When the Leader Becomes the Truth

Truth dies when a leader becomes the truth.

This is part four of a series from Chapter Ten in On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder. He makes good use of Victor Klemperer’s renowned experience in Germany of the 1930s and ’40s.

You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

I wrote these posts because of the moment we are in. North America, and much of Western Europe are under the influence of agencies using strategies to distort reality by undermining truth.

Populist movements and parties utilize “post-truth” politics, misinformation, and strategic disinformation to mobilize voters. The Separatists in Alberta are a perfect example in our own backyard.

But you don’t have to look to far to see the evidence in Germany, Hungary, and MAGA Republicans in the US.

Misplaced Faith

The fourth mode is misplaced faith.

What terrified Klemperer was the way that the transition of Hitler from an elected official to the Führer seemed permanent. The word means “leader” but it was deployed in a previously unknown way. It was the title used by Hitler as the absolute dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.

Snyder points out that once truth had become oracular rather than factual, evidence is irrelevant.

At the end of the war a worker told Klemperer that “understanding is useless, you have to have faith. I believe in the Führer.”

Misplaced faith involves the sort of self-deifying claims the US president made when he said that “I alone can solve it” or “I am your voice.” Who can forget, try as we might, the image of Trump as Jesus from April 2026?

“When faith descends from heaven to earth in this way, no room remains for the small truths of our individual discernment and experience.”

Three World Leaders As Self-Described Saviours

Viktor Orban, former President of Hungary,  frequently framed Hungary as the “last bastion” of Christian Europe. He positioned himself as a defender protecting Western civilization from what he described as “liberal headwinds,” mass migration, and cultural decay.

Putin and state media often frame Russia as a bulwark against “woke” culture, LGBTQ+ rights, and secularism, presenting Moscow as a true protector of traditional Christian civilization.

All the while, Russia has destroyed over 750 evangelical churches in Ukraine since February 2022, and censors evangelicals in Russia.

Donald Trump frequently tells his supporters: “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you. I’m just standing in the way.”

In a subtle way, political parties align with parental rights movements, advancing legislative restrictions on gender-affirming care. By adopting this stance, parties portrays themselves as protecting Christian households and the next generation from secular ideologies.

Canada has a Christian Heritage Party. One of their beliefs is, “We believe the purpose of civil government is to ensure freedom and justice for a nation’s citizens by upholding law and order in accordance with Biblical principles.”

That begs the question, which Biblical principles will be used? Those of Christian Reformed, Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, etc? And why do only a small number of Christians vote for this party?

View this kind of action as politics, not righteousness or justice.

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