Dealing With the Viral Lie

Short answer: Persistence and Resolve

“It’s a sin to tell a lie” has been around since Moses brought it down from Sinai as Major Sin #9 of the Top Ten. Fats Waller (a black man, if you didn’t know) made it popular in 1936 with a song by the same name.

In these modern days, “sin” has fallen into two categories; those that are still jurisdictionally God’s alone, to be judged after we’ve passed (if you believe that sort of stuff anymore), and those sins that belong to the the courts of Man, where, at one time, one “went to jail for the same thing he went to Hell for”. Those “sins” are very very few it seems, and apparently political affiliation has much to say whether a “sinner” will even be arrested, much less held to stand trial. And we are no longer just talking about “Do you know who I am, officer?” speeding pullovers, but arson, looting, destruction of private and public property, and administering serious injuries with knives and chains. And Heaven help the 14-year old boy or girl who falls under the lustful gaze of a member of the anti-God political party.

Still, even people who did not believe in God know that the common culture believes it is a bad thing to tell a lie. But while politicians have only recently openly lied with impunity, not much more than a decade, it has been a constant with journalists for ever a century, hasn’t it?

Why?

I just wrote a report of how G K Chesterton, the Christian writer, viewed the Press a century ago in England. So nothing is really new today, except the means by which “journalists” are now able to get their lies out. And that has grown prodigiously, almost proportionately, in fact, to the maturity and even raw abilities to discern fact from rumor from fiction, for Chesterton was speaking only of the written Press, only in print, then spread by casual talk.

Still, a lie was a lie, and it was a sin to tell one in the Western world, even in 1920. What has changed most in our Western societies have been the diminishing Authority, or even belief in the existence of that Authority who handed the Commandment to Moses. The principal enemy of God, and no, it’s not George Soros, has been the anti-God crowd who had other prizes in mind, among them Marx, the political theorist, and HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw, better known to the public for keen writing of  history and plays. In the next 150 years the popularization of an anti-God society has grown, today, to the belief in America that just one more generation, (10 years worth of dumbed- down high school graduating classes away) and America will finally flip from being an “admitted religious nation”, which it still is today. In short, by say, 2030 a majority of Americans will no longer be able to admit, for a dozen different social reasons, they believe in God…regardless of the First Amendment.

Why this is important to the rest of the remaining Western civilization, who passed this same milestone 50-60 years, is that their political system has not yet got around to penalizing those remaining Believers in the same manner the Soviet-Marxists did between 1922 and 1992…in large part because they’ve been waiting to see what would finally happen in America…which has always set the fashion for the big things that matter in the West.

Food for thought and action.

What I’ve just written in the past 500 words has been what they call a “SitRep” (Situation Report), a quick view about how our misfortune (some say) to be American, plays into the fate of the rest of the world.

What follows is only about  dealing with “the public, notorious lie”.

Also reported this past week was a short piece  by me about the American Press, in unison, repeating a very easy-to-prove lie about Donald Trump’s feelings about “white supremacy and white supremacists”. It was repeated by virtually every major news organization, in rather naked unison, which indicated a confederacy of minds. I felt it was also contrived out of panic.

My opinion was strengthened with the response of John Roberts, the urbane, well-manicured, seemingly moderately-biased press commentator at Fox News—until this:  (Sorry, this was the only clip I could find)

#FightBack
He needs to go on a looooong vacation. pic.twitter.com/NBku354PkD

— Couture Cocktails LV (@CocktailsLV) October 1, 2020

A short analysis of Roberts’ tone as it applies to my theme, “dealing with the viral lie”;

“When one exposes his self-righteous with a short temper, the wise man will first judge by his righteousness, not his bad manners.”

Roberts is angry because he just got his mouth washed out with soap by Fox viewers and Trump fans for condoning and repeating a naked lie at a press conference, and then here, baring his soul in momentary panic because of the public blowback. Chris Wallace finds himself in the same position, knowing he too has lost any respect he may have had with Fox viewers because of the way he moderated the Tuesday night debate. In several million viewers’ minds, he’s finished, just as George Will, age 79, has known he was finished in 2016 because of his reaction to Trump’s candidacy (and in Virginia since 2013, because of his reaction to Christians.) Still, Mr Will gets paid to write for the Washington Post, and can still get guest slots on MSNBC and the lower ranks of television news media.

In short, they’ve all dealt with “the Lie” poorly in the minds of the still majority minds of America, and will likely be forever remembered for it.

I have no pity for them.

But there are things we can do about The Lie and for its lesser known purveyors, most of whom are no-name writers who only have a small coterie of friends inside the business, so cannot really feel harmed by a national blowback such as Roberts experienced. Although their name(s) appear on every article they write, the reaction, if any, even on Twitter, really only attacks the masthead, whether HuffPo, Newsweek, Politico, The Hill, Atlantic, and a dozen or more.

I will describe here a few simple ways to bring the wages of sin a little closer to home.

I’ve used the term “killing rose bushes” to euphemistically reach out to various kinds of political wrong-doers  since the Obama years. Recently I’ve centered my attention on Antifa, BLM and other political criminals and crimes. You’ll find general rules among those articles listed. Call it a homework assignment, then use you imagination.)

I’m going to describe how you, an army of one, or better still, a troop of three- four, can instill fear in the hearts of these “liars and lie-enablers” with the simplest of techniques and the mildest of misdemeanors.

First, you cannot- should not punish them for their opinions or beliefs, no matter how infantile or radical. Leave the supplications of their hearts alone! It is only their propagation of the lie your should punish. If you go after their beliefs you encourage them to brace their back against you. For you see, you will first kill their rose bush and communicate with them. They will never be allowed to communicate with you. So, if they have some unknown person out threatening them with a thing they don’t believe (See self-delusion, below.) to be to true, they will brace up. The chief source of the fear you will instill in them will be not knowing who you are, or where you are (in Nevada, across town, or two blocks away), and marrying to a lie they know they know they have written/spoke.

But first, you will communicate with them with little misdemeanors, such as killing their rose bushes in 100’s of ways, “skunking” their $500 suit or Gucci purse, keying their car door, sticking an ice pick in their right front tire. Make your own list. Be clever.

About The Lie: Remember, when someone says something that is provably false, there are four (4) possible reasons, the “knowing lie” the worst, so ranked last in order of severity. 1) Misinformed, which a person caught red-handed will admit to, then apologize, but allow it only once 2) Ignorance, which in the journalism business no one will ever admit to, 3) (self-) delusion, a common aliment actually, as you can discern in John Roberts’s choice of words…his anger/fear is real…4) and finally the knowing lie. With the exception of self-delusion, journalists they have always conveyed that they’re educated enough to know what they are talking about,. A cardinal rule of all the Left is that would prefer to be convicted of malice than ignorance. Vanity. So always assume #4, the knowing lie.

Then, send them a note. And again and again. Keep in touch, for it’s annoying as hell to receive notes you can’t “unsubscribe” to, especially if they explain that bag of dog poop in the mail box.

Consider too that one of the most fearful perfectly legal sources for instilling fear is to stalk them and take candid photos with your phone.  (I once caused a rude congressional aide who disrespected a constituent to resign, before Obama, simply with a batch of photos around DC.) Law: People who lie professionally offend lots people, so when they do get “the letter” they never know who, among 100’s, it might be from.

Note: most of the annoyances you use against journalists will be minor misdemeanors, and while felony actors are being forgiven and released without bond in Oregon and blue cities elsewhere, if you are caught you will be treated, at best, as an ordinary gang-banging street hood. So pay attention to the general stealth “Dark Alley” outline from 2013.

Just communicate to them via letter that 1) you killed that rose bush, and 2) you’re still watching. Watch their future reports, to see if they continue to lie. (Use gloves in handling the letters/stamps, It may make a difference.)

Do your homework. Make lists. If you share with others, do so over beer and pizza, not internet. Google, FB and Twitter are not your friends in this sort of work.

Good hunting.

(If you find any of this beneficial, since it’s free, please go to VeteransTales.org and drop a small donation there.)