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When Lies Replace Truth: The Path To Democratic Collapse

When Lies Replace Truth: The Path To Democratic Collapse

Last updated on: July 20, 2026 at 11:16 am by Henry Karlson

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When Lies Replace Truth: The Path To Democratic Collapse 2026-07-20T11:16:21-05:00 Henry Karlson

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President Donald Trump, with the lies he uses, is pushing the United States away from its democratic principles. Picture by: DonkeyHotey / Wikimedia Commons

How Tyrants Weaponize Lies

It is common for tyrants to lie about their critics or anyone who resists their authority, often claiming they are criminals who deserve imprisonment (or death). This was a common feature in Soviet Russia under Stalin; it was a common feature under Castro in Cuba; it is a common feature in North Korea, just as much as it is a common feature in right-wing dictatorships and authoritarian regimes such as those under Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco. They make up lies, not just about individuals, but against large groups of peoples so that they can turn those groups into scapegoats when things go wrong, which is what Nazi Germany famously did with the Jews: the Jews, the Nazis said, were dangerous criminals, parasites hurting society, which is why the Nazis first claimed the Jews had to be rounded up and deported before they went to the “final solution” of the Holocaust. I see the same pattern happening in the United States with immigrants (especially Muslims) being lied about, used as scapegoats to justify the establishment of a new, authoritarian rule over the people. These lies are not only being used to justify changing the way elections are run, but also what happens when immigrants (or others) are targeted by ICE and killed: ICE justifies such actions by saying the shooter was afraid for their lives, which, as video footage of those events shows, ends up being ridiculous. The only one in danger was the one who was killed. This has become a common pattern; ICE is using the same excuse time and time again, even though ICE knows the public sees through the lies. ICE, apparently, isn’t concerned about public perception because they believe the public doesn’t have the power to do anything about it.

We cannot accept this. If we don’t do anything, things will only become worse. And, despite the claims of Trump and his followers, it is not law and order which is being promoted (which can be seen in the way those killings go against the laws put in place, even as what they do afterward, such as when ICE agents or Trump officials lie under oath, likewise violates not only the spirit of the law, but its rule as well).

What a Democracy Dies Of

It is important for us to promote the truth if we want to put an end to the fascist tyranny forming in the United States. Sebastian Junger, writing for Time, explained how he learned that lesson from his father and his father’s experience in Spain:

The truth can’t destroy a democracy but lies can. At age thirteen my father was awoken by machine gun fire in the streets of Madrid. It was 1936, and a coalition of progressive groups had just swept the national elections, infuriating the Spanish right-wing. Soldiers in the Montana barracks, under Colonel Francisco Serra, begun trading fire with pro-government civilians that had massed in the surrounding streets. Holed up with the insurrectionists were civilian fascists called Falangists as well as a general who falsely claimed the national election had been stolen. (“The rebellion? We planned it the day we lost the election,” another fascist leader later admitted to the American consul in Madrid.) Once that lie was accepted, everything else in Spain—life, death, truth, reality itself—seemed to be up for grabs.[1]

The Same Pattern, Here and Now

Lies are often used as the justifications for Trump’s policy changes, changes which threaten to undermine long-standing democratic principles. His desire to control elections, putting in new authoritarian controls, is what happens in a Banana Republic. Using lies to denigrate immigrants, to have all immigrants being seen as all the same, so they are all called “illegals” and “criminals,” when most of them are neither, demonstrates the same kind of xenophobia which Nazi Germany had when it attacked not only Jews, but others, like the Romani, homosexuals, the homeless, and people with disabilities, sending them to concentration camps. The rhetoric I keep hearing repeated by Republicans and influencers on Twitter is one filled with hate, trying to have people deny migrants, refugees, Muslims, and others their rights. It follows the pattern that Nazi Germany established, one which looks to find ways to undermine the human dignity of those they hate.

The Same Pattern, Here and Now

Christians must not follow along, but instead, they must resist what is being promoted because Christ tells us to affirm the dignity of everyone. Not only did he tell us that we must look after our neighbors and love them as ourselves, but we are also taught to see Christ in the poor and vulnerable, including migrants. What is done to them is done to Christ. The hate shown to them is hate towards Christ, a hate which Christ has said will be examined and judged at the final judgment:

Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.‘ (Matt. 25:41-43 RSV).

Christians should be on the side of migrants because migrants, specifically, have had an important role in salvation history, such as we see with Abraham:

The experience of migration accompanies the history of the People of God. Abraham sets out without knowing where he is going; Moses leads the pilgrim people through the desert; Mary and Joseph flee with the child Jesus to Egypt. Christ himself, who “came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him” (Jn 1:11), lived among us as a stranger. For this reason, the Church has always recognized in migrants a living presence of the Lord who, on the day of judgment, will say to those on his right: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).[2]

Similarly, Lot, Abraham’s nephew, shows us the kind of care and concern we should have for migrants; it was because he took care of strangers (foreigners), showing them hospitality, that he was able to be saved from God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah:

Notice, brethren, that even Lot deserved to receive the angels, because he did not reject strangers. Behold angels enter a hospitable home, but houses that are closed to strangers are burned with flames of sulfur.[3]

A Warning, and Still Time to Change

The United States has become very oppressive to those in need. Refugees find no refuge. The homeless find state after state trying to imprison them for doing something so simple as trying to find a place to sleep. Justice is denied, as laws and executive orders are put in place to help the rich and take away from the poor and needy. Cruelty, not justice, is the point, and too many Christians are willing to go along, if not actively promote, this immoral state of affairs. I cannot but feel some of the words of Jeremiah to Israel apply to us today. He said that, due to their grave injustices, due to the way they did not take care of those in need, they were going astray, and warned them that they will face the consequences of their injustices if they do not change their ways. The same, it seems to me, is true for the United States:

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever. (Jer. 7:5-7 RSV).

If we don’t repent, we will find the cries of the afflicted will rise up against us, and after that, we risk having everything come crashing down. We still have time to change. We still have time to consider the dignity of everyone, to treat everyone with care and concern, to act, not with the pseudo-justice of immoral laws, but with true justice, looking after and promoting the common good.

[1] Sebastian Junger, “My Father Fled Fascism in Spain—and Taught Me How Lies Can Destroy a Democracy” in Time (5-19-2021).

[2] Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te. Vatican translation. ¶73.

[3] St. Caesarius of Arles, Semons. Volume II (81-186). Trans. Sister Mary Magdeleine Mueller, OSF (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1963), 12 [Sermon 83].

* This Is Another Post From My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

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