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.