Truth & Lies - Season 1

Whether it's the Kennedy assassination, Pizzagate or the Corona virus - conspiracy theories are booming, thanks in part to the Internet. But they are not a modern phenomenon. People have been seduced by conspiracy theories for centuries. They offer simple answers to complex questions: a world without chaos, without coincidences, in which everything is planned, and everything can be controlled.

John A. Kantara's film shows the power of conspiracy theories from the Middle Ages to the present. For a long time, conspiracy theories served to maintain the power of the mighty and to suppress minorities. This changes with the advent of mass media. Conspiracy theories are now used to criticize and attack existing power structures. Then as now, the belief in conspiracy theories often leads to violence.

In war, truth dies first. For the powerful, the battlefield serves as a stage for heroic narratives. The enemy mutates from a human being into a monster. Lies serve to justify bloodshed, to disguise one's own motives, and sometimes even to turn defeat into victory.

John A. Kantara proves that lies have always been part of warfare. In doing so, war propaganda makes use of the technical possibilities of the time. To spread one's truth, all means are used: from paintings to photographs to television images and social media posts. Today, anyone can become a war correspondent. But the abundance of data leads to an illusion of transparency; truth is hardly verifiable.

Scandals shock and fascinate us. They reveal the lies and missteps of the rich and powerful. Scandals ignite debates and are engines of social change. But scandals are not a modern phenomenon. They have accompanied human history since ancient times. Liam O'Rinn looks at the history of scandals and shows how they have changed over time.

While scandals were still spread by word of mouth in ancient times, the media gradually acquire an increasingly important role in the scandalization process. They uncover missteps and make them accessible to a large audience. But they too can become the focus of the scandal, as the London Times and Stern press scandals show. In the digital age, whistleblowers are the newest players in the scandalization process.

In the battle between truth and lies, money plays a decisive role. After all, wealth and power go hand in hand. From antiquity to the present day, the powerful have used their wealth to influence all areas of social interaction in their favor. Whether art and culture, science or politics, nothing seems to be safe from the power of money and the influence of those who possess it.

They do not always take the truth too seriously. Truths are bent into shape, lies are spread. Everything seems possible if it increases the influence of the few. But money also makes it possible to challenge existing power relations and inequalities. Writer Riel Lazaraus takes a look at how the power of money has influenced the course of history.

For thousands of years, religions have offered people orientation, hope and support. But time and again, faith is also misused as a political tool. Wars and conflicts are fought under the guise of religion.

Rudolph Herzog analyzes how faith has been functionalized for worldly interests throughout history. In the Exodus narrative, the Israelites use the narrative of an all-powerful God to free themselves from slavery. Religious fanaticism leads to the persecution of witches in modern Europe. During European colonization of the American continent, faith served as a pretext for the oppression and murder of indigenous peoples. And in modern times, scientific findings shake the foundations of religion.

Some people have had a decisive influence on the course of history. They are opinion makers who skillfully used the technological achievements of their time to spread their views. No area of society is safe from their influence.

To increase their influence, opinion makers do not shy away from dubious methods. They use lies and create truths if it is in their interest. Supposedly higher goals serve as a pretext to satisfy their own hunger for power. Some influencers have become famous. Little is known about others. Tom Ockers looks at the phenomenon, starting with Apostle Paul and ending with algorithms, the opinion makers of the new millennium.