To Create a Nation of Insanity, the First Casualty Must Be Truth

What four-star general, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell said here may sound trivial or obvious at first, but when we let it roll around in our heads for a few seconds, it becomes quite profound, and we begin to get a sense as to how accurate a description of the American body scene it is.

We live in an age that is often referred to as “post-truth,” one in which there exist “alternate facts.”  The election wasn’t stolen, the school shootings weren’t staged, and Bill Gates isn’t endeavoring to enslave the world’s population.  Yet because there are plenty who believe otherwise, “deranged people feel empowered.” 

Perhaps more to the point, “deranged people are empowered.”  Two weeks after he left office, criminally insane Donald Trump still wields power in Washington, since so many congressional districts around the country contain high concentrations of his supporters, and these senators and representatives can’t afford to be seen distancing themselves from him.

Fixing this won’t be easy, in part because of the breadth of our First Amendment and its guarantees of free speech.  Garbage like Fox News doesn’t exist in Canada.  That may be true because there’s no market for it, but there’s an even more basic reason: it’s illegal.  Yes, the government of Canada does not allow malicious lies on its air waves that parade around calling themselves news.  Want to warn Canadians that a presidential candidate’s running a sex trafficking ring out of a pizzeria?  OK, but don’t even think about calling that news.

Now, Canada could be (and I’m sure is) accused of squashing speech that offends it.  But then again, they don’t have hundreds of disinformed morons with AR-15s storming their nation’s capitol building.  There is something to be said for that, I would submit.