There is a Russian term, vranyo, which Dostoevsky, in his essay, 'A Word or Two about Vranyo', described as an unwritten pact between a liar and its audience - the liar lies and pretends to tell the truth, and the audience listens and pretends to believe them. The concept of vranyo is commonly seen as a unique to Russia and some ex-USSR countries, such as Belarus.

The Republican National Convention, however, categorically disproves this. The story of the RNC reads like a satirical rip-off of Arabian Nights, with new falsehoods being presented with almost every speaker - the only catch, however, was the fact that, far from being a satire on the Republican party, it was the Republican party.

On the first night, the republicans claimed that a Democrat government would lead to an explosion of gangs in and around American neighbourhoods ("invite MS-13 to live next door") and that Democrats would "abolish suburbs", as well as touting Trump's ineffectual response to Coronavirus as "swift action" that saved almost as many lives as it doomed. Meanwhile Kimberly Guilfoyle, who will probably have a sore throat for the next ten days, told what was probably the only truth of the day ("America, it’s all on the line"), only to immediately ruin the moment by making the bogus claim that Democrats would "destroy your families, your lives, and your future".

On the second night, it was revealed that Trump had appointed his wife as the chief apologist for his COVID blunders - his first intelligent decision as Melania's speech was the only one to display even the vaguest sign of empathy (apparently the main trait that separates humans from semi-intelligent apes). Melania's touching speech, however, was the sole high point of a depressing night - surrounded as it was by the pardoning of criminals for the sake of publicity, potential violations of US laws, and claims that the pandemic was a thing of the past. Oh, and the embarrassing, albeit rather predictable, fact that Trump started using his children as publicity material.

On the third day, Mike Pence once again confirmed what we had all suspected - that he had no imagination - by simply using the old Make America Great Again slogan again with an extra Again. Perhaps he did not realise the slogan implied that America was no longer great... again. Then again, he may have been trying to bolster the right-wing hat economy again - they could start a new MAGA...A line. In an oversight that summed up the recent history of the Republican party almost perfectly, there was little to no mention of either the Black Lives Matter protests or the shooting of Jacob Blake. Those times the protests were brought up, they were called "violent mobs" that had to be stopped - somehow overlooking the fact that many BLM protests were peaceful and unarmed, unlike certain federal agents.

The common trend throughout the RNC was that of lies - lies were told and treated like truth. There is no way that most Republicans fell for their own lies - while there are many ways to skin a cat (though, quite frankly, I have no expertise in that particular matter), there are only so many ways you can make someone like Trump president.
But, like Dostoevsky's liar and its audience, the Republican speakers peddled falsehoods and pretended to tell the truth, and their audience listened and pretended to believe them.

Perhaps it is time to come up with a translation for vranyo...