I’m Worried about Truth

This morning I saw this headline: “Samaras advierte de que la situación de Grecia es similar a la que permitió el triunfo del nazismo en Alemania.” Hard on the heels of the presidential circus wherein Mitt Romney lied his way to “victory”, this has got me thinking about style versus substance. One of my friends tweeted in the aftermath, “Stop talking like fact-checks after the ‘big event’ are meaningful. Show up and play the game or go home.” He’s got a point as far as debates go, where the event is all about thinking on your feet and presenting a facile argument. I’m just not sure that it’s a good idea to set the fate of millions on a course determined by glib statements not founded in reality. I believe that “think” is an important component of “think fast. The love of my life reminded her Facebook friends that, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” and when I said I thought it disingenuous for Republicans to claim Obama was not bipartisan after they refused to vote for anything he proposed, observed that all politics is disingenuous.

Back to Greece, then: the Greek government did not engage in a big war which they lost and were then forced to pay huge reparations for. The Greek government begged to be admitted to the EU and their economy has not been up to the task. The Greek people feel let down by their government and oppressed by the austerity measures, so if I were a Greek government minister, sure, I would probably look at the seething unrest, the horrible inflation, the massive debt, and think, “Man, I am one demagogue away from being thrown out of office and shot.” But I’m not at all sure that this is a real and valid parallel. I reckon that it’s important to call people on their bullshit. To that end, let’s invoke a corollary to Godwin’s law and say the Greek government has ended the discussion and lost.