Inventing New Ways to Lie

The View from the Middle

 

The media and politicians in Washington never cease to amaze me.  I thought I had seen every kind of lie ever invented, but then our politicians and media, masters in the art of duplicity, went to their “lie-lab” and concocted at least three new ways to deceive the public.  To be honest, these aren’t brand new ways to lie, but just focus group tested twists on old lies that makes them more effective and lethal.  It is sort of like the virus enhancing research that was done in the Wuhan lab in China that created today’s Coronavirus.

I will call the first new lying format “Inventing Detractors”.  As the new administration approached the 200 millionth shot level here in the United States, President Biden said that, “Some told us that this couldn’t be done in the first 100 days”.  Really?  Who were these “some” people?  Give me the name of one person who didn’t think this could be done.  

The fact is, when Joe became President, he announced that his administration was going to accept the bold challenge of giving our 100 million shots in Americans arms by the end of his first 100 days in office.  Then someone in his staff pulled him aside and informed him that the Trump administration was already above that pace, and on pace to deliver over 200 million by his 100^th day.  In fact, according to the CDC, on the day Joe was inaugurated, 1.3 million people were vaccinated and was on a trend line to deliver three million shots per day by the end of March.  

Who were these people that didn’t think it was possible to deliver 200 million shots in the first 100 days of the Biden White House?  The truth is, there weren’t any experts who didn’t think this could happen.  The process and pace to go over 200 million shots was already in place.  All Joe had to do was sit back and do nothing, so Joe invented “some people” who doubted he could pull it off.  That’s a clever way to take credit for something Joe didn’t do, but it is far from truthful.

I’ll call the 2^nd new form of lying the “Wild Over-exaggeration”.  Back when the CDC was trying to convince people in this country to continue wearing masks outside, they made this statement, “Less than 10% of Covid-19 infections occur out of doors”.  That is a low percentage, but it implies that the true number is somewhere around 10%. Right?  Well, the real statement should be, “Less than .1% (one tenth of one percent) of infections occur outside.”  

Even the New York Times had to call BS on this statement.  The Times said that this statement is like saying “sharks attack fewer than 20,000 swimmers a year.”  Sharks actually only attack around 150 people per year, so the 20,000 number is both true and deceiving at the same time.  Shouldn’t we be proud of these governmental bureaucrats on the absolute leading edge of distortion and equivocation in our country?  They are inventing brand new ways to deceive, frighten and manipulate our citizens.  What patriots!

I will call the final new form of falsification the “Follow the Science” lie.  You see, you can put those words in front of anything and it will supposedly deny any rebuttal to your claim.  What these new, frontline lie-developers have discovered is that what you put that statement in front of doesn’t even have to be true.  Isn’t that great!  You can lie with impunity and then just stick those three words in front of it and you’re golden.  Sweet!  Right?

Leading edge liars have used these words to tell us that our children shouldn’t be back in school, we had to shut down our economy and you must wear your masks outside.  Just yesterday, out of the blue, Uncle Joe Biden let us know that we NOW didn’t have to wear masks outside, or even inside, if we were vaccinated.  That statement was made after President Biden, who was famously vaccinated back in December, had stubbornly worn his mask indoors, outdoors and even during the recent “virtual” Climate Summit.  He was the only world leader, out of 17, who wore a mask during this international zoom session.  He was the image of fear and weakness for which he was roundly criticized.  At a time like this, our country needs a bold and courageous leader and even Joe sensed he was falling way short.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we are finally coming to our senses when it comes to mask wearing.  I don’t think it should have ever been mandatory, but my question is – what changed from Thursday to Friday?  What milestone did we hit in terms of vaccinations or Covid cases or deaths or hospitalizations that was driving this change in policy?  What science was driving this decision.  NONE!!

Who knew that changing the subject from multiple crises (like illegal immigration on our southern border, unrest in the Middle East, gas prices, inflation and challenges from Iran to North Korea to China) was a scientific reason to change the mask rules.  The polls were turning against Uncle Joe and he needed some positive news to distract us from his divisive, extreme and failed policies.  Follow the science?  Yah, the political science!!

When are we as a people going to learn our lesson.  Our politicians and media (but I repeat myself) do not have our best interests at heart.  They are both pursuing their own self-centered financial and power goals and, as Charles Barkley suggested, trying to divide and conquer us.  We need to unite in rejecting their duplicity and messages of fear and division.  2022 is just around the corner and it is our first chance to send a message to Washington.  And that message should be that we reject division, fear and manipulation and embrace unity, courage and freedom.

Anyone for School Choice Today?

 Anyone for School Choice Today?

The View from the Middle

 

Back in the 1980’s Al Shanker, then President of the United Federation of Teachers union, let the cat out of the bag when he famously said, “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”  This Freudian Slip revealed the ugly truth that the teachers’ unions didn’t give a flip about our kids.  All of the teachers’ unions have tried to hide this reality from that day forward, but it is times like this when we can all see the truth in that statement and sentiment.

Throughout this pandemic the teachers’ unions have ignored the science (which they say they love) that children don’t acquire this disease very well, and they don’t transmit it very well.  If they do get Covid, their symptoms are usually mild and they rarely succumb to it.  In fact, the CDC’s data shows that children under the age of 20 have a 99.998% likelihood of surviving Covid-19 IF they are infected.  Despite all of the actual scientific evidence that children and even teachers are safer in school than out, the teachers’ unions have held our country and our children hostage and used this health crisis to advance their own interests at the expense of our kids.  Remember Rahm Emanuel’s (Obama’s first Chief of Staff) famous Freudian slip when he admitted that it was a Democrat Party strategy to, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”  

And the real problem is that American parents have no choice in this matter.  They must cave to the union demands or watch their children suffer the academic, emotional and even physical consequences of remote learning.  The fact is, 90% of American families send their children to public (government) schools.  If this were a business, it would be considered a monopoly.  Parents really don’t have a choice.

But private schools have been completely open for months with virtually zero consequences reported.  So, why don’t more parents send their children to private schools?  The number one reason given by parents is the cost of tuition.  Most people don’t like the idea of paying for one education for their kids through their taxes and then paying for another one through private school tuition.  

It is interesting, however, to look at who is more likely to send their children to private schools.  Public school teachers, for example, are twice as likely to send their children to private schools.  Let that fact sink in, and then consider the fact that 40% of our members of Congress send their children to private schools.  That’s four times the rate of an average family in the US.  They do it because they have options.  Primarily, these people have the financial resources that allow them to overcome that #1 barrier to pulling their kids out of the public school prison system, which is COST.

So, how could we allow everyone in America to have the same options, choices, opportunities that our political leaders have?  Vouchers!!  The average cost of a K through 12 education in the United States is $11,392 per year.  In Arkansas, where I live it is $9,694.  Interestingly, the highest cost of a public school education is $19,396, and that is in Washington DC.  I wonder why that is?  According to Forbes magazine, the average cost of a private school education in this country is $11,450, only a $58 per year difference from the public schools. according to Forbes magazine.  And the Catholic school average cost is only $7,350.  Wow, that’s actually quite the bargain.

In effect, our government gives this money to school buildings so that “we the people” can go those buildings and get a free education.  It isn’t “free” of course, because the government has NO money.  They simply take the money for these “free” educations out of our paychecks every month.  What if, however, we sent this money to parents in the form of a voucher that can only be used for education and allow them to choose the “building” to which they would send their children?  This would remove the monetary barrier that traps many families in the public school system and allow them the same choices that our members of Congress have.  Why shouldn’t every family in America have the same choice when it comes to education that our member of Congress and our Presidents have had.

Not only would this give every family in America real choice in education for their children, but it would make the public schools compete for students.  Public schools would either improve or die, and some should die.  The government school casualties, however, would be replaced by better schools – charter, private or public.  It really doesn’t matter, as long as they are better.

In closing, I need to point out that I have no skin in this game at all.  My children are out of college, but my wife and I had the luxury (the finances) to send both of our children to private schools for most of their education.  I would just like every family in America to have the same choices we had all those years ago.  If we had a voucher system this year, I’m guessing that many families would have made the leap out of the public school monopoly system and “chose” to send their children to schools that were actually open and cared about the children.  What do you think?

A Critical Look at Critical Race Theory

 A Critical Look at Critical Race Theory

The View from the Middle

 

If you look up the word “theory” in the dictionary, you will find multiple definitions, but there a couple that I think best apply to Critical Race Theory.  One definition states that a theory is “an unproven assumption or conjecture”.  A second suggests that a theory is “an abstract thought or speculation”.  So, before we start teaching this “theory” in our schools, I think it is important for everyone to understand the basic principles and even the many flaws in this theory.

The first and biggest flaw in Critical Race Theory is that it is racist at its core.  It actually turns Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech on its head.  It suggests that EVERYTHING must be viewed through a lens of race.  It insists that white people are racists and bigots and evil because of the color of their skin.  People should not be judged by the content of their character, but simply by the color of their skin.  This theory would take us all back over 200 years and simply switch the race that it deems appropriate to be ridiculed, demeaned and dehumanized.

Critical Race Theory also ignores or denies all the progress that we have made in this country over those last 200 years.  Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first black member of Congress, was elected back in 1870, over 150 years ago (FYI, he was a Republican).  Even in the 1960’s we had only four black members of Congress, but today we have 57 African American members of the House of Representative’s total of 435 members or 13% of that body.  That percentage just happens to perfectly match the African American community’s share of the country’s total population.

In 2008 we elected the first Black President in The United States and Barack Obama was then re-elected for a second term in 2012.  Today, we have our first Black female as Vice President.  I’m sure that all of these members of Congress and Obama received a high percent of the black vote, but none of these people could have been elected without the support of millions of those racist, bigoted, evil white people.

Critical Race Theory also assumes that all Black people are perfect and have never made any poor choices that have resulted in negative consequences in their lives.  Despite the fact that it is illegal to deny anyone an education on the basis of race, young black students are more that 50% more likely to drop out of high school than whites.  Also, across America, almost 40% of our births are out of wedlock.  That is a terrible number for our country, but there are tremendous differences by race.  White births in the US are out of wedlock 28% of the time, which is too high, but young African Americans have children prior to marriage a whopping 69% of the time.  That’s a choice.  There is no gun to the heads of our young people forcing them to have unprotected sex.

The only reason I bring these two stats up is because they are the two most important behaviors that enhance the chances of people ending up living in poverty.  Single parent households, for example are almost six times more likely to live in poverty than two parent households (45% vs 8%), and dropping out of high school only increases that likelihood.  And these two categories represent choices, especially the choice to have children before marriage.  And if you want to argue that public education is systemically racist and put young black children at risk, remember that public schools ARE the government and you should all support “school choice” in education.

The book Cynical Theories points out the flaws of Critical Race Theory this way.  “It is bad psychology to tell people who do not believe that they are racist – who may even actively despise racism – that there is nothing they can do to stop themselves from being racist, and then ask them to help you.”  Prager University points out another flaw with an example – “A man owns a store and two customers come in, one white and one black.  If the store owner addresses the black person first it’s because he doesn’t trust black people in his store, and that’s racist.  If he addresses the white person first it’s because he thinks that black people are second class citizens, and that’s racist.”  That is the definition of a no-win situation and is a very convenient argument for Critical Race Theorists to make.  It is, however, not based on any facts, just emotion.  Abraham Lincoln would put it this way, “If you look for racism in everything you experience, expecting to find it, you surely will.”  Now THAT is a fact, and you will also find racism in some places where it doesn’t even exist.

And now our government is planning to teach this unproven, divisive, destructive “theory” in our schools.  As if our schools aren’t struggling enough already just trying to teach the fundamentals of math and science as we fall further and further behind other countries in the world every year.  Now they intend to turn virtually all students against each other.  Half will be told that they are evil and will never deserve any success they could achieve so they shouldn’t even make the effort.  They will be telling the other half that any negative consequences in their lives are only the result of oppression by the other half whom they will undoubtedly hate.  This train of thought will suggest that they have no personal responsibility for the outcomes in their life.  What all this does is minimize the productivity of every child who will grow up to be equally unproductive adults.

The only good news in this story is that many, many Black thought leaders like Leo Terrell, Dr. Carol Swain, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell and Pastor Voddie Baucham are vigorously opposing the basic teachings of Critical Race Theory.  And I also support two modern-day Black philosophers who recently came out against hatred and manipulation, Charles Barkley and Tyler Perry.  Charles said that he believes that most White people and Black people are “awesome” and that our politicians (and the media) are just trying to make us hate each other.  They are trying to divide and conquer us.  Tyler Perry announced at the Oscars the he is tired of the hate and he asked everyone to refuse to hate Hispanics, Blacks, White people, LGBTQ and even the police.  He even gave a plug to this blog when he asked people to meet in “The Middle”, away from the extreme fanatics on both sides of the political spectrum where he said “progress is made”.  I certainly can agree with that!

If you really want to hear the solution to Racial Disparity and Discrimination you should read my post from June of last year called "EFFE".  I will re-release that post later next week.