Aditya Chakrabortty (Here’s the essential skill for assessing our politics: knowing the difference between lies and bullshit, 22 December) asks why so many people buy into political bullshit. I think the answer is that some people have the cognitive ability to choose their own facts and reality, and to believe in these wholeheartedly.
These people are the targets of political bullshitters, who paint for them a picture that is always vastly more attractive than the grim reality presented by facts. Climate bullshitters tell us the planet isn’t warming, Boris Johnson promises Brexit will be a success, Donald Trump declares that he’ll make America great again.
Bullshit believers are able to live in a world where all these things are true, a parallel universe far rosier than our own. It’s why climate deniers tend to also be Covid deniers.
Some people may only be visitors to the flipside, like the voters taken in by Johnson and his “oven-ready” deal in 2019. Others live there permanently, tormented by a secret fear that their scaffolding of lies will be torn down. It is why they shout at and abuse us when we try to challenge them with facts and evidence.
Dr Richard Milne
Edinburgh
Aditya Chakrabortty’s article reminded me of George Orwell’s portrayal of a government where the Ministry of Truth concerned itself with lies. In keeping with this approach to government, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, responsible for maintaining a state of perpetual poverty, scarcity and financial shortages, should be renamed the minister of plenty.
The BBC Radio 4 programme More or Less and the numerous fact-checking organisations offer sceptical voters the opportunity to challenge the veracity of politicians’ claims. More important, however, is the discordance between government-speak and voters’ day-to-day experience of the collapse of the economy and public services. We know it’s bullshit and, as the saying goes, in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Peter Riddle
Wirksworth, Derbyshire
Given the nature of our politics and especially the incompetence of so many of its exponents, Aditya Chakrabortty clearly did not find it difficult to locate relevant examples to substantiate his theory. Surprisingly, he failed to include one of the biggest examples, up there with George Osborne’s “northern powerhouse” and Boris Johnson’s levelling up. It is, of course, Rishi Sunak’s claim that giving a decent pay rise to NHS workers is “unaffordable”.
Having originally been told – using inaccurate figures – that such an increase would cost each UK household £1,000, the public is then meant to be relieved by Sunak’s final judgment of unaffordability.
As to “why do people buy it?”, perhaps because they are force-fed the nonsense by some of the media and treated as mugs by the politicians from all sides.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
