I hope that you recoil in unbelief when you hear stories about a deep government conspiracy to traffic children for sex. It seems so outlandish that your natural reaction should be to dismiss it.
But then you hear about Epstein and his apparent suicide, you see coordinated efforts to keep people from watching “The Sound of Freedom,” and media efforts to assure us that sex trafficking isn’t such a big deal, and you start to wonder what the heck is going on. Isn’t everybody against child sex trafficking? It’s certainly possible (actually, likely) that the numbers aren’t as bad as the advocates want us to believe, but they’re certainly bad.
In a similar vein, I was speaking with a family who had a child in the hospital. After he got out of the ER, there was a mix-up about medicines, which lengthened his hospital stay for several days. Someone questioned whether the “mix up” was intentional to keep him in the hospital longer so they could make more money.
I scoffed at the suggestion. Doctors and nurses are trying their best to help these kids. But the skeptic reminded me that doctors and nurses are promoting so-called “gender affirming care” for children precisely because it’s such a big money maker, and the pharmaceutical companies are promoting vaccines for children (who don’t need them) so they can make more money.
Last night I listened to a recent Tucker Carlson speech where he mentioned a similar phenomenon. He (like most of us, I hope) doesn’t want to believe that people are tampering with our elections. But a friend said, “look, people kill each other over insurance claims, certainly they cheat when it comes to who runs the free world.”
The pattern is the same in all these cases. We want to believe that people are basically decent, and that complicated, evil conspiracies don’t happen.
But then we keep getting evidence that people very clearly are doing dastardly things, and it makes it harder to laugh away the conspiracies.
Politicians and tobacco companies misled people about smoking, something similar happened with sugar, the government intentionally poisoned alcohol during Prohibition, and the medical establishment experimented on black people with syphilis. And as much as I hate to credit Alex Jones with anything, he might be at least partially right about how chemicals are affecting frogs.
The bottom line is that people lie to us all the time to promote their agendas, or to make money, and that these lies are often supported by people in power. But most of us are usually reluctant to believe it.
Consider so-called “forever chemicals.” It’s at least possible that we’re being poisoned by near constant exposure to plastics. Almost everything you eat and drink has been in contact with plastics, and there’s some evidence that it’s very bad for you.
But if you’re a news organization, and you start to run a story about that, guess what happens?
QUOTE: Consider so-called “forever chemicals.” It’s at least possible that we’re being poisoned by near constant exposure to plastics.
Indeed it is possible and likely probable. Yet, as has been discussed previously, since most media is unreliable (liberal and conservative) and social media tends to operate as partisan echo chambers, who do we rely upon to reveal what’s true and factual…in cases like this and other critical matters?
QUOTE: Last night I listened to a recent Tucker Carlson speech where he mentioned a similar phenomenon. He (like most of us, I hope) doesn’t want to believe that people are tampering with our elections. But a friend said, “look, people kill each other over insurance claims, certainly they cheat when it comes to who runs the free world.”
Isn’t the theme of this post about having a healthy skepticism about things we read and hear? How could Tucker be considered a credible source…especially when his lawyer argued that he is not to be taken seriously and the judge agreed (see below)? Yet, there is one thing to consider concerning the reference to election cheating…it indeed has occurred and in nearly all legally verified cases it has been Republicans that have been found culpable.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil’s opinion: The “‘general tenor’ of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary…given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statement he makes. Whether the Court frames Mr. Carlson’s statements as ‘exaggeration,’ ‘non-literal commentary,’ or simply bloviating for his audience, the conclusion remains the same — the statements are not actionable.
QUOTE: The bottom line is that people lie to us all the time to promote their agendas, or to make money, and that these lies are often supported by people in power. But most of us are usually reluctant to believe it.
This realization is reinforced nearly every time I see MAGA supporters interviewed. It’s stunning what some will accept and believe.