Perhaps the most dangerous form of political deception is not the lie itself, but the willingness to believe two contradictory things at the same time.
This is Part 3 in a series from Timothy Snyder’s book, On Tyranny.
You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Synder looks at four ways in which truth dies a slow death under tyranny. The third mode is what he calls, magical thinking, or the open embrace of contradiction.
Poisoned Reason
He cites the work of German philologist Victor Klemperer who introduced the concept of “magical thinking.” The term describes how totalitarian regimes exploit language to distort logic, reshape reality, and manipulate public consciousness.
As a Jewish professor surviving under Nazi rule, Klemperer secretly recorded how everyday German speech was systematically poisoned to replace reason with blind faith
His descriptions of losing friends in Germany in 1933 over the issue of magical thinking ring eerily true today. One of his former students implored him. “Abandon yourself to your feelings, and you must always focus on the Führer’s greatness, rather than on the discomfort you are feeling at present.”
Twelve years later, after all the atrocities, and at the end of a war that Germany had clearly lost, an amputated soldier told Klemperer that Hitler “has never lied yet. I believe in Hitler.”
In 2026, the US president’s campaign involved a plethora of promises. Cutting taxes for everyone. Eliminating the national debt. Increasing spending on both social policy and national defence. These promises mutually contradict.
It is as if a farmer said he were taking an egg from the henhouse, boiling it whole and serving it to his wife, and also poaching it and serving it to his children, and then returning it to the hen unbroken, and then watching as the chick hatches.
Accepting untruth of this radical kind requires a blatant abandonment of reason.
Abandonment of Reason
One does not need a Ph.D. in German history to make judicious comparisons between the events Klemperer imparted in his diary and present-day affairs. Like in 1933, the most vulnerable individuals today are minorities, notably members of the LGTBQ+ community, people of color, and those in search of political asylum.
Klemperer’s reflections revealed how even Hitler’s most innocuous pronouncements degraded democratic institutions and normalized violence against minority communities.
We live in a province that invited thousands of immigrants and then, without any shame, cast them the scapegoat of failing provincial institutions. The freedom province is advocating less freedom for some groups than any other province.
Part 4 is coming soon.
What do you think? Was this helpful? Please join the conversation and post a comment below. Thank you.
Hope grows here. We share stories that inspire people, build faith, and offer lasting purpose.
We’d love to have you Subscribe to REVwords. We’ll put helpful content into your inbox Mondays and Fridays.
