As anyone who has read my online column for any length of time knows, I am first and foremost a writer. I started out doing fiction writing. My first paid gig as a writer involved a fictional futuristic “newspaper”, where we would cover stories that would supposedly be around a hundred years in the future. Even today, I am a writer and publisher of comic books when I’m not involved with subjects of the here and now.
But when I do those kinds of articles and issues, I know that I am writing fiction. I am not trying to claim that what I write about in those kinds of publications are, in any way, real. Then again, I am dealing with subjects involving superheroes and super-science and super-sorcery and super-technology. Things that I hope my readers know are not real. Any more real than, say, A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh and Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat.
Two decades ago, some of us were shocked and some laughed at hearing that certain schools in the Middle East taught their students things that were divorced from reality. They were taught, for instance, that there was no country called Israel. Their maps wouldn’t even show it.
Not too long afterward, certain conservative talk radio personalities harped on about how there never was a country called Palestine. Although, if you were to open a world map from the 1920’s, you’d see Palestine there. It did exist for a few years until World War II. That is the truth.
But then again, the truth sucks for this political faction.
I can recall when a certain Atlanta radio personality made the claim that the Hindenburg disaster never happened, that it was all made up. Of course there was film coverage of the blimp catching fire and crashing to the ground, but his listeners took him at his word until he actually said on the air that he was the one that was making it up.
Conspiracy theories were always relegated to the lunatic fringes of society. People like Lyndon LaRouche and Alex Jones were always relegated to the same social trailer park as the minister who believes that Jesus is coming back next week and he needs assault weapons, or the people who claim that the Earth is flat and we never really went to the Moon. We scoff at the tinfoil trailer park people who think that the world is run by four men hiding in a cave on a tropical island.
But that was before a certain orange-skinned narcissist decided to run for President of the United States. A narcissist who spun his own Munchausen tales of his personal success and of horrific acts by others that only he could see. Like when he claimed that he saw thousands of people in New Jersey cheering on 9/11 after the Twin Towers fell. And that was the least of his delusional claims.
After his election, the delusional divorce from reality just kept going. Religious leaders and followers spun claims that their narcissistic messiah was chosen by God, that he would be a modern-day King Cyrus. They excused his documented anti-Christian activities by comparing him to the 6th Century BC king of Persia doing what he did for the benefit of the Israelites.
Oh, and let’s not forget Q! The mysterious messages reportedly from “Q” that spun the tale that the orange-skinned narcissist is really a deep-cover operative to expose the “deep state cabal” of secret blood-drinking child trafficking ring. That every day the narcissist was in office, he was getting things ready for “the storm” that would supposedly bring down every single member of that “deep state cabal” all at once.
Before “Q” there was “Pizzagate”; the lunacy that said that a pizza parlor had an underground child trafficking ring… in the basement of a building that had no basement. But that little detail did not stop one person from showing up there with very real assault weapons to “liberate” the children that did not exist in the basement that did not exist. That delusional piece of fiction ended being part of “Q”.
You would think that the whole “Q” thing would be over after the 2020 Election and their orange-skinned messiah had been voted out of office… but, no, it just went into overdrive. Evangelicals openly laughed hysterically at the thought of their messiah losing the election. They spread yet another piece of fiction that was of the narcissist’s own design… that the election itself was fraudulent.
“The Big Lie” that led to the insurrection of January 6th.
The delusional fantasy that the election, the electoral college, and the certification of the results were all fraudulent and needed to be stopped. It led to other lies that were divorced from reality itself.
Lies that suggested that governors and other state officials could somehow arbitrarily throw out votes, or that Congress could somehow throw out the Electoral College results instead of simply certifying them.
Lies that are being involved today in certain state legislatures controlled by said political faction to justify removing voting rights from the very people that voted against them in 2020, or at the very least make it difficult or even impossible for those voters to vote in future elections.
And to cover up those state actions, they’re spending money on campaign ads falsely claiming that what they’re really doing is making voting “easier”. Yet another lie on top of a mountain of other lies.
Let’s not forget the lies about things like the COVID-19 global pandemic. Lies spun by a certain narcissist who claimed that it was “a hoax” and “would magically go away”. Lies that have led to Asian Americans being outright assaulted in the middle of broad daylight by the narcissist’s followers. Lies about the effectiveness of masks to cut down on exposure to the virus that have led to the narcissist’s followers throwing violent tantrums when told they need to wear a mask. Lies about the vaccines that are causing millions to refuse to take them. And of course these are the same ones that refuse to wear masks and refuse to social distance themselves so not only are they part of the problem, but they refuse to be part of the solution.
Of course the lies and the alternate reality claims didn’t start with the narcissist. Gun-nut groups have continually claimed the “the liburuls are coming fer our guns!” And yet nobody went after their guns when Jimmy Carter was president for four years. Nobody went after their guns when Bill Clinton was president for eight years. Nobody went after their guns when Barack Obama was president for eight years.
Speaking of Obama, how about “Birthergate”? Those false claims that the first African-American man elected President of the United States was actually born anywhere other than the United States produced more fake birth certificates than the Witness Protection Program. Lies on top of lies that ended when that same certain narcissist made a stink about it and ended up with the “long form” shoved in his fat orange face.
Funny, then, how the “birther” outrage ended when Canadian-born Ted “Cancun” Cruz ran for president. You know, Ted, whose wife was insulted by the narcissist and his father was accused of helping the assassination of John Kennedy… which also was inferred by said Munchausen narcissist.
And now we have the new “burger” outrage. The outright lie being generated by that same political faction that our actual President of the United States, Joe Biden, would somehow impose meat limits on Americans through the supposed “Green New Deal” that has never been approved never mind implemented. The same folks that scream “they’re coming fer our guns” are now screaming “they’re coming fer our burgers!”
No. They’re not. Stop lying.
Oh, and I seem to recall that same faction say that President Biden is “not really the President”, and a certain attorney is even claiming that Biden is deceased and the narcissist is back in the White House. So how can a man who is supposedly not even president never mind still among the living impose meat restrictions? I mean, if he’s right, then wouldn’t it be the narcissist that is ready to impose those meat restrictions?
This is what happens when you get your lies and alternate realities all mixed up.
These are lies being spread through social media, through cable television and talk radio, through email messages, and through word-of-mouth. Some of the social media lies are being taken down, but not all of them. Some of the most egregious lies on cable television are being dealt with through billion-dollar slander lawsuits.
But not all of the perpetrators are being held to account.
In 2020, lawyers for Fox News claimed to a judge that their star commentator – Tucker Carlson – can’t be held to account for the slanderous things he has said in the past because, and I am not making this up, his viewers know that he should never be taken at his word for anything he says. The truly insane part is that the presiding judge – appointed by the narcissist, of course – actually agreed with the cable network!
Think about it. If you’re a media personality, whether you pretend to be a “reporter” or a “journalist” or just admit you’re a commentator, you can spout lies on top of baseless lies, whip up a whole fictional universe of things that did not happen in the real world, and get away with it by proclaiming “people should know you can’t take me seriously for anything I say.” It is now a legal precedence.
Folks, when I publish my comics, which I know are fictional and I make no claims to the contrary, I have to have a disclaimer that says that the comics I publish are fictional. Even the advertisements that are based in the world of those comics have disclaimers saying “This is a fictional company” or “This is a fictional advertisement” or “Not a real business, not a real ad.” Even this column has a disclaimer at the end that says that what you are reading right now is simply my opinion. I have yet to see a disclaimer in front of any Fox News broadcast admitting that what their talent claims may or may not be true. I don’t see any for CNN or MSNBC either, but they’re not the ones claiming in court that their talent should be taken at their word.
Let’s get brutally honest here… the conservatives in America and the political party they claim as theirs as well as their enablers in cable and radio and social media are guilty of whipping up a whole alternate reality for their cult followers. An alternate reality based on lies, hysteria, phony outrage, and the whimsical delusions of a certain hypocritical malignant Munchausen narcissist. Truth and facts only apply when it benefits them; and are dismissed as lies or “fake news” if they don’t. Elections are only “legitimate” if they win, otherwise they’re “fraudulent”.
In that regard, they are no different from the clerics in the Middle East that refuse to recognize Israel exists and gin up their followers for endless war and conflict with the Western world. No different than the David Koreshes of the world who tell their followers that the Rapture is coming and Jesus needs assault weapons. Their lies and delusions have led to armed confrontations, to harassment of victims of mass shootings accusing them of being “crisis actors”, and to a violent insurrection on the United States Capitol Building that left police officers assaulted and dead. For these incidents and others, they need to be held to account, prosecuted, sued, and sent to prison.
The French philosopher Voltaire once warned us “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” There is much absurdity to be found in America, and we’ve already seen the atrocities. They’re only going to get worse until we remove the platform of those who are spreading the lies and false realities.
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