.
• Poorly understood patriotism and promise of making country significant... or rather great again. These were callbacks to different parts of history where kingdom and republic were a significant player in Europe diminishing our actual great position and relations as EU and NATO member. Party was calling for "renewal" even if what Poland was doing until that point was exactly that.
  
• Lack of my historical education. I was never taught properly post-WW2 history in school and all my teachers were educated during communist era, so they naturally were biased against Germany (which symbolized EU as whole) and for Soviet Union (like other eastern block countries like Hungary). To be transparent, at school we learn propagandistic version of history, that was written from Polish perspective. Great example is that we never learned why Lithuanians may be cold towards us or about actual Polish concentration camp before WW2. It's not just us and this is the same reason why in Belarus and Russia you'll see that WW2 started in 1941. This is naturally true for all countries including the US. Skewed perspective and no modern history knowledge made me vulnerable to buy into lies about how international policies should look like.
• Religion - Catholic church in Poland became a stage for promoting outwardly conservative party and their policies that had nothing to do with actual Catholic values. I was participating in all masses weekly... until 2016 where I decided that I cannot support organized religion anymore as what they do clash with my personal values. Since then I only participated in church weddings and funerals. I'll never forget when in 2021 on a funeral priest was praying for health, strength and grace for politicians that were destroying our country and turning us on each other for past 6 years. This made me physically ill. Naturally, the church knew why they're doing this.
  

Noticed how much naive magical thinking was in these? So these were my failings, but talking to people about my concerns with the government from 2016 on, I was a little shocked that as a citizen, told by other citizens that "if I don't like it, I can move out" and that "I shouldn't [poop] into my own nest" (this means that some inconvenient truths should be left unsaid). I suspect their belief was based on mine and those reasons:

• "You're perfect as you are and you were right all along!" People in uncertain times prefer to be comforted that told that we're all facing a complex issues and our all individual actions and in turn responsibility can make world better. "Climate change? Bah! There's no climate change or it's too late to do anything." Party told them that they're good and they can do whatever they were doing before.
• Worry-less state and fear of change. I talked with my relatives a lot about that and some told me that they're glad to be on pension already as they can't wrap their head around employment or even education complexity. They had much simpler lives as they were not really allowed to even be unemployed and most did some non-demanding jobs for state owned enterprises for livable wages for 30-40 years. Vertical mobility was highly discouraged during communist era, so they learned to just cruise along. Strongman promised to take care of everything again.
  
• Nostalgia for the promised "good old times". One thing no one remembers are the hardships of the "good old times" and that they're only good in memory. Whenever you prod a little when someone will tell their fantastic stories you'll learn inconvenient truths about "good old times" that suddenly kills the whole mood. Party promised the return to "good old days and values", whatever that meant for anyone.
  
• Tribality, distrust towards minorities or any people that are not exactly "like us". "Us" and "them". I heard many tirades from people how they dislike [insert any group] and usually whenever I asked about their personal experience... they told me they never met any, were not talking to them or that they told them to stay away. I remember as a maybe 6 year old watching Berlin's Pride on TV and that there was a narration about a "depravity", yet I saw people dancing and smiling. It's hard to explain this to a kid since you need to make sense in an explanation. People want their tribes way of living to be objectively "better" and being part of the majority to become a virtue in itself. Naturally party promised "normality" in policies ignoring all minorities basic rights.
  

What came next?

Regardless if you voted for the lie government or not, it's time to brace for the impact. It's time to run your own numbers when you hear the news, not to lull yourself into complacency. Post-truthers don't bring any stability anywhere and the only policy is to "drive it like you stole it". You may have heard of Polish judicial system where named judges were under governmental pressure. Governmental checks and balances were slowly dismantled and with full control over judicial system, there was no incentive to pursue any legal action. In any other democracy, government spying on opposing party with tools meant to trace terrorists, would bring it down instantly, but not in post-truth world where everything is relative and there is no right and wrong anymore. On LGBT rights they only cared to mock if it bring some support, otherwise I don't think it's in their own interest or in their allies interest. We were belated with energy transformation. Governmental figures normalized "technically not a corruption" actions where there was no direct exchange of money, but exchange of highly paid jobs with insane bonuses for family members or writing a public tender requirements that only one company with only one product could ever meet. They funded some weird stuff with many funds, the Justice Fund being one of them. They had total control over public media broadcasters. Response to pandemic was disastrous. It's hard to summarize it here, because there were so many. I'm not even sure what would happen if Ukraine didn't get the right support from the West as that government had some weird nostalgia for Russia.

Personally, I saw some Russian undercurrents a little to frequent to be accidental, but I don't think they're more connected than being an inspiration or a funding here and there via some proxy. Russia and China prefer to sow division and see the countries become unstable by their own internal affairs. I also haven't missed the "Putin's friends" summit of post-truth figures just before Ukraine invasion.

What post-truthers actually did of what they promised?

They campaigned on lots of promises, but they fulfilled the ones that would bring them the most support. In Poland it was ~$125 monthly per child. While they promised to "protect us against immigrants", it turned to be a post-truth. They introduced program that was supposed to reduce taxes - next month my pay was lessened by about 15% as I had two contracts. Half a year later, they technically fixed it, but within 3 months everyone impacted already "adjusted" by changing their contracts and way of employments. This one actually pushed me to a significant change and pay less taxes, while earning much more - this is how bad the program was for the country. They made stores closed on Sundays, which I'm still upset about. The worst policy change was a push for support from church and fringe conservatives in their second term. Other promises were mostly isolationist, therefore a hostile approach to trading partners and scaring them off with judicial changes were enough to do it without any policies. They tried to rally people on patriotical values, but it rarely was more than just a festival or picnic here and there. Already mentioned funding of shady "patriotic" businesses did much more for the image of patriotism, and for post-truth it was enough. The only good change (that naturally caused some inflation) may be the rising of minimum wage that reached ~$5 per hour (after taxes).

How it ended?

The sad part is that it didn't... yet. We picked a different government in October 2023 and if you noticed from the dates in links, they're still very busy cleaning up the mess. Sad thing is that majority of what happened will go unpunished and it will take years (I'd say 5, maybe 7!) to turn it all around. With their president still being able to block any significant reforms, I hope there will be some improvement once another guy takes his place in 2025. The thing is that the new government isn't even near perfect, and there is lots of temptation to mess around with all the checks and balances removed.

Source

This is the best meme that comes to mind, thinking about 2010s, the country felt different back then (here in the "good old days" the catch is that I was earning full time $230/mo!). While now the world is a little different, but it feels a lot more stable again and significantly less hostile. There are even less police on streets and I even called my tax office where I've got some good advice rather than an audit. EU businesses start to look at us to invest again, while the future seems to be still uncertain. Poland is a very immature democracy and it feels that it's still not at a place where regardless who's at the helm, we will be going in the right direction. Personally, it feels better now, but it could be gone again in a blink of an eye.

Any advice?

If you're voting: run your numbers. Assume that all candidates simply lie and verify their stories and alliances on your own. If you're a teacher: please tell kids the whole story, encourage media literacy and verifying information. Politics and policies can't "fell right", you don't look for a love at first sight, but someone who will tell you a harsh truths and can make a well supported point.
If you're already in this mess - look out for yourself, your friends, families, neighbors. You don't always have to agree with each other to take care of each other. Don't worry about all promised policies, it will take time and post-truth only follows through if they bring them either money, favors or actual public support in percentiles. You should expect significant media takeover and politicians using governmental agencies like tools rather that serving the people. If you're into that - try some political activism, but be careful as some activist groups in Poland were actually honeypots. If you see a problem, it's important to say it out loud, but be careful in what exactly you say, not to be caught in a litigation. Write letters, support free press and most importantly - don't lose hope. These times will change.