Just as it’s “garbage in, garbage out” with a computer, feeding incorrect data (lies) to the population has serious consequences. After all, how can people make correct judgments about what politicians and policies to support — i.e., civilization-preserving decisions — if they’re being fed misinformation about those politicians and policies?
And, boy, the lies do fly fast and furious, too. A good example is how a prominent billionaire, a Ph.D. physicist, and a Substack investment writer confess that they’ve just discovered the truth about the anti-President Trump “very fine people” hoax.
Commentator Andrea Widburg provides some background:
Almost seven years ago, the media launched its vicious ‘very fine people’ hoax, which dogged Trump throughout his presidency. … Not only does a lie travel halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on but a corrupt media and political infrastructure have the power to ensure that the truth never gets its pants on.
In August 2017, as a prelude to the anarchic destruction of statues in 2020, the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, decided to tear down its Confederate monuments and memorials. A Neo-Nazi group used this as the pretext for a march.
… Two other groups appeared at the protest. One group consisted of progressive Democrats eager to tear down America’s history. Also present, however, was a small cadre of people who thought it was a mistake to ape communists and wantonly destroy historic statuary. They weren’t supporting the Confederacy; they were supporting a rational, rather than destructive, approach to untangling our nation’s complicated Reconstruction era.
A Neo-Nazi drove through the crowd, killing one person. President Trump condemned the Nazis but supported those who objected to destroying our nation’s symbols, arguing that, once the destruction started, there wouldn’t be a stopping point. Trump was prescient, as we saw in 2020 when mobs tore down and otherwise desecrated statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others.
Despite this, the Democratic Party and mainstream media ran with the “story” that Trump praised the neo-Nazis as “very fine people.” But here’s the truth, courtesy of RealClearPolitics:
Here are the unambiguous actual words of President Trump:
“Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”
After another question at that press conference, Trump became even more explicit:
“I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”
As Widburg points out, only a demonically dishonest person would claim Trump was calling the neo-Nazis “very fine people.” (In fact, his “both sides” assessment might only have been wrong in that I’ve seen no evidence there were “fine people” among the Charlottesville leftists.)
But the lie spread like wildfire, with Joe Biden repeating it frequently — to this day. Even more damnably, the mainstream media, whose mandate is to hold the powerful to account and deliver the Truth, do nothing substantive to correct the record.
And how many votes did Trump lose because of this lie and the others about him that abound? Well, we do know that to this day people believe the Charlottesville propaganda, as evidenced by how some prominent/accomplished figures are admitting that they’ve only now learned the media have been lying to them. Just consider the following tweet exchange:
Note that Bill Ackman is a billionaire hedge-fund manager who’s disaffected with Biden, Shaun Maguire is a Ph.D. physicist who’s reportedly a new Trump supporter, and “Geiger Capital” is the aforementioned Substack writer.
Not being able to resist, I, in my usual gentle, diplomatic style, responded to Geiger. “They didn’t convince ‘us’; they convinced YOU,” I wrote. “The truth was always out there; you just had to seek it.”
“That’s why it’s true: ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’”
Other respondents were shocked, dismayed and, sometimes, insightful, as the below tweet reflects.
Actually, both tweeters above make good points: It does reflect fake news’ power and people’s tendency to believe what’s emotionally appealing and convenient.
To Ackman’s, Maguire’s, and Geiger’s credit, at least they’re willing to accept the Truth and admit past ignorance. This is in contrast to those who “cannot be reasoned out of a position because they did not reason themselves into it,” to paraphrase British satirist Jonathan Swift.
Other X users offered good advice and observations. “Keep digging and see what else you find…,” wrote one. For sure, the lies are legion.
Another, responding to Geiger’s statement that the media’s actions were “truly insane,” stated, “Truly disingenius [sic] and evil, you mean.”
This is not hyperbole. Harking back to my computer analogy, this is why psychologist Jordan Peterson emphasizes the importance of telling the truth. Just as how a doctor who purposely gave a patient the wrong diagnosis could cause that person to take life-threatening actions, political lies lead to wrong action that imperils our nation.
Thus must there be an unwritten agreement in discourse: I tell you what I honestly believe, you tell me what you honestly believe, and neither of us purposely misrepresents the other.
Anyone violating this is an enemy of man and is to be despised.
