Hazugság és politika
Lying and Politics

Summary/Abstract: Lying is an immutable part of human nature, thus a natural occurrence of life. The existence of political lies stems from the self-deceptive nature of humans. Norms of political ethics laid down successively by Sophocles, Plato and Machiavelli allow and require perverted speech, that politics blends with the wrong, given that right can only be protected from wrong with the use of some wrong. Conversely, István Bibó claims that lying in politics is forbidden under all circumstances. But in today’s mass society, in the era of fake news we can hardly distinguish fact from fiction. Technological advancement has made it possible to present basically anything as truth or a falsehood. Under such circumstances, it is much harder for a political lie to get exposed. New technologies are successful at spreading falsehoods because of that same self-deceptive nature of humanity. Politics is still the art of making the people believe in something, be it true or false, but the range possibilities for doing so are far wider today than ever before in our history, see the technique referred to as the firehose of falsehood.

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