Election fraud is being done in the minds of citizens today
2016 according to the research results, the Oxford Dictionary recognized “post-truth” as the word of the year. Why it happened precisely in 2016 is understandable. That year, two important events took place in the world: “Brexit” and the election of Donald Trump. Both marked the triumph of post-truth. That concept, post-truth, describes the situation when the events and facts have less influence than people’s emotions and beliefs. It’s not a feature of the 21st century – it’s always been that way. For example, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “fake news” that Queen Marie Antoinette advised hungry people to eat pie if they had no bread has such a long-lasting and irrevocable effect that it continues to be believed almost two and a half centuries later. Why has that lie survived? The reason is that citizens treat their government with at least reservations in any era and country.
What is the difference between the post-truths of previous centuries and today? In the past, its influence was periodic, discrete: a book, a newspaper article, a radio or television program. And through the Internet, post-truth is an uninterrupted and increasing flow. Before, it was a jet of showers; now, it is a 20-meter tsunami that does not stop for a second. In 2016, British populists, led by Jeremy Corbyn, convinced their fellow citizens that their country pays 350 million pounds weekly to the European Union. And no matter how much the government, experts, and people who understand the case are convinced that there is no such thing, that this number is at least ten times inflated, and that Britain not only gives but also takes, all the same, most of the British people were not convinced by this. They were sure they were feeding Brussels for free and could better protect the country with their British “Jermuk.”
Donald Trump lied many times during the 2016 election campaign and his tenure. He said that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, that he is a Muslim, that Hillary Clinton is a member of the worldwide government and is engaged in child trafficking, that the Chinese invented global warming to destroy American industry, and then that the Chinese also created the coronavirus and intentionally spread throughout the world.
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Most Americans would not check these facts and will not review them now. That’s how post-truth works. And, in particular, in the case of countries like ours, there is no need to make the fight at the polling stations or distribute election bribes. Voter fraud, in a sense, persists, but it is committed in voters’ minds. And here, not so much politicians come to the fore, but political technologists, experts spreading the news on the Internet, and heads of trolls, fakers, and bot factories.
We lost the war a/ because the formers were looting, b/because the formers recognized Artsakh as a part of Azerbaijan in 1991, c/ because the Russians wanted to make Armenia their border region, d/ because the “5th Column” was operating at the front, acting as traitor officers, e/ because we had 11 thousand deserters.
The extent to which all these claims are individually right or wrong can be discussed, but citing them as the reasons for the defeat in the war is absurd and does not stand up to any logical examination. But there is no need for it, as it is post-truth.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
“Aravot” daily, 04.04.2023
