Political truths and politics of truth

The truth is the least important matter in politics. It is widely believed that "the truth is the first casualty of war," but it is also true in peacetime. 

I am inclined to think that it is mostly authoritarian regimes that base their politics on the distortion of reality, but it was two of the strongest democracies that occupied Iraq in 2003 under the premises of a major distortion of reality. The United States and the United Kingdom claimed that the Saddam regime possessed chemical weapons, but it later turned out to be a lie which was based on fabricated documents. In the words of the anti-war opposition coalition in the U.K., "He [Tony Blair] lied, millions died."  

Still, we have to admit that authoritarian rulers have more propensity and stronger devices to distort reality since under such circumstances, there is no space to challenge the ruling propaganda. It means that the state, ruling party or ruling clique has a total monopoly on the fabrication of truth. Nevertheless, the process of "truth production" or "perception formation" is not only shaped by political suppression and domination.

 The "popular perception of truth" is shaped by a more complex process of reflectivity. In the case of nationalist politics and propaganda, it works through the interaction between nationalist parties and politicians and nationalist public opinion. It may be argued that nationalist public opinion is also the product of nationalist politics, but let's leave this endless debate aside. Finally, if the public opinion is already shaped by nationalist convictions, it turns out to be a vicious cycle that the implementation of authoritarian politics can be easily justified and legitimized by nationalist propaganda, as long as it works and enforces...