Why is society’s common truth missing?
Left, right, conservative, liberal, socialist, capitalist, it doesn’t matter. My mom is a “trumper” and her email subjects look the same as mine. Exaggerated claims to get you to open the email. We need truth and we are the ones responsible for it.
What is the truth? When what you say is in accordance with reality.
For example:
The sky is blue. Most people have assigned the name blue to what the sky mostly looks like when there are no clouds. This is true in accordance with reality.
The grass is green. Most of the world has assigned the name green to what the grass generally looks like when it is watered and healthy. This is also true in accordance with reality.
A written statement can be said to be true, based on what was written down and the person writing it. Reading a statement and then reporting on what that statement says but contradicting the actual meaning of the statement is not truth-telling.
I remember a report that our representatives left a hearing and lied about what happened at the meeting. (They are not Jedi. We are not stupid.) Our elected leaders are lying and reading the talking points instead of the truth. Talking points are not reality.
I’ve watched interviews on the news and listened to different people I’ve never heard of but they all say exactly the same thing in the same way with the same inflections. This is not thinking for yourself, finding out the facts, and offering your opinion. It is brainwashing the listeners.
We live in a society where people are lying, speaking without any responsibility for the truth of their statements. There are several websites who spend their time fact-checking the statements and reporting of news and public leaders. Think about that: we expect people to lie. We expect it so much that some people make a good livelihood from it.
Our current president lies without thought. He has always done it in the past. But his lies through speaking in public or tweets on twitter number over 12000 right now. There are those who dismiss everything he says as a lie and others who believe everything he says merely because he said, “Trust me.” And somewhere someone is looking up everything he says to prove it is a lie.
Our Republican politicians have been supporting our president by backing up his lies or condoning his lies. Their silence, when they do not agree with his lies, is as bad as lying with him.
Our Democratic politicians work hard to be honest but feel they need to guard their reputations. Are they lying? We don’t know. We’d need to examine everything they know to be able to prove if they are lying. We need to remove corruption, money, and greed from the grasp of our politicians. Their number one priority is to serve us, not themselves, to defend our constitution, not line their own pockets. This is the most important task before them.
Our ability to trust our government to work for our benefit has been shattered. It relies on us being able to believe our elected officials are telling us the truth. We assumed they were but they are not.
Even our justice system has been corrupted. Men willing to lie, cheat, and steal for money they have received have filled our justice system. Each public servant must be examined to achieve true justice.
The best way to keep our government in check is for journalists to investigate and report on what is happening. But so many news organizations have abdicated their role in providing us with the truth. Instead, they frame everything as an emergency, a crisis, the worst, evoking fear, anger, hate, in order to get more followers and make more money. They are corrupted.
I did a search online for the most accurate news websites. AP was the best one. Why? Because it still adheres to the journalism principles of who, what, where, why, when, and how without emotion, opinion, or slant of any kind. It presents the facts without any coloring and allows the reader to form their own opinion.
Money in politics has corrupted our government. Money in journalism has corrupted our news. With basically two sides to every new story, us against them, they are wrong, we are right, we have a duality of reality in our society.
This is why parents and children are on two sides of an issue, why marriages break up over politics, why people strike back with venom when anyone attacks their beliefs. Our emotions are involved from both sides, people speak with fear, hate, anger, and terror. But we are all just people who want to get a fair shake. We want to be treated well or at least kindly.
Until our society as a whole backs off of the emotional outrage soapbox and turns to what we know as the actual reality we won’t be able to heal our country. Our news agencies have to become true journalists again reporting just the facts. Our politicians must not accept bribes, money, gifts in exchange for creating laws benefiting them. Our judicial system must stop lying, protecting, and abetting criminals in society or be removed. Our executive branch must stop lying to cover their crimes of filling their own pockets through any means available.
We must become a place of safety for all people where individuals are listened to with respect and honor. Each one is important as well as unique and every law, judgment, and enforcement must reflect this basic belief. All stereotypes should be the same, we are all equal here.
Everyone fights to get ahead, to beat out someone else in competition for money, prestige, and power. But what if we didn’t have to do that? What if our culture changed to make each person valued?
But first, we must find common truth.
There are leaders and newscasters who do not speak the truth. Even when they say truthful words, they insinuate them as false. Snide comments and facial expressions reveal their supposed feelings about the words they speak. But they are paid to deceive the people and stir up trouble. They lie about everything in order to gain more power and money. Stop allowing them to be paid!
It is sad to see someone give up their reputation for a short-term gain. The only way to rescue them is to stop paying attention to the lies. Call them lies. Investigate and prove them as lies. And then, broadcast the proof.
As much as we want to give up in the face of relentless evil, we mustn’t. Too much is at stake. Our society has been asleep and lulled by survival, greed, and fantasy. But now we are awake. We’ve seen the evil of the other side run rampant. We understand their goals. They have sold our country and our world to satisfy the greed of a few.
We must resist.
- Use reputable news reports only, the ones with no bias. It is satisfying to feel vindicated by hearing someone vent like you want to, but it doesn’t give us information and keep us focused. AP news.
- Fact-check everything. Do not believe everything that comes your way. Use your intelligence to find out if it is true. If it is, spread it with the proof.
- Check every month to make sure you are eligible to vote at Vote.org. Make sure your family and friends are registered. And convince them to check their voter registration often.
- Do you have a favorite candidate? Great, support them. You don’t like a current candidate? Be like “Thumper” — if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. At the very least, present an intelligent argument instead of making fun or cussing someone out.
- Be discerning. Money and power are terrible things. They steal the souls of men. Don’t succumb to the false belief that your favorites can do no wrong. Make sure they know we are watching and keeping them accountable!
- Remember the hurting!
Gun violence victims
Underpaid employees
Undeserved incarcerations
Asylum seekers looking for refuge
The concentration camp victims — how will we find the families?
Affordable healthcare for all
Affordable prescription medicines
Equality for everyone
- Make everyone accountable for their actions again. No more overt discrimination of anyone anywhere. Make any kind of law enforcement, judicial, or leaders sign oaths to treat everyone with justice. Then keep them accountable. No more bullying!
- Save our planet. Do your part now as an individual while we wait for our local and national leaders to catch up.
- Start with yourself — flaming online or in person are not acceptable. Treat others with respect and honor. Choose to be an honorable person whether anyone is watching or not.
- Do not sneer, rejoice in another person’ misfortune, or seek retribution. We seek only justice for our people.
Jude 1:3–4 Friends, I have been trying to write to you about our common salvation. But these days my heart is troubled, and I am compelled to write to you and encourage you to continue struggling for the faith that was entrusted to the saints once and for all. Vile men have slithered in among us. Depraved souls who stand condemned have made a mockery of the grace given to us, using it as a pretext for a life of excess, lived without any thought of God. These poor fools have denied Jesus the Anointed, our one Lord and Master.
