What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories? In these stories, it doesn’t matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is: ‘Who is to blame?’
Valery Lagazon in the first scene in HBO’s Chernobyl
I’ve got a cold, and a friend mentioned that their favorite “comfort watch” is HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries, so I gave it a try (I think this is my third time watching it). I didn’t find it comforting, but this quote from the first scene hit me.
This is where we are in America. We’re no longer holding liars accountable for the lie. We can’t even begin to keep up with them all because there’s a new rancid delivery daily. All we get now is people trying to throw blame around, the powerful constantly punching down at marginalized groups trying to get their followers’ constant outrage focused away from their obvious failings, and on “the enemy.”
Who is the enemy seems to change, and you know things aren’t going well when they cook up an all new one instead of pulling from the overfull file of “outrage reruns.”
In a world of slop, lies and inauthenticity, humanity shines through. Be #human.