Lies Becoming Truths

You can infer what you want about what is written here. I’m not naming names.

Certain groups and causes now overwhelm the media, and in turn our citizens with their lies. Their lies get repeated over and over. Their special cause, whatever it may be, works hard to get the truth obfuscated.

Lies get accepted into truth.

The man who most eloquently summed up why this happens, was Swiss writer Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821 – 1881). From 1847 until his death, Amiel recorded his insights about humanity in his diary,  Journal intime. It is a brilliant self-introspective work.

This quote best reflects what we are experiencing today.

“Man defends himself as much as he can against truth, as a child does against a medicine, as the man of the Platonic cave does against the light. He does not willingly follow his path, for he has to be dragged along backward. ‘The natural liking for the false has several causes: the inheritance of prejudices, which produces an unconscious habit, a slavery; the predominance of the imagination over the reason, which affects the understanding; the predominance of the passions over the conscience, which depraves the heart; the predominance of the will over the intelligence, which vitiates the character. A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism and doubt.”

In 1869 Isa Blagden wrote, “If a lie is only printed often enough, it becomes a quasi-truth, and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article of belief, a dogma, and men will die for it.” Lenin and Joseph Goebbels modified that sentiment saying, if a lie is repeated often enough it eventually becomes truth.

There are many special interest groups in this country who are poisoning minds with lies. They do it through media and especially the internet, which has obliterated fact checking and more importantly, critical thinking.

There are literally hundreds of  “world turned upside-down, crazy beliefs” being propagated today. It wasn’t that long ago many of these ideas and calls for action would have been considered ignorant, foolish, insane, outrageous, outlandish, stupid, and downright dangerous.

Now screwball ideas proliferate. Can you recognize them?

There is something major at stake. We are transforming into a foolish nation that cannot tolerate “hurting feelings.” There is a danger in pointing out or voicing the belief that some things are plain wrong or that not everything is fair, equitable or diverse.

The risk for doing so? Lose your job, your friends, business, home and be publicly banned and shamed.

Recognize this: your Constitutional freedoms and the right to express opposite sentiments are in peril.

Now do something about it.