Swimming in an ocean of lies

This is going to be a first in a hopefully long line of opinion pieces. Some will be "quick hits", others rather long - depending on the subject and my schedule and energy/laziness level.

I am really sorry that, my intent to write on a regular basis notwithstanding, I have been failing to actually make it happen. Part of it is me being lazy and disorganized. But a likely bigger part is, likely, my analytical nature. I like to get all my data and argument for what I consider to be a proper article. And there is simply no way I can do that every day, not even close.

So I figure that, unlike the mainstream media, I am going to write clearly marked opinion pieces. I think that is perfectly OK - given that the subjective nature of my opinion pieces is clearly announced from the start.

So here goes. This and all subsequent opinion pieces of mine are just that - my opinions. Nothing more, nothing less.

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We live in a sea of messages. Various sorts of signalling bombard us from all sides, informing - even through negation - our perception of reality. No matter how analytical you are, you can not possibly fully suppress your subconscious mind and the messages' effect on it.

So I just would like to reflect on some of the mainstream media and cultural messaging of the last few years. I will predominantly be using US examples - but I am sure the same issues exist pretty much across the world. So allow me to present a few examples.

For decades now, we in the West have been bombarded with feminist messaging. Women, we are told, are systemically oppressed. They constantly are subjected to degrading treatment, and often to outright sexual assault or rape. We were that told that Trump being supported by some anti-abortion conservative groups was a threat to women everywhere, and so was his degrading references to women in his private life. That was enough to motivate massive Women's Marches across the US; it was clear that to large numbers of people, generally of a left-leaning persuasion, even the mild perceived threat of oppression of women's rights was absolutely not acceptable.

Many people, often members of the same political class one would see at a Women's March, were for years advocating for open borders. With Trump's ascension to power their activism level went up a few notches - the border wall and the idea of strict immigration enforcement in the US, or just about anywhere else in the West, was just anathema to them. But then COVID-19 came - and with it various attendant lockdowns, sometimes rather strict. And people previously outraged at the idea that a Malawian citizen may not be guaranteed a right to move to New York City were all of a sudden pretty quiet about limitations on traveling between neighboring provinces such as they had in Australia or border restrictions in the European Union - which in many ways brought the whole idea of the Union to an end.

One should note a curious bit of selective outrage feminists had tended to display towards sexual and physical abuse of women. They may have been utterly outraged by alleged - but unproven - sexual abuse reportedly committed by President Trump or his Supreme Court appointee Brett Kavanaugh. But somehow you rarely if ever hear them express outrage at the fact that up to 80% of females crossing the southern US border from Mexico illegally are raped by human trafficking gangs on the way. Nor do you hear much about systemic rape of North Korean women in China by Chinese men who significantly outnumber women due to the one child policy formerly practiced in China. Nor do you hear them complain much about the situation of women in China - which some sources report as being number one in female suicide per capita globally. In fact, China is virtually exempt from mainstream media's criticism - and one wonders if Chinese investments in various organizations and causes, investments one may at times classify as bribes, are the reason.

Also for years we have been told that our law enforcement in the US is almost a gang of brutal racists who abuse citizenry routinely, especially focusing their brutality on Black citizens. Following the death of George Floyd we have a wave of protests and even riots where billions of dollars worth of property was destroyed and dozens of people killed. Then on 6 January we had a riot involving Trump supporters - and possible provocateurs - storming the Capitol building in Washington, DC. In the process a female protester Ashli Babbit, a military veteran, was shot to death by police under questionable circumstances. It was far from clear that she posed any threat; none of the parties involved claims she was armed. All of a sudden, anti-police activists of a mere few weeks ago seem to be nowhere to be found. Same with feminists. The mainstream media are busy praising the police agencies involved for protecting the Capitol and the Congressional representatives in it.

These are but a few examples. Note that I am not opining on the validity of any given position, I merely seek to show utter lack of integrity on the part of the mainstream media and cultural forces. And I am fully of the opinion that no one lacking integrity to such a glaring degree can be trusted in the least.

Originally published here on 17 January 2021.