The death of truth in America
A new and dangerous phenomena has crept insidiously into the life and politics of America.
Of course it has lurked to some extent in the corners of reporting and political scheming for years. However, with the recent election and swearing in of the new administration, citizens have been given permission to construct what we now call “alternative truth.”
Like it or not, we are now floating in a miasma of lies being touted by a segment of the population who either are ignorant of the facts or refuse to believe them, or who present a differing story for their own benefit. Some of this originates from a seriously delusional ill leader.
When diametrically opposite stories are heard on various radio or television news, what are people to believe? Much depends on which radio or TV station one chooses to hear.
“The Daily Beast” reported that “the real bad guys enter the U.S. from Canada” while the Canadian government states: “No terrorist attack has ever been carried out by individuals entering the United States from Canada.” The President and his administration refuse to compare the number of homicide deaths in one year from firearms held by American citizens (approximately 11,000 in 2013) and the number of persons killed by terrorists. (17 deaths in 2014)
It would take several pages to document the blatant lies we have heard from the mouth of, on the one hand an extremely narcissistic human and, on the other hand, a significantly fearful man of power. Donald Trump learned from his father and the military school he attended from the age of 13 that the world is a dangerous place.
But when one reads that the parents of children who were killed in the Sandy Hook massacre of 2012 are being harassed by conspiracy theorists, we know that the truth is on a fast train to oblivion. In December of 2016, death threats were sent to Larry Pozner, whose son Noah was the youngest of 20 children murdered in what Lucy Richards from Tampa believed was nothing but a political “hoax.” One of many grieving parents who have been accused of being part of a huge conspiracy...
What is the future for reporting? Do we accept the lies and the skewed world views which are springing up in the U.S., and now, unfortunately, in Canada? I want my children and their children to be able to listen to a newscast and not have to wonder if it is honest reporting or “fake news.”
“Being true to the truth as best one knows it, is a Native trait that could help dissolve distrust, inaccuracy and animosity.” – Joachim Berendt. (Nada Brahma: The World is Sound) I have taught my children to tell the truth. You know, “Honest Abe” sort of values. When we play games with them, cheating is not tolerated. When we tell stories of what happened during the day, or who said what, we want to know that none of the account has been manufactured to benefit the storyteller. (Unless it is to be a real “story,” for fun and artistic value, and we know it is not to be taken literally as the truth, and nothing but the truth.)
We need to confront the lies. We need to expose the speakers who are divorced from reality. We need to call upon journalists, news anchors, politicians and business people to offer us nothing but true comments which can begin to restore our trust in what we hear and read. It will be a long road, but we must commence in Canada to squelch any deviations from facts. For much of the U.S., climate change and the science which has alerted us to it has lost credibility. What happens to a world that denies or hides powerful data from years of work to inform us of the devastation we are choosing? What happens when people focus their fears and hatred on one religion or race? What happens to us as persons when we stoop to using lies and “alternative truth?”
Let us choose that which empowers us as a nation, and as individuals, rather than that which contaminates us!