I recently heard on NPR the The Economist journalist David Rennie use the term ‘Post-Truth Politics‘.

Not sure if he invented it or not, but i love this term, and the concept it points to has become both absolutely fundamental, and vastly under-reported.

It is now assumed by many, such as evidenced by Trump supporters and those who supported Brexit, that politicians are always lying, yet those who follow them can, somehow, know how to parse the truth among the lies.

This, in turn, allows those supporters to project onto their candidate any ‘truth’ that they favor, regardless of how much actual evidence exists pointing to the fact that their candidate is not telling the truth, and not committed to the idea(s) that the supporter has chosen to believe.

Thank you David Rennie for this term ‘Post-Truth Politics‘, which i think is, nowadays, a sad – but true – statement of fact.

Well, it happened, the British gave into the politics of hate, bigotry and racism, and voted to leave the EU.

It’s an ironic response to the recent election of a Muslim as mayor of London — which, at the time, was held up as a shining example of British inclusiveness.

Brexit is a victory for all populist and right-wing extremist parties throughout Europe (even Russia – more on that below).

Indeed, this was, by all accounts, a vote overwhelmingly motivated by ‘concerns over immigration’ (modern code for racism). Political parties that advance Euroskeptic agendas based on such ‘concerns over immigration’ can be found in every member country; it has even been estimated that over 45% of France – one of the two architects of the EU – would vote to leave the EU, were it put to a referendum!

There is clearly a need for a debate on the merits of the EU in its current form, but let us remember that it started as a way to bring together historically conflictual populations over a common purpose and interest.

Brexit is now the first tug on the thread that will inevitably unravel the European Project, and most likely lead to war.

I know this may sound silly at first, but remember that, without the support of the United States, Western European countries are essentially defenseless against, say, Russia. 

Indeed, Russia has seen a deep resurgence of military spending and buildup. It has already invaded one Eastern European country (facing no armed opposition from the rest of the world), and it is behaving extremely aggressively against even countries such as Finland and Sweden.

I really won’t like to be the one to say ‘told you so’ when Russia invades its former – recently EU independent – Soviet territories, triggering worldwide conflict…