The Big Idea: keeping politicians honest (don't laugh)

[Retro]

This editorial suggests ways of holding politicians to account when they lie, in contrast to now, where they seem to get away with anything. Good luck with that, but still an interesting read and maybe something will come of it one day.

In recent years politicians have repeatedly based the case for historic changes on lies. These have ranged from the infamous “Brexit bus”, which promised £350m a week for the NHS, to government framing of recent rail strikes as “selfish” because, as Boris Johnson told one interviewer: “Train drivers are on £59,000 and some are on £70,000.” (The average wage of a striker is below £36,000.) Politicians consistently mislead about issues of national importance. I know this first-hand – I was part of the legal team that proved Johnson’s prorogation of parliament in 2019 was unlawful.

The big idea: should we have a ‘truth law’?

Today’s politicians mislead with impunity – could we legislate to stop them lying?

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

I have the article open to read. Be back for comment sometime today. Interesting concept though. Darn politicians are bought sold and paid for by so many lobbyist and PAC's. The whole system reeks with corruption.

 

[Retro]

Alas, it's indeed a cesspit of corruption with a few islands of honesty here and there. No wonder so much bad stuff happens.

Dictatorial regimes like Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan, etc are obviously the worst by far.

 

[Tiffany]

After reading the article, my assessment if this is designed to keep MP's honest then maybe they are on to something, as long as there's a proper weighs and means of evaluating the "truth" based on recorded speeches for example. I think it can get really muddy with a "he said, she said" kind of thing without unbiased witnesses. The "however" part is my concern that, if some kind of program is implemented to insure honest MP's, is that this starts bleeding into civilian life for use and infesting the court system with trivial cases with people just waiting to get their neighbor, co-worker, hated family member etc. in trouble. It's complex. This is also my issue with fact-checkers. We already know that FB has a 3rd party company that "fact checks" and we also know that their fact checkers are biased towards their intended agenda. The only way I'm comfortable with fact checking is literally using detective style research to collect documents, video, speeches all written social media and then I might be able to determine what the truth is. I always question the fact-checkers because by design, it's not really for our benefit.

 

[Retro]

Hmmm, good points there, Tiffs. I was thinking that this could be ripe for abuse, but you've described the possibilities well. It's a case of who watches the watchers, isn't it?

 

[Tiffany]

Yes it is ripe for abuse and who is overseeing whom, indeed? It opens Pandora's box for sure. Who decides the truth? Who are they? Who has that power? I look to some history from WW2 on this one too. A very slippery slope.

The US started a stupid Ministry of Truth a few months ago. It lasted two weeks. There was so much outcry.

 

[Retro]

Department of Truth sounds like a cult. Can't believe they tried that one.

 

[Tiffany]

It was cult like and all designed to silence anyone going against what "they" determined was misinformation.

 

[Arantor]

It was cult like and all designed to silence anyone going against what "they" determined was misinformation.

And that is exactly the point. It's literally straight out of Nineteen Eighty Four, up to and including rewriting history to suit the present - we've always been at war with Eurasia. Until it becomes the truth that we've always been at war with Eastasia.

This also demonstrates the foibles of the information age - we are at the point where virtually any 'truth' can be demonstrated to be true with adequate evidence being prepared in a matter of hours. Not weeks - hours. Global disinformation campaigns can be run from small offices with modest budgets, and this is not the flight of fancy of modern spy fiction.

The only hilarity, such as that is a thing, is that there is an entire cottage industry perpetuating such errant nonsense that it *cannot* conceivably be true that actually drowns out the real disinformation - see QAnon.

 

[Tiffany]

@Arantor you succinctly clarified the whole spectrum of the entire issues at play. Yes, Nineteen Eighty Four. Have you ever watched the old science fiction series "V"? There's a myriad of history woven into the script of this science fiction series. It's an eye opener and relative even to today, which is interesting because this was also a 1980's series.

 

[Retro]

I remember watching V and thinking of the parallels with the real world. The duplicity in that by the aliens was legion.

 

[Tiffany]

@Retro Yes, that was our impression too. The betrayal of the son to his German parents was an overwhelming segment of V that I will never forget. The aliens made the youth into functioning like Hitler's brown shirt's. Lot's of betrayal.