Live Not By Lies, a new documentary series released by Angel Studios, is warning against contemporary western culture’s love for comfort, safety, and security as a disguise for totalitarianism’s political entrance.
The four-part documentary series, released in April, features interviews with survivors of Soviet totalitarianism. Based on his book that shares the same title, executive director Rod Dreher explained to the Washington Examiner how he considers modern culture is setting the stage for “soft totalitarianism.”
“With the rise of identity politics, of wokeness — that sort of thing — it reminded them of what they had left behind,” Dreher said of those who shared their lived experiences in the documentary. “And at first I thought that was kind of extreme because where were the gulags? Where was the secret police? And the more I took them seriously and started continuing to talk with them, I realized that no, they’re seeing something the rest of us are blind to. What they’re seeing is the reproduction of the same thought processes of totalitarianism, but it’s happening in a much softer way in the liberal West.”
Dreher noted the need for society to remain open to listening to others’ points of view while seeking out truth.
“I want to try to protect the liberty of my own people to live without coercion,” he said. “If we lose the ability to talk as openly as we can about truth and about what truth is, and debate it and interrogate ourselves about truth, then we’ve lost something. It’s crucial to liberty.”
He added that he is grateful for the Trump administration’s push to renew the defense of religious liberty, but he warned that such advocacy can’t stop in political spheres.
“All the president can do, or any politician can do, is create spaces for us to work and to spread the faith and to deepen our faith. And if we don’t do that, then if we lose the political moment, and then we’re done,” Dreher said.
This past week, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the launch of a new task force to target “anti-Christian bias” occurring within the United States, arguing the Trump administration would no longer tolerate it going forward.
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Bondi’s announcement comes two months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end “the War on Christians.”
Live Not By Lies is available to stream online.
