It's getting more and more difficult to get to the truth

The truth is important but, to others who should know better, it seems to be dispensable. Let's be blunt: most establishment politicians are liars, the mainstream media is full of liars, and social media is increasingly full of lies. Call it what you like - misinformation, disinformation, post-truth - it's still lies. And, assuming that you want to and are not comfortable with just judging everything through the lens of your own prejudices, it's getting more and more difficult to get to the truth. So where do we find it?

But first, a few examples of what I mean. And I'll start with the Prince of Liars, Boris Johnson. He won the 2019 election despite being the most notorious liar in British politics. He lied about 40 new hospitals; he lied about not creating a trade border across the Irish Sea; he lied that Corbyn wanted to disband the armed services; he lied about his 'oven ready' policy on social care. Despite his inveterate lying, Johnson was supported, and enabled, by the majority of the political establishment and mainstream media, and his election win proved that absolutely brazen dishonesty was no barrier to success in British politics. He set the trend.

Rishi Sunak clearly has issues with the truth too. Since becoming Prime Minister, Sunak’s lied about "stopping the boats"; he’s lied about getting back the £billions in Covid fraud that happened under his watch as Chancellor; and he’s lied about "getting NHS waiting lists down" when they’ve soared to the highest levels ever.

Unfortunately for we Labour supporters, Keir Starmer is not without form. By his own actions since, he's shown that he lied his way into the Labour leadership with a load of pledges, policies, and promises that he never intended to keep. He lies when he says that he never said that Israel has the right to collectively punish civilians by cutting off food, water, and energy; and he lies that his so-called "patriotic economy" is going to bring back prosperity for ordinary people when it’s actually just another dose of the same austerity agenda that’s been trashing living standards for the last 14 years.

Instead of holding these political liars to account, Britain’s supine political media class have knowingly amplified and obfuscated the lies of their favoured factions. If you read the Telegraph, Sun, or Daily Mail or watch GB News, you’d never know that Sunak and his Tory mob are such a pack of liars. And if you uncritically read what the Guardian tells you, you’d probably believe that Starmer actually did a great thing by lying to the Labour membership to get the party leadership, or that he had to abandon all his promises because of circumstances, rather than because he never intended to actually keep them.

But social media is even worse. Not only is it infested with all the establishment lies, our social media feeds are increasingly plagued with fakery, scams, AI-generated dross, woe-peddlers and conspiracy theory rubbish. Social media platforms like Facebook don’t just allow lies to flourish on their platforms, they make absolute fortunes actively helping the liars to spread their lies.

So if politics, the media, and social media are so infested with lies, where can we seek the truth? It’s an extremely difficult question to answer. I wish I had one. I struggle to find News that is truthful and unbiased.

There’s still a small minority of decent politicians and journalists among all the professional liars. I’d be much more inclined to take the Green Party's Caroline Lucas, independent North East mayoral candidate Jamie Driscoll, Hilary Benn or Manchester mayor Andy Burnham at their word than most politicians. I don’t necessarily agree with everything they say, but the journalism of Peter Oborne, Owen Jones, James O'Brian and George Monbiot is infinitely more believable than the output of the majority of journalists who seem to see it as their job to amplify establishment lies rather than call them out.

There are actually quite a lot of reliable sources on social media, but they’re increasingly difficult to find since platforms like Facebook and Xitter changed their engagement algorithms to deprioritise independent media accounts.

The best advice I can offer is to engage your critical faculties at all times. Remember that we’re all wading through a sickening morass of propaganda, bullshit, and lies, and that the truth-tellers are increasingly difficult to find. In the end, I think that the answer lies with us. Me and You. Every time we receive a WhatsApp or a Facebook post or whatever, we have to question whether it is true or untrue. Don’t take it for granted. We must reply to those spreading untruths. The same for those in power. Question their “facts” and don’t let them repeat untruths again and again. And definitely don't forward anything to your friends if you have not validated it first.

If you come across any politicians, political writers, or independent media sources that do seem to be doing their best to stick to the truth, treasure them. But don’t just passively follow them, because the social media algorithms simply can’t be trusted to actually show you their content. Actively seek them out and see what they’re saying.

Look out for red flags. If anyone tries to tell you that "wealth trickles down", presents austerity economics as a way to bring back prosperity, or compares government borrowing to credit card debt, they’re liars who are spreading economic illiteracy, either because they’re too dumb to realise they’re spreading economic lies, or because they’re cynically lying on purpose to dupe the gullible. If anyone tries to portray overwhelmingly peaceful Palestine solidarity campaigners as a dangerous and violent mob, you know they’re a reality-reverser who cannot be trusted. If you see journalists and media outlets amplifying or obfuscating political lies rather than calling them out, remember it, and don’t trust them in future.

There’s no perfect source that’s going to tell you the truth on every issue. But there are those that cite their evidence, try to do their best to be truthful, and apologise on the occasions they make factual errors rather than doubling-down or pretending it never happened. They’re the ones to follow and support. Free Speech is a precious thing and something we should never take for granted. However, I think that the Freedom to speak should be backed up with the necessity to prove your facts.

If you know of any politicians/sources you consider to be broadly honest and reliable, I'd love to hear of them. And for those interested, here are some of my own sources.

• The Guardian 
• The Observer
• The Internationalist
• Private Eye
• The New Statesman
• New York Times
• Peace News
• Bloomberg
• Politico (Good for Polls)
• UK-ICE (Interesting articles)
• Vox
• BBC 
• Google News (Surprisingly good)
• Amnesty International
• Liberty
• The Violence of Development website (for the politics of Central America)