An old propaganda a tool rises again: Lying about and revising history

American pro-Trump thug traitors at the 

1/6 coup attempt

Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings. Whoever reflects on these matters can only be surprised by how little attention has been paid, in our tradition of philosophical and political thought, to their significance, on the one hand for the nature of action and, on the other, for the nature of our ability to deny in thought and word whatever happens to be the case. This active, aggressive capability is clearly different from our passive susceptibility to falling prey to error, illusion, the distortions of memory, and to whatever else can be blamed on the failings of our sensual and mental apparatus. -- Hannah Arendt, Lying in Politics essay, 1971

“When political representatives or entire governments arrogate to themselves the right to lie, they take power from the public that would not have been given up voluntarily. .... But such cases [that justify lying] are so rare that they hardly exist for practical purposes. .... The consequences of spreading deception, alienation and lack of trust could not have been documented for us more concretely than they have in the past decades. We have had a very vivid illustration of how lies undermine our political system. .... Those in government and other positions of trust should be held to the highest standards. Their lies are not ennobled by their positions; quite the contrary. .... only those deceptive practices which can be openly debated and consented to in advance are justifiable in a democracy.” -- Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, 1999

The New York Times writes:

In Russia, an organization dedicated to remembering Soviet-era abuses faces state-ordered liquidation as the Kremlin imposes a sanitized national history in its place.

In Hungary, the government has ejected or assumed control of educational and cultural institutions, using them to manufacture a xenophobic national heritage aligned with its ethnonationalist politics.

In China, the ruling Communist Party is openly wielding schoolbooks, films, television shows and social media to write a new version of Chinese history better suited to the party’s needs.

And in the United States, Donald J. Trump and his allies continue to push a false retelling of the 2020 election, in which Democrats stole the vote and the Jan. 6 riot to disrupt President Biden’s certification was largely peaceful or staged by Mr. Trump’s opponents.  

In some places, the goals are sweeping: to re-engineer a society, starting at its most basic understanding of its collective heritage. Emphasizing the importance of that process, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has repeated a 19th century Confucian scholar’s saying: “To destroy a country, you must first eradicate its history.”  

Since the Arab Spring and “color revolution” uprisings of a decade ago, dictators have shifted emphasis from blunt-force repression (although this still happens, too) to subtler methods like manipulating information or sowing division, aimed at preventing dissent over suppressing it.

 

A Russian gulag that operated 1935-1957 is

being erased from Russian history

The NYT article goes on to note that history is rewritten all the time by scholars who update their assumptions or in view of on new data. But on the other hand activists and politicians are rewriting and reframing history to suit their own agendas. A “wave of brazenly false or misleading historical revision” could be “threatening an already-weakened sense of a shared, accepted narrative about the world.” Polarized societies appear to be more receptive to identity-affirming lies. 

That appears to be exacerbated by loss of faith in truth-reliant institutions and arbiters of truth such as scholars and experts. Scholars believe the rise of false revisionist histories reflects rising nationalism and demagogues and tyrants growing savvier, while some elected leaders become more illiberal and authoritarian.

State newspapers have been replaced with state-aligned sources and social media bots to create a false sense that the official narrative is not imposed from on high but emerging organically. Authoritarian demagogues have learned how to astroturf and gaslight via social media.

From what I can tell, revisionist history is mostly a propaganda tool in service to authoritarianism and in opposition to democracy. In one case, the 1619 Project, was a controversial and flawed attempt to revise US history to see it through the prism of racism and slavery. 1619 arguably was a pro-democracy historical revision. At least, its authors intended it to be pro-democracy. Not surprisingly, 1619 prompted a conservative backlash called the 1776 Project (officially, the 1776 Commission)[1], which was pro-authoritarian and more flawed than 1619. 

Footnote: 

1. Wikipedia writes: “The 1776 Commission, also nicknamed the 1776 Project, was an advisory committee established in September 2020 by then–U.S. President Donald Trump to support what he called “patriotic education.” The commission, which included no historians specializing in United States history, released The 1776 Report on January 18, 2021, two days before the end of Trump's term. Historians overwhelmingly criticized the report, saying it was “filled with errors and partisan politics.” The commission was terminated by President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.”

Rifle assembly practice: Russia trains its children in warfare, 

first aid and martial arts in preparation for . . . . ? 

War against truth and democracy?