SEYMOUR, Ind. – Indiana House District 69 State Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, is facing controversy after sharing a purported quote from Nazi chief propagandist Joesph Goebbels on Facebook.
The since-deleted post read: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, although the quote is often attributed to Goebbels, there is no evidence he ever actually said the statement. The post was shared by Lucas’ Democratic opponent, Chad Harmon.
In a phone interview with LocalNewsDigital, Rep. Lucas asserted that he was not comparing Nazi Germany to the United States, and was instead drawing parallels to what he believes are oversteps from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and federal government.
“We are shocked and horrified that an Indiana lawmaker would make such a statement about Hitler’s chief architect and purveyor of hate speech,” CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute said in a statement condemning the post. “Hate propaganda was the driving force behind the Holocaust, and these seeds of hate have been, and are being planted, today in the United States.”
Rep. Lucas responded to the Museum’s statement by saying, “I posted the quote to educate people on how evil begins and grows, and who better to learn about evil than from those that have committed the most evil? The phrase “Never again” can only be realized if we know what to look out for, so please tell me how educating people on what to understand and look out for is a bad thing.”
