A lie repeated becomes reality

Evil genius of Joseph Goebbels, lucid rhetorician appointed minister Public illustration and propaganda of Adolf Hitler In 1933, as a strategy of the Third Reich, it was agreed that a lie repeated a thousand times would become reality, something psychologists call the “illusion of truth” effect, enjoying enormous success in the propaganda cosmos.

The tactic was so effective that the Teutonic people, recognized as one of the most brilliant of the time, were kept under deception for twelve years, culminating in the greatest war that mankind had ever experienced. humanity, with 85 million victims.

Last Wednesday, the first debate of the pre-candidates for the nomination for Republican Party of the United States. A major absentee was indeed the candidate leading the party’s internal polls. Donald Trump was interviewed by Tucker Carlson in parallel. The sarcasm in the puzzle is that the interviewer was fired from Fox News for lying about the results US presidential election 2020, accidentally costing his employer $787 million in damages as a result of a legal settlement with a voting equipment company. And there we go.

I missed both events because it was not on my agenda to relive the episodes of the renowned series from the seventies of the last century All in the Family in which the great Archie Bunker lashes out against everyone, the absolute master of the absurd truth that reflects the genius of its creator Norman Lear. Failure, slogging through a baseball game between the Houston Astros andwith the Boston Red Sox, scoring a victory 7-5 the latter in the tenth episode.

Among the series of lies told during the 46-minute interview, highlighted on factcheck.org, two very serious allegations that The United States handed over the canal to Panama in exchange for a dollar and that China is its current managerperhaps because there were other pressing issues of greater importance and interest to the American electorate.

These “little white lies” must not go unnoticed precisely because they will surely be repeated again and again, confessing one of the principles of the success of Nazi propaganda, the principle of orchestration, which describes Goebbels own as: “propaganda must be limited to a small number of ideas and tirelessly repeat them, presented again and again from different perspectives, but always converging on the same concept, without cracks or doubts.”

Thus, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Trump repeats that he won the 2020 presidential election fair and square and that almost a third of voters still trust him, according to the company’s research. Monmouth for the month of June 2023.

But one issue is the internal affairs of the United States, and another is its international relations. Despite President Cortiz’s brief statement last Friday denying Trump’s accusations, in the absence of an official statement The State Department and the United States Embassy in Panama, It seems logical to us that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Panamanian government They should formulate a stronger response.

Precisely because of the notorious ignorance of the North American electorate that accepted the syntagm of the then candidate Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign, claiming that “the Canal Zone is sovereign territory United States, just like Alaska“, persistently repeating throughout his crusade “we bought it, we built it, we paid for it, it’s ours and that’s how we’ll maintain it”. The Machiavellian and false rhetoric that underpinned his overwhelming triumph, which he failed to act upon in any way during his two terms to undo the 1977 Panama Canal accords.

Lies repeated a thousand times become reality and Mr. Trump’s statements they are flawed by the constant continuation of them, creating a parallel mirage that many appreciate as the absolute truth. His absurd reference to the Panama Canal should not be part of that repertoire.