Facts don’t cease to exist because they are ignored.
— Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies, 1927
Bullshit thrives in a state of ignorance. So, you’d think with so much information now available online we all would be more enlightened.
But you’d be wrong.
A disturbingly large number of Americans disregard facts that don’t fit their worldview. Despite all objective evidence to the contrary, they continue to believe Donald Trump was robbed of his presidency, non-white refugees threaten our way of life, climate change is a hoax, as is Covid-19.
Such willful ignorance is nurtured by deceitful messaging in media funded by cynical forces that seek to enhance their power and profitability by politicizing issues best addressed on a nonpartisan basis.
Shame on them.
And shame on us if we don’t call out their bullshit when we hear it. If we don’t counter their drum beat of lies and distortions, a nation built on truth and justice may perish from the earth.
We have our work cut out for us.
We are fighting a disinformation campaign on American values and common sense that began before Donald Trump became president and has continued since his defeat.
A confederacy of Fox News, toxic talk radio, and social media controlled by special interests that put power and profits ahead of the common good are targeting disaffected people who find it convenient to blame their devalued lot in life on immigrants, minorities, and politicians they didn’t vote for.
There is good news, of course.
“Many, probably most Americans are willing to listen to experts and act responsibly,” New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman, reminds us. “But there’s a belligerent faction within our society” that shuns inconvenient truths and, instead, embraces convenient conspiracies theories that justify their sense of grievance.
Progressive talk-show host Thom Hartmann citesa Democratic Underground website post that describes four kinds of such people – those who still support Trump:
- Affluent cynics, who only care about reducing taxation on their wealth;
- White identity types — that is to say, racists;
- Religious fundamentalists. They want to impose their strict moral code on everyone — except for the womanizing swindler they treat as their high priest; and
- Stupid people, of the willful kind this post addresses.
Jesus once said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” But it’s hard to forgive peoples’ wrongheaded support for positions they should know are wrong. And harder, still, to forgive those who deceitfully mislead.
What would Jesus say to those who sell an agenda built on lies and mean-spiritedness? “Get thee behind me, Satan,” comes to mind.
