The Enemy of the Truth
If silence is the absence of communication, and if censorship is the obfuscation of knowledge, then surely political correctness is the enemy of truth…
…and now, more than ever, we need to seek the truth in all things.
Today, we are awash in information. Never in the history of humankind, has there been more information so readily accessible at our fingertips, than today. Time was, in the not-so-distant past, when we would have to schlepp off to the library if we wanted to broaden our knowledge about anything. Nowadays, we merely have to open up our laptops or other smart devices, and all of the known information about any topic is as far away as the click of a mouse or the tap of our thumb.
Problem is that there is as much misinformation out there in cyberspace as there is information, and segregating the truth from the lie on any topic presents its own challenge.
For instance, go to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. There you’ll see that Johnny Unitas is listed as an Indianapolis Colt. Yet, in truth, Johnny Unitas was never an Indianapolis Colt. His last year with the Baltimore Colts came eleven years before the franchise stole away to the Hoosier State.
More to the point, look how the President of the United States is routinely called a racist. Anyone who understands the meaning of “racist” knows that this is a lie. Whether seeking to secure a porous and insecure border, banning inbound flights from certain countries to contain the spread of a virus, or calling that virus by the country of its origin does not and will not ever make President Donald J. Trump a racist, no matter how hard the mainstream media and his political opponents try their level best to convince us that he is one.
Oddly enough, those same meddlesome ministers of misinformation and those same professional purveyors of propaganda are as much the enemy of America as any foe we have ever faced in time of war. Worse, the lies spewing forth from such dubious sources and other such entities are just as assuredly going to resist any effort by our government to protect its people from a worldwide pandemic.
So, what are the hallmarks of such a lie?
- Denial- Denial of where the virus originated (China) why the virus was allowed to spread across the globe (communist Chinese government censorship) and whether or not this is a real pandemic (our friends and social media contacts who continue to insist that this is just a “hoax”);
- Misappropriation of Blame- blaming the coronavirus COVID-19 on any entity (i.e. Trump, the Clintons, the Democrats, the media) other than the People’s Republic of China, who caused this virus to spread;
- Whining and complaining- Seventy-eight years ago, the “greatest generation” who had already weathered the worst economic calamity ever to hit this nation was asked to accept frozen wages, commodity rationing on certain foodstuffs (sugar, coffee, fresh meat) and other goods (tires, stockings), and to sacrifice personal freedoms (nighttime blackouts, conscription) all to defeat the axis powers in World War II. Today, how many of us are whining about having to sit at home while curtailing visits to restaurants and bars and foregoing our leisure cruises, international travel and spring break vacations?
- Hypocrisy- Some of the very same people who vociferously complained about the President stopping all inbound flights from China in late January, and labeling such measures as “reactionary,” “xenophobic” and “racist,” now have the unmitigated gall to tell us that the administration hasn’t been as expeditious and urgent as necessary to combat the spread of the virus;
- Hoarding and speculation- Whether a Senator (Diane Feinstein D-CA, Richard Burr R-NC, Kelly Loeffler R-GA, James Inhofe R-OK) who, with advanced “insider” information, dumps shares of stock at the onset of an impending financial crisis, or whether an ordinary consumer who attempts to hoard commodities such as toilet paper, anti-bacterial hand lotion and disinfecting wipes… especially those who then try to resell these items at exorbitant prices…such societal parasites are beneath contempt and those who fail to call them out are just as culpable.
So, in this the hour of our collective discontent, let us resolve to look within ourselves and seek the truth- the absolute and empirical truth- in all things, lest we allow the lie to overtake and ultimately destroy us…as a people and as a species.
-Drew Nickell, 20 March 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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