Is It the Truth?
The first question posed in Rotary’s 4-Way Test of the things we say and do is: ”Is it the truth?”
Pretty simple, right? It’s an easy thing to say, but apparently difficult to do so for many these days.
Truth is an important element of confidence in whoever or whatever. People naturally rebel against a untruth. A steady diet or habit of lying makes for trusting nothing a liar might say. If people trusted someone to tell the truth and that trust is found to be unfounded, they likely will never trust that someone again.
Just 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, and 27% have “a fair amount.” Meanwhile, according to Gallup, 28% of U.S. adults say they have little confidence and 38% have none at all in newspapers, TV and radio. Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with little or no trust in the media is higher than the percentage of Americans with a great deal or a fair amount combined.
Pew Research reports public trust in government remains low, as it has for much of the 21st century. Only two-in-ten Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (20%) or “most of the time” (19%). Trust in the government has declined somewhat since last year, when 24% said they could trust the government at least most of the time.
To suggest this is a bad situation would be understating it.
Truth is paramount generating confidence and trust. Informed citizens are necessary for a democracy to function properly. When average citizens stay informed, they reinforce democracy and help to keep the government in check to ensure the freedom of its people.
So what happens when confidence levels are low in a society? Answer: first thing is people tune out. Tuning out of listening to radio news, watching news on television, or reading a newspaper makes us uninformed. Being uniformed makes people unable to vote responsibly.
Is it the truth?
Assuming the poll numbers cited are the truth, and my gut says they’re at least close to the truth, they paint a crisis for our media and our representative republic.
It’s an indictment against our media’s reporting of the ‘news’ and our government leaders.
We now know what we were told about COVID-19 was largely false. Our nation’s leaders blindly followed the so-called public health experts. Expressions questioning the faulty advice resulted in many health professionals being banned from social media and a platform of truth. We know now that the lock-down and required mask-wearing was unfounded. That keeping children out of school was a huge mistake. That requiring vaccinations carried no public health benefit. Will we ever trust our CDC, our NIH or WHO again?
When lies are the only information available it makes for mistrust. What makes it worse is when the people and organizations that lied will not acknowledge a mistake and try to tell us more lies to cover those expressed previously.
President Biden has made it clear on numerous occasions that white supremacy is the number one problem in America. That systemic racism remains a major problem to be addressed.
His administration has identified parents speaking out at school board meetings as domestic terrorists.
Anyone with any sense of having a finger on the pulse of America knows white supremacy and racism are not prevalent postures of most Americans. But he needs people to believe those posits to support his bent on “equity.” That by hiring based on factors other than knowledge, experience, and merit he somehow is combating his own narrow depictions of prejudice.
How many times do we hear that the borders are secure when we can see with our own eyes that they’re not. How does more gun control measures reduce the crime wave debilitating many of our larger cities- many with strict gun laws?
That defunding the police is a “Republican” plank. That the Russia-Ukraine war, along with a myriad of other issues, are threats to our democracy. That eliminating the use of fossil fuels and blindly supporting the climate change religion is following the science. That inflation is ‘transitory.’ That abortion and surgical gender change and health care are ‘rights.’ That the 1st Amendment is a threat to the pursuit of truth. That certain, select people reaching a faulty conclusion ends all discussion or debate or knowledge. Jesse Smollett was attacked by white supremacists wearing MEGA hats. That horse riding border patrol agents whipped wannabe immigrants. That January 6 witnessed an ‘insurrection’ killing five capital police officers. That a government-based ‘ministry of truth’ will be objective.
Et cetera.
Fact is, via a friendly vs. questioning media, the citizenry is fed gobs of propaganda – meaning it’s misleading, promoting political points of view, following a predetermined narrative, or now supporting the new wave of being ‘woke’ – punctuated with identity politics.
The question is: what’s the truth? Is it so elusive, so proprietary only a select few can recognize it?
If truth exists, why are we told something other than the truth? Answer: Because our leadership elite thinks we’re gullible and believe every/anything they say.
They apparently think as depicted by Jack Nicholson’s line as a tough military man in A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth.”
Truth is based on reality. Anyone who can’t or won’t deal with reality will believe anything they’re told, at least for a time.
Why don’t we all start with it – the truth – or at least the pursuit thereof?
Here’s a question that’s been posed in the past: If it’s the truth, why doesn’t everyone know it?
Answer: Because not everyone is interested in it.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/public-trust-in-government-1958-2022/
https://www.reference.com/world-view/important-informed-citizen-10ceefe0b0e7739b
SPIDER Bites
This week’s trivia question: How Many Players Are On A Polo Team? Answer to last week’s what was the 48th state and in what year: Arizona, 1912.
The MLB regular season got underway last Thursday with all 30 teams and 15 games. The Mets top the 26-man payroll list this year, beating the Yankees by $62M at $270 million. Oakland is #30 on the list spending $34 million.
Few fans would have picked UConn and San Diego State to be in the NCAA men’s championship game tomorrow night. Meanwhile the women’s championship will be played later today between Iowa and LSU.
The NFL just adopted a new rule allowing the number ‘0’ on a jersey for those not playing the offensive or defensive lines.
The NYC DA’s grand jury last week indicted Donald Trump on yet to be revealed charges. More political weaponization of the justice system.
The Jewish Passover begins Wednesday, another week of Lent for Christians and Moslems started Ramadan last week. Each of these religious periods involves at least some fasting.
The UK has discovered that raising the tax on oil producers – called “windfall profit taxes” – recently upped from 40 to 75%, has resulted in North Sea oil producers drastically cutting production. The UK government has decided on a ‘net zero’ carbon emission objective. So now oil production will be cut 500 million barrels – enough to supply the country for 6 months. The climate change fiasco will obviously result in more imports and higher prices. Welcome, Brits, to the climate change congregation. On a similar note, California just passed a law to penalize oil companies for making ‘too much money.’ The California Energy Commission will determine the when – I don’t know how or how much. In signing the bill Gov. Newsome was quoted: “We proved we could finally beat big oil.” What is the saying “Don’t cut off your nose…”?
It is estimated 0.5% of the adult population is transgender. Gays are estimated at 1.7%. Native Americans make up 1.5% of the population. Asian Americans are 5.7%. Blacks constitute 14.2% of the population. Hispanics represent 19%. Whites are at 39.7% – and shrinking – of the US population. 1.1% are Moslems, Jews 2.4%, 70% identify as Christians. 50.4% are women. Just think, we used to be united as the only ‘melting pot’ country in the world – and we used to not shoot/kill each other. We also used to separate the severely mentally ill with symptoms of confusion, depression, social withdrawal, extreme feelings of anger, excitement, fear, etc. from the healthy society and treat them.
Some 10 days ago, President Biden vetoed legislation that would have removed ESG and climate change from fiduciaries considerations when making investments on behalf of citizens. Since then 18 states either have or likely will have laws that put a fiduciary’s responsibility solely on maximizing returns for their customers. Which broker do you want?
Cyclist Tiffany Thomas, a biological male, won the Female Cycling World Championship last Saturday, after another transgender woman, Rachel McKinnon, set a “women’s” world record in the qualifying event. Former champion cyclocross rider, Hannah Arensman, quit the sport after the event, saying: “I have felt deeply angered, disappointed, overlooked, and humiliated that the rule makers of women’s sports do not feel it is necessary to protect women’s sports to ensure fair competition for women anymore.”
The market rate for 2-year treasury bonds hit 5.05% in early March and leveled off at 4.1% last week. In the short term, the stock market remains pessimistic about the economy but optimistic the Fed will stop raising rates. The bond market is flashing recession, so will the Fed cut rates to avoid the continuing stress on banks? I doubt it.
Meanwhile national debt ceiling talks have broken down after Republican negotiators offered a proposal to require people on public assistance to work. That apparently was a deal breaker.
