The Great Lie: Culture and the Battlefield of Propaganda

In his 2017 book called The Big Lie, Dinesh D’Souza traced the roots of the American political left back to the National Socialist roots of the German Nazi party. He emphasized, while the political left is always attempts to brand political conservatives as fascists today, in reality, this is a complete inversion of the truth. Truth becomes a lie and the lie becomes truth wrapped in a candy-coating of propaganda.

You may have seen this dichotomy in action yourself. The violent leftist group Antifa (acronym for “anti-Fascists”) uses blatantly fascist techniques of personal violence and destruction to achieve its objective of intimidation. Many big cities in blue states claim the label of “sanctuary city” but that characterization of virtue signaling has become ridiculed since the open borders policy of the Biden administration has flooded these cities beyond their capacity to support the volume. These cities can’t even support their own citizens properly. Many of the streets of the cities look like some sort of zombie movie with the open drug use, homelessness, and violence…among American citizens, not just the illegals. The propaganda of virtue signaling to feign some sort of moral framework for their ideology fails in the reality that they can’t even responsibly take care of their current citizens, not to mention a massive wave of illegal migrants.[1]

            Leftist students on American campuses regular revolt against conservative speakers, sometimes attending and creating chaos during the events, drowning out the speaker, or outright pressuring school administration to cancel the events. “No free speech for fascists!” Interesting that oppressing free speech is again, a controlling tactic of Fascism itself.

The political left argues for lesser punishment of criminals, yet they support the death penalty for unborn children. They want bigger social programs, but they have no clue how to pay for them. Note the massive growth of the national debt under the Biden administration.

The arguments are seemingly built around a strategy of “bait and switch.” Cynics attack Christianity as an attempt to “force feed” religion onto the secular public, yet they are fine with force feeding principles of critical race theory and transgender ideology (including “Drag Queen Day”) in public schools. While the left objects to psychological counseling for those experiencing true gender dysphoria, they promote irreversible sex-change surgery for minors without parental consent.[2]

Even with all of this snake oil and psychological manipulation in play today, “The Great Lie” today is the same great lie that was proposed in the garden of Eden. Satan told Adam and Eve that if they disobeyed God, they could become like him. Today, following suit just as the enemy of truth prefers, the god of self is worshipped above all. In 2013, most appropriately, the word “selfie” was recognized by the Oxford dictionary as the word of the year. We have been coerced into believing that the greatest god we can serve is the person we see in the mirror every day.

As gullible as humanity has been throughout history to the lure of propaganda, there are some occasional sparks of hope in Western culture coming from the most unexpected of sources. Religious sentiment is showing noticeable change amongst the youngest generations, sociologically labeled “Generation Z” (those born between 1997-2012) and “Millennials” (born 1981-1996). In a recent Fox News Digital interview, author and religious commentator Billy Hallowell called out the constant flood of propaganda in media, the universities, and in leftist politics, the false understanding that everything is about "you." He described this as the "'my truth, your truth' generation" which tells America's youth that they can "decide what you think is right and wrong."[3] Hallowell continues:

“I think what we're watching happen right now is… people have been living this out. Gen Z was brought up with it and they're hitting this wall and they're realizing, 'Oh my goodness, this wasn't true.' This lie that you're the ‘God of the self,’ and you get to decide everything, not only is it not true, it's not fulfilling, it leads us to dangerous places, there's no meaning.”[4]

Jesus also had direct experience with the great lie when he was approached in the desert by Satan. Satan attempted to lure Christ with the promise of instant gratification (turning stone into bread (Matthew 4:1-3), a promise of power and authority (Matthew 4:8-10), and a challenge to put God to the test and expose Him as a liar (Matthew 4:5-7).

Jesus defeated Satan by leveraging the power and authority of the Word of God. Just as Christ demonstrated, Holy Scripture is our litmus test for truth as well. Christ could have defeated Satan in a number of different ways (i.e. he could have destroyed him, taken away his power, or forever restricted his access to humanity), but He chose an option that is readily available to you and me, He defeated him with the Holy Scripture known as the Bible.

“For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

[1] Erin Dwinell, “Sanctuary Cities, Border Crisis Costs, and a Rude Awakening for the Left,” heritage.org,   https://www.heritage.org/immigration/commentary/sanctuary-cities-border-crisis-costs-and-rude-awakening-the-left, accessed February 18, 20224.

[2] Timothy F. Murphy, “Should Mental Health Screening and Psychotherapy be Required Prior to Body Modification for Gender Expression?” jorurnalofethics.org,  AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(11):1079-1085. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.11.ecas2-1611.

[3] Kendall Tietz, “Campus religious Groups Report Greater Interest from Students Trying to Find Meaning in Crumbling Culture,” foxnews.com, https://www.foxnews.com/media/campus-religious-groups-report-greater-interest-students-trying-find-meaning-crumbling-culture, accessed February 18, 2024.

[4] Tietz, “Campus religious Groups Report Greater Interest from Students Trying to Find Meaning in Crumbling Culture”.