When Truth Doesn’t Matter

Conservatives need to learn to use rhetoric, create winning narratives, and to tell stories that captivate listeners.

Frank DeVito is an attorney currently serving as counsel at the Napa Legal Institute. His work has previously been published in several publications, including The American Conservative, The Federalist, The Claremont Review of Books, and First Things. He lives in eastern Pennsylvania with his wife and children. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily his employer.

Sometimes it seems like what is true doesn’t matter. To the left, truth isn’t the point. Power is the only objective.

At the beginning of the COVID outbreak, the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China was prominent. And then suddenly, one was a racist conspiracy theorist if one believed such an idea. Yet, the evidence eventually emerged that the virus probably did leak from the lab. Even the The New York Times admits that this theory swung from “dangerous conspiracy theory” to “it probably happened” with impressive speed.

Likewise, when the COVID vaccine was rolled out at warp speed, people were told it was safe and there was nothing to worth concern. Claims about rushed testing and worrying side effects were dismissed as anti-vax conspiracy theories were refuted by “studies.” While many of these claims about the vaccine are still labeled conspiracy theories to this day, last year it was admitted that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can cause serious blood clotting disorders and AstraZeneca was in court this spring admitting its vaccine can also cause deadly blood clots.

President Biden put on a debate performance in June that eliminated all doubt that he is unfit not just for the presidency, but to speak in the public square at all. Days later, he met with the Democrat governors who scrambled to say that he was fit for office, and in fact, that he looks and sounds better than he has in recent memory.

The donors were pulling their dollars from Biden and hoping desperately for a viable, eleventh hour replacement, while blasting conservatives for pointing out the obvious about Biden’s mental state. Biden was just fine, as sharp as ever. Until he wasn’t; then suddenly there was a pressure campaign among Democrats and it was indeed time for Biden to step down and pass the torch. Now, Kamala Harris has predictably gone from a liability whose incompetence worried even many Democrats to the inspiring, golden hope of the future.

Do not believe your lying eyes; everything is fine. The left may admit, at times, that what you say is true, but you are a dangerous conspiracy theorist, perhaps even a threat to democracy, if you say it. So what if something may be safe one day, deadly the next, and probably safe again on the third day? So what if yesterday’s incompetent fools are today’s presidential candidates, then tomorrow’s incompetent fools once more? 

Conservatives need to make a distinction, one which more on the right are finally waking up and beginning to make: often, we are not dealing with an opposition consisting of reasonable liberals. Many call them “woke” or “cultural Marxists.” I prefer the Destructive Left. Whatever name you prefer for these folks, the point is that the modern left cares about power, about winning America’s institutions and culture, but they do not care about truth. It does not matter whether the COVID vaccine is objectively dangerous or the president is objectively incompetent. It only matters that the left says the right thing at the right time to maintain power. To the extent that the desire for power completely unconcerned with truth prevails among those on the left, a drastic change in political tactics on the right is needed in order to win.

Anyone paying attention to movement conservatism has (thankfully) felt the change in the air over the last few years: people are waking up to the fact that this is not a neutral debate in some unbiased “marketplace of ideas.” There is no fair fight. Perhaps the sentiment was summarized best during Chris Rufo’s appearance at the Heritage Strategy Forum this past spring. In Rufo’s excellent keynote — a recording is not publicly available, so I paraphrase and summarize based on memory — he noted a problem that has plagued the American right for the past few decades: we are too focused on this supposed “marketplace of ideas,” on winning the argument by having the better idea.  

Ideas matter, of course. If conservatives are not steeped in the great thought of the western tradition — in what is good, true, and beautiful — it is easy to stray off course. Conservatives must battle for ideas because we need to conserve what is good and true. But Rufo is correct that we do not live in a culture or a reality where the right idea prevails simply because it is a better idea, being promulgated in some neutral public square.

There is no neutral public square. The media spins everything beyond recognition. The education system has left so many of our citizens brainwashed, unable or unwilling to follow a strong argument wherever it leads. The focus, Rufo recommends, must be not simply on making the right argument but on crafting the right narrative. Conservatives need to learn to use rhetoric, to create winning narratives, to tell stories that captivate listeners. 

The Heritage Foundation’s strategic shift in recent years reveals that this trend is catching on. Heritage used to host a “Resource Bank Meeting” focused on information and networking. The meeting is now a “Strategy Forum” focused on planning strategic action that will produce results. The right is realizing that the marketplace is not neutral, that having the better argument is necessary but not sufficient. The conservative movement is waking up to the fact that it needs to focus, not merely on being ideologically pure and correct, but on winning fights.

To know how to fight the left, we need to understand who we are dealing with on the left. Perhaps we need to focus on an important area of discernment: When are we facing someone for whom the truth of words does not matter?

This distinction is crucial if one is to be effective in politics, as well as maintain one’s personal sanity. Who am I talking to: A liberal who disagrees on policy but attempts to make and follow legitimate arguments? Or a woke warrior who responds to arguments with insults, name-calling, red herrings, subject changes, and general claims that the other side is fascist? In the former case, by all means engage in debate and try to win the argument by coherently presenting the better idea. But when dealing with the latter, a conservative ought not to waste his breath. 

Many of the folks on the modern left have not become progressives because they were convinced by progressive arguments; they are simply brainwashed. And after a lifetime of screen addiction, social media scrolling, relentless “indoctrination” from school teachers, actors, singers, and everyone else they are exposed to, we should not be surprised. The modern program of secular indoctrination does little to form citizens capable of high-level argument on policies and principles. To convert these people, arguments generally will not do. Until conservatives can create narratives that can break through and grip these poor, ordinary, brainwashed folks, as well as reform (or shatter) the institutions that do the brainwashing, there is little hope for large-scale change.

The “ideas versus narrative” debate is not an either-or scenario. Conservatives should not avoid the heavy lifting of getting the theory and the policy arguments right. Neither should they focus on the abstract argument at the expense of figuring out how to practically win political fights. The right needs disciplined, well-reasoned ideas and arguments, as well as improved, captivating narratives, the clever use of media, the recapture or rebuilding of institutions, and the power to deploy ideas in practical ways that can win political fights. But to know which weapon to choose, one needs to know one’s enemy. A reasonable liberal may be worth an argument. But for the brainwashed members of the Destructive Left, those who do not have the interest in or capacity for what is true, conservatives should save their reasoned arguments. The sword is the wrong weapon to smash a rock.

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