Parallel lies

In the course of my activities I came across a British (he would prefer English) politician named Paul Nuttall.  It's impossible not to be struck by comparisons with our own weird time.

Nuttall was for a time leader of UKIP, the far-right party now known as Reform UK.  He served two terms in the European Parliament but failed in six attempts to win election to the UK Parliament.  Apart from election denial he ticks all the boxes, as they say, for a MAGA Republican:  climate-change denial, pro-torture and capital punishment, anti-choice, anti-gender reassignment, anti-marriage equality, and of course anti-"woke," which he calls "cultural Marxism."  As an undergraduate studying history he wrote an essay suggesting that Jews bore some responsibility for the Holocaust, citing as a source David Irving; he later insisted his girlfriend had found the citations on the Internet and it wasn't his fault.  He supports a ban on the wearing of burkas and the abolition of the National Health Service because it "stifles competition," though most Britons have indicated they don't want a medicine-for-profit system like ours.

Not surprisingly, he shares the right's contempt for women.  When the Scottish National Party voted to ban foxhunting, Nuttall wrote, "Tuesday is Emmeline Pankhurst Day...perhaps we should throw Nicola Sturgeon [First Minister of Scotland] in front of a hunt horse as part of the commemorations."  Similar fates have been proposed for prominent women from Merkel to Markle by jovial right-wingers.  They rarely face consequences.

Here is where it gets interesting, I promise:  Nuttall is also a prolific liar.  He claimed to hold a Ph.D. from Liverpool Hope University when it did not yet award them.  He said he played professionally for Tranmere Rovers although he had only been a member of their youth squad.  He said he was on the board of a vocational training charity, North West Training Council; they say he wasn't.  And while campaigning he claimed he had lost "close personal friends" in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, when 97 people died and hundreds more were trampled at the Sheffield stadium.  (He was twelve at the time.)  All these boasts had to be "walked back" because British journalists are not as lazy as Americans.

Look, we've all buffed our resumes in search of a job or a promotion.  "Product delivery coordinator for a Fortune 500 company" sounds a lot more impressive than "Drive-up window at McDonald's."  HR people expect it and often accept it.  Politicians are just as guilty:  Richard Blumenthal "misspoke" when he said he served in Vietnam; Hillary Clinton didn't exactly land in Bosnia "under sniper fire."  Joe McCarthy apparently liked to fire at coconut trees once his missions as a tail-gunner/observer had ended...

 

 ...earning the politically useful nickname "Tail-gunner Joe."  

In the era of Trump and Santos, however, lying has become a way of life, and unraveling the lies a full-time job for reporters and comedians.  The lie has gone from harmless decoration to the picture itself, and almost exclusively in the service of the authoritarian right.  They never lose an election unless it is "rigged," as Trump announced weeks before the 2020 election.  All charges against them are a "hoax" or a "witch hunt."  Contemptible tales of being tragedy-adjacent insult real victims and the people who care about them.  Happy in their reality of alternate facts and brazen lies, content that millions will accept whatever they say, they count on finding willing fools in every nation.

It is not funny.