The rise of lies threatens humanity.
By: Christopher Mchale
Tags: Politics, Lies, Trump, Truth, Conspiracy Theories

The rise of lies threatens humanity.

One night at 1 a.m. I went to buy a cookie. Maybe this is a New York thing. Most towns don’t have a place on the corner to buy a cookie at 1 a.m.. But in the city there is an ancient and venerable tradition, the bodega.

My local bodega is owned and operated by Koreans, a hard-working immigrant family. As I go to pay for my cookie, there is a small TV on the counter playing a Fox Business report about a company that makes voting machines named Dominion.

As he hands me my change the guy behind the bodega counter tells me Dominion is part of a plot to destroy America.

During the 2020 election season, Fox News and Fox Business, mentioned Dominion 792 times and Smartmatic, its holding company, 118 times. And every single mention was a lie.

I walk back to my apartment thinking about something else, Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State, a guy who wants elections to be fair, safe, and boring; a modest ambition that leads to death threats against his family, and an intruder on his lawn at 1 a.m..

Down the street from me there’s a chiropractic clinic, a respectable and established business with an upscale clientele. When the city was attacked by the COVID virus, a Christian organization put up a temporary tent hospital. The chiropractor posted in the comment section of a website, some of his clients mentioned the tent hospital was a secret child-trafficking site.

An immigrant family, a government official, the upscale clientele of an Upper West Side chiropractor; the reach of damaging lies in America is far more pervasive than we thought. The lies penetrate every level of our society.

We’ve emerged from a presidential campaign free of policy and vision, but chock full of lies. According to the Washington Post, Trump told an average of 23 lies per day during the campaign. Truth is always transactional with politicians, but the shockingly fact-free campaign from Republicans needs consideration.

Are there no guard-rails in place to ensure you can’t lie your way through life? Are there no limits? Is free speech so unfiltered, so unfettered that truth becomes lost in a blizzard of lies? Is there anything we can do?

Yes, I think there is. And not just fact-checks in a local newspaper. The company Dominion is threatening lawsuits against FOX, Newsmax, and OAN.

Last week, (Dominion lawyers) sent scathing letters to the Fox News Channel, Newsmax and OAN demanding that they immediately, forcefully clear (the) company’s name – and that they retain documents for a planned defamation lawsuit. Legal experts say, Dominion has an unusually strong case.” Ben Smith NY Times

I can’t encourage Dominion enough to pursue its case. On-air retractions are insufficient. Saying you were joking doesn’t cut it. The President of the United States needs no immunity from being sued for telling lies because the President of the United State shouldn’t be lying. Period.

In a public health crisis lies aren’t just a pathway to votes. They kill. We’re on target for 500,000 Americans to pay for all the lies with their lives.

We’re in a crisis of lies because it’s the default position of so many to lie first. Truth gets in the way. You don’t need ideas to win power in America. Vision is a waste of time. Take off your jacket, raise your voice, and lie. It works.

Biden won 80 million+ votes to secure the presidency. A huge accomplishment. But 70 million+ voted for a dark campaign of lies and conspiracy. Sobering.

There’s only one way to end the lies. Accountability. Sue the liars. Remove presidential immunity. Make people pay for the lie. Make companies like OAN and Brietbart ante up fines and settlements to the defamed. Sue Hannity and Limbaugh and their brotherhood of liars until they stop. They will stop. When they lose case after case. When the bank accounts drain.

All we’re asking for is truth. If the only way you can make your case is through lies, deceit, and prevarication, then your case is worthless.

The old saying is the truth will set you free. but we’ve gone next level. Only truth will save us. With rogue viruses killing us, the climate crisis growing teeth, the world closing in on a population of eight billion, the only way to survive is with the truth.