The Sky Is Yellow…

The sky is yellow.  It’s in print so it must be true right? 

For the last several years our country has faced what may be its greatest threat and it’s coming from within. Lies. Lies in print, lies on TV, lies on the internet. Somewhere along the line we seem to have lost the ability to distinguish truth from those lies. Lies have become the clickbait of our life and the juicier the lie the more people who seem to accept it as fact.

Even in the face of undisputable proof that a lie is just that, many of us just won’t believe when a lie is exposed for what it is. What is it the media calls it? Fact checking? Why do so many of us continue to believe the falsehoods we hear even when provided with facts to repudiate the lie? From politics to business to vaccines, people are believing lies even when every bit of evidence proves it to be untrue.

Have you ever noticed that when a newspaper prints something that later turns out to be untrue and then prints a correction that the correction is almost impossible to find? The correction will more often than not be buried in the bowels of the paper where it could be easily missed, but even if they print a correction, that’s not what you’ll remember.

Your mind is not going to register the fact that the sky is actually blue.  You’re going to remember the misstatement because of the impact it had on you.  That’s important to remember as day in and day out we watch lies being shared on the internet and in coffee shops and offices and everywhere else around the country.  We’re always going to remember and most likely repeat the most salacious, damning and gossip worthy lies and few will remember or accept the actual truth.  The game of telephone our country now seems to be playing will continue and the truth will become even more distorted as the lie is passed from person to person until eventually no one knows what to believe and no one trusts anything anyone tells them.

All it takes is one little seed of mistrust spread by a casual lie that someone takes as gospel.  Make it juicy enough and it will be repeated.  Repeat it often enough and get so called experts to also repeat it and suddenly it takes on a life of its’ own.  The COVID-19 vaccine includes a microchip and the government is going to track us with it.  The election was stolen.  The moon landing was staged.  The earth is flat.  Name a topic and someone will tell lies about it and it’s tearing our country apart.

If we don’t learn to distinguish fact from fiction and lies from the truth, if we don’t learn to accept the truth when proof is given and admit we have made a mistake, we are doomed as a country.   Don’t let lies blind you to the truth of whatever issues we face.  Don’t fall for the con perpetuated by the con men.  Don’t become victim of scams that feed on our fears and our desires. 

I grew up in a household where lying was not acceptable and I’m willing to bet most of you did too.  Let’s use those lessons and get out a cake of soap and wash out the mouths of those who tell falsehoods as we learn to sort through the lies and trust in the experts who have no hidden political agenda.  Let’s get back to honesty being the best policy and having enough grace to admit when we told a lie in the first place. 

Let’s find our truth once again my friends. Until then, be well.

~BAL