When hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants stream across the southern border, month after month, officials can deny it’s a crisis or play down its severity. In a big country, distributing that many people does not immediately hurt enough communities to cause nationwide resistance. Complaints about admitting Covid-positive strangers are easily dismissed as irrelevant right-wing laments.
When inflation rises more than it has in years and reduces real incomes, officials can deny it’s serious or permanent. Supply shortages will improve, the housing market will cool off. When critics add that increasing government spending during an expansion will further fuel inflation, politicians can simply deny it will happen. Why worry if you can just issue more of your own currency? And by the way, Americans were saving $0.16 on a Fourth of July meal.
When parents complain that Critical Race Theory distorts American history and divides students by race in American schools, officials can deny that it is being taught at all. It’s just an academic theory, after all, and those parents just don’t want their kids to learn about slavery. Actually, it is also good to apply CRT in schools, say teachers unions, as a way to fight systemic racism, as part of the work of social justice. Who could oppose that?
When lockdown skeptics questioned whether various policies did any good against Covid-19 at all, whether they might in fact cause more harm than benefit, experts could deny that those objections had any merit. The science, you see, showed that locking down was necessary, to flatten the curve, to slow the spread, to save lives. Closing schools, wearing masks—only people who didn’t care about saving lives would resist such measures.
Unchecked illegal immigration, rising inflation and exploding deficits, divisive indoctrination, counterproductive public health policies—these are deniable problems. The U.S. has an elaborate apparatus of denial, from media propagating talking points to tech companies filtering public debate to experts promoting their favorite narratives.
But this is different.
The precipitous fall of Kabul is an undeniable disaster. The rapid takeover by the Taliban undeniably refutes claims made by American officials. There’s no denying that the botched Afghanistan exit humiliates the U.S.
This they can’t deny.
They can’t deny that President Biden was utterly wrong when he said that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” That Senator Chuck Schumer was utterly wrong when he said that Biden had “a careful and thought-out plan.” That Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was utterly wrong when he claimed Kabul was nothing like Saigon. That General Mark Milley was utterly wrong when he talked about a “responsible drawdown” in Afghanistan. That the “intelligence” services were utterly wrong in their assessment of the situation in the country. That people who praised the Biden crew as “adults” were utterly wrong, now that those adults have proved farcically incompetent.
This they can’t deny. Not administration officials, not Democrats, not experts, not media outlets practiced in the arts of denial.
Some will try, of course. We had to get out anyway, so what’s the big deal? The Afghans had no will to fight, it’s their own fault! The debacle was only possible, no one could really anticipate it! It’s Trump’s fault, he negotiated a deal with the Taliban! Etcetera. Propaganda can go a long way, but for once it will fail: this exit fiasco, this refutation of specious claims, this humiliation of a supposed superpower they can’t deny.
Now perhaps, having recognized what they can’t deny, the public will ask: what else do they deny that is undeniable?
When immigration officials deny the southern border is in crisis, what do you think?
When monetary officials deny inflation and debt are a problem, can you trust them?
When education officials deny Critical Race Theory is taught in schools, do you believe them?
When public health officials deny lockdowns were a disaster, would you still follow their advice today?
What have you learned from Kabul?