In 1942, after fighting in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1937), a disillusioned writer returned to London to write about his experience. It wasn't just that the fascists in Spain had won and his side — a small, anti-Stalinist Marxist group — had lost. What frightened him was the ease with which truth itself had been erased and replaced by propaganda.
The writer was George Orwell, and the quote appears in his book Looking Back on the Spanish War.I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories...and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened.
Comment: US is coming up short on means, trust and privilege. Nothing to bank on. No safe haven. Truth is free. Lies cost.