CHARLY TRIBALLEAU via Getty Images Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a speech during his visit to Juno Beach on April 10, 2017 in Courseulles-sur-Mer, northwestern France. Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 during the Second World War. / AFP PHOTO / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU (Photo credit should read CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images)

"Once truth had become oracular rather than factual, evidence was irrelevant." ― Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

A couple weeks ago, Bill Maher had Timothy Snyder on as a guest. Yale professor of history, Snyder's recent book is titled, On Tyranny. Given the Trump presidency, Snyder's book sounds as timely as you can get.

In it, Snyder details the many lessons we can learn from the history of tyranny. One in particular caught my attention. It's the frangible relationship between truth and politics, and how abandoning truth is a frontal attack on democracy:

"Without truth we don't have trust. Without trust, we don't have the rule of law. Without the rule of law, we don't have democracy."

That was the lesson the twentieth century repeatedly illustrated, though it's one now dangerously lost on today's citizens.

Our Prime Minister shouldn't be held to less a standard because there are more notorious examples in public office. A lie is a lie, is a lie.

Snyder continued on to the link between "Post-Fact" utterances (viz., what our moms and dads called "lying"), and fascism:

"People who are going for post-fact; people who are against the truth are taking the direct line to killing democracy... when we think about post-fact ... what we should be thinking about is fascism."

Then came the part that really grabbed my attention:

"It's the fascists who said everyday life doesn't matter; details don't matter; facts don't matter; all that matters is the message, the leader, the myth, the totality."

What surprised me, listening to Snyder's description of the earmarks of fascism, was that Donald Trump didn't come to mind.

Popping up instead was the image of our own Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, complete with sleeves rolled up on his crisp, white dress shirt.

Oh yes, I know, as the Liberal supporters blow a head pipe at such a thought. After all, Trudeau's "post-fact" creations can't be compared to the number of full-blown Trump deviances of deception, a wallowing in Post-Fact reality, lathered by White House chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, (aka, the Grim Reaper)? Right?