Truth is the best disinfectant and democracy depends upon it.
Authoritarians - whatever their ideology or allegiance - rely upon lies so they can scapegoat & prop up themselves with propaganda. To destroy an existing democracy, they try to confuse people, they gaslight, if they can’t stoke fear they try to induce apathy or cynicism - create a “both sides” between democracy and it’s opposite.
We have the advantage of having truth on our side, and we have the policies supported by a super-majority. We must work with all those who choose democracy - but many do not know who to trust. Those who prefer hierarchy have sewn mistrust on purpose, and we must break through to foster cooperation.
All the other side has is a playbook to stoke fear and hate, and lie and cheat in a predictable way, which they hope keeps them out of prison and puts them in office.
Extremists used to be kept in line by shame but the authoritarian playbook took a major step forward in America with Trump:
We must come together to support democracy, and the key is to put truth first. Just as voting rights must be primary, in order to pass any other policy, without truth democracy crumbles so truth must come first.
It can feel like a hopeless battle, but it is nothing of the sort! They want us to give up - see Peter Pomerantsev on how cynicism and it’s cousin, apathy - can destroy democracy. The people are with us, we have the super-majority, so we just need a good tool to make truth known.
What if we already have all the components of a tool to hold the grifters accountable?
There is an existing Pro-truth pledge, created by academics, all non-profit* and already signed by thousands including some in elected office and other public roles.
All we need is to make it viral, use tech & create a pro-truth movement. It can be used to hold journalists, elected officials & candidates to the standard of telling the truth.
- Note: there is an opening right now for executive director, not well paid but a chance to help make it a powerful tool.
A simple additional AI tool can create facts-and-context responses to any public statements made by anyone who took the pledge - that piece of tech already exists - and everyone who cares about truth could use its output to reply to posts. It could even automatically post its reply to remarks that signers of the pledge make, based upon a tag (e.g., #ITookThePledge) or simply based upon the public list of pledge-takers.
Truth speaks for itself, but liars must be made to face it. Even rep. MTG had to concede the truth when taken to the Holocaust Memorial museum. Let’s make them all face facts. And from it, true accountability. Join me - help me make the Pro Truth Pledge a basic requirement for public figures and hold them to truth.