In Hannah Arendt’s last known interview, recorded for French television in 1973, she spoke about the problem of governments lying. Here is what she said:
If everyone always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but that no one believes anything at all anymore–and rightly so, because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, to be “re-lied,” so to speak. So a lying government which pursues different goals at different times has constantly to rewrite its own history. That means that the people are deprived not only of their capacity to act, but also their capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.
Have we reached the point where no one believes anything at all anymore? Think about it.
