Truth and Trust

Big Questions

How can the U.S. government protect itself (and protect the public) from a cable network that lies?

Liars lying about a liar who lied.

Is Fox News a **propaganda machine for profit**?

Is Fox News a “dishonest organization terrified of its own audience“?

How do we fight THE BIG LIE propagated by Donald Trump?

How do we arrive at a shared sense of reality in the first place?
Why do people latch on to conspiracy theories?

We live in an upside-down world where lies are for winners (at all costs), and truth is for losers (who follow the rules).

“The masses have never thirsted after the truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” — Gustave Le Bon

The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of “The Big Lie” by Major Garrett
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon

If you want to find and verify the truth,

where do you look,
who do you ask, and
what does the truth look like compared to disinformation?

So when he says he will build a southern border wall with Mexico’s money, throw his words in the trash and believe it when you see it.

Never rely on his words because more often than not, they are lies and often foolish and stupid.
sp

Is “Truth” now whatever is first in a google search results listing?

Does the Buck Stop with Arredondo?

And as far as our so-called leaders go, I suggest you make them accountable too, at both the voting booth and in the courtroom.

In the state of Cowboys and Texas Rangers and a “gun in every pot” and “good guys with guns” (almost 400), the incompetency and cowardice of Chief Arredondo and his men led to 19 children and 2 teachers being brutally gunned down; and in classic cover-your-ass non-transparent politics, the powers that be (Arredondo? Mayor McLaughlin?, Governor Abbott?) have delayed, denied, deflected and lied for months until issuing a 77-page report to nowhere and no buck stopping anywhere.

The Paradox of Accountability is the likelihood of accountability and justice for the actions of tyrants, corporations, and countries committing crimes against humanity and the earth, is inversely proportional to the size and scope of the damage done.

I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me

What the families of the victims want and deserve — which they may never get — is for at least one of the armed police officers in the hallway of Robb Elementary School to come forward and say,

“I’m sorry.

“I trained my whole life to be ready for heroic action to save lives, and in the critical moment, I failed.

“I should have stormed the shooter, and I will forever regret that I didn’t do that.

“I have no excuses. I now know that I should have ignored the confusion and trusted my instincts. But it’s too late, and I will carry that shame for the rest of my life.

“I don’t blame the families of the murdered children and teachers if they do not forgive me. I can’t imagine the pain and sorrow they must feel.

“I accept whatever accountability I deserve.

“I will do anything I can for the rest of my life to help train the future protectors in our world so they will not make this same tragic mistake.

Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America by Mark Follman

“And as far as our so-called leaders go, I suggest the people of Texas make them accountable too, at both the voting booth and in the courtroom.

“If I can help in any way, let me know.”

also

Texas, Don’t Fuck This Up!

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Alice in Q-Land

down, down, down the rabbit hole they go

There are those moments in life when you immediately develop a first impression that locks into your psyche and stays there forever, part of those I know it when I see it moments. For example, when Donald Trump walked sown the stairs and said that “Mexico would pay for the wall,“ I knew right then and there this guy was a liar, a braggadocio, a fraud, a buffoon, and no way should he be the President of the United States.

A similar first impression as a kid was when I saw for the first time, (fake) wrestling on TV. I thought, What is this? They’re just fake wrestling! And yet the crowd was yelling and screaming and frothing at the mouth and shaking their fists and loving their favorites and demonizing the opponents. I just could not understand why these people were so rabid about something that wasn’t real. I think that (fake) wrestling on TV was an early signal that there was a growing conspiracy theory culture that was here to stay.

I understand now that this false anger and outrage made the crowd part of the performance. For 99.99% of the people in the crowd, this was as close to acting on a stage as they would ever get. The audience was part of the act, whether they knew it or not, and they loved it, whether they were at the wrestling match in person or watching it on TV.

The fake wrestling phenomena was a petri dish for a growing conspiracy theory culture, average people hungry for the absurd, the outrageous, the violent, the extreme, the unreal. And it has spread virally across our nation, accelerated by the networking and broadcasting power of TV, Internet, and social media. It’s OK to be entertained, or to play a role in a performance, but you gotta keep wacky conspiracy theories and real word truth clearly separated in your brain. Otherwise, you will get sucked into a never-ending rabbit hole of delusion that will slowly melt your critical thinking into a pile of mush.

Social media platforms and cults share a similar underlying goal: influencing people. Social media platforms keep users engaged in order to profit via ad revenue, while cults keep members committed in order to keep power and, in some cases, make money.

Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind by Robert Draper
Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories by Rob Brotherton
Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth by Elizabeth Williamson

Alex Jones always wanted to be the smartest guy in the room, but after admitting to his heinous lie about Sandy Hook, he instantly became the dumbest guy in the room, on the wrong side of history.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Alex-Jones-walks-up-the-Steps-of-Comeuppance.-He-cant-hide-any-longer.-Basically-hes-a-coward..jpg — Alex Jones walks up the ***Steps of Comeuppance***. He can’t hide any longer behind a bogus doctor’s orders. Basically, he’s a coward hiding from his inevitable accountability for his ***Sandy Hook*** conspiratorial lie, one of the most heinous and destructive conspiracies ever concocted, right up there with the “holocaust didn’t happen”.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire

Did somebody say “Q”?

Q is an irrational conspiracy weirdness!

When Trump was president, Q-Anon’s adherents believed that only Trump, a Washington outsider and “nonpolitician,” could unmask and purge the evil cabal secretly masterminding a pedophilia network, by launching mass arrests taking place on a day known as “the Storm.” Hmmm.. Trump had four years to pull that off, but it didn’t happen. It’s hard to unmask something that’s not real.

Everything is connected, nothing happens without a purpose, and nothing is what it seems because there is a secret alternative truth.
QAnon

Those Q true-believers would be better served to turn off all of their digital devices, stay away from the internet, put down that bag of chips, get off their ass, and go for a long walk through the woods…. for a month! Followed by a cold bucket of water poured on their heads. They need to repeat this process as many times as required to wake up and climb out of the Q-conspiracy rabbit hole.

Because you see, conspiracy theories are started and spread by people who either don’t have the brains or the guts or the heart to solve the problem at hand themselves, so they invent somebody and/or something to blame so they can cowardly hide behind them/it. In an untruthful, deep-fake META world, you have only your instincts, heart, values, and common sense to guide you to the right sources of information to trust.

If it leads you to Dystrumpia, you did not choose wisely grasshopper!

also

Can I Call You Bobby?