Why We Must Be Especially Mindful to Denounce Lies in 2025

Americans are too conditioned to tolerate hate and abusive ideologies

To a large extent, what I plan on doing over the next few years is an extension of what I’ve always done. I’ve always researched ideas not as a journalist but as a scholar. I’ve tried to go beyond the media messaging in order to discern what forces are truly directing our reality and for whom.

But now there’s a difference, and the difference is that I’m no longer so willing to allow certain misstatements and misconceptions to pass uncontested. Often, in social settings, people will make rude and generalized comments with the self-assurance that it will provoke a laugh or a snort of derision. It has become normalized to question the intelligence of accomplished people and elevate the contributions from those who have done nothing whatsoever.

I’ve found I can’t stay silent anymore. I feel compelled to offer corrections. I have to give voice to the other side of the story, even when I read the room and recognize that I’m outnumbered. From experience I can tell you that on more than one occasion I’ve spoken without recognizing I had any allies present only to find that they sought me out later to say, “Thank you.”

So, I encourage you all to speak. Find your voice. Trust your senses, and speak while free speech remains the law of the land.

Why you cannot trust in the comfort of long-held delusions

I’ve found that the ones telling the lies aren’t all that committed to their belief system. These people can be compared to leaves blowing on the wind. They follow around behind those they perceive to have power. But power is always an illusion. When the wind changes the vacuous sycophants will blow another way.

In the past, we’ve allowed certain groups to have their delusions because they claimed to find comfort in their baseless beliefs. But now I look ahead to the pain that awaits us, and I recognize how much we’ve lost.

We’ve done nothing but give ground for decades. It’s gotten to the point that, today, no victory seems too small. We can’t continue to yield territory. It seems that all our side does is surrender for the sake of maintaining a dissatisfying approximation of peace. It’s a terrified peace, a trembling peace, an illusion of peace that disguises our collective suffering.

What’s the point of submitting if we’re squeezed for every cent that we’re worth, and we’re never allowed to retire, and that we can expect to be treated horribly when we become old and sick? Why should we submit if only for the hope that we might one day die beneath a dirty blanket, shivering on cold concrete, saluting the flag with our last ounce of strength, singing the nation anthem with our last breath?

Let’s show this sad reality of our country on television. This is the shameful truth of our nation after all. Let’s show the people a true example of the American experience. You can’t eat false patriotism. It won’t heal your sickness. It won’t ease your pain.

Freedom is the right to grieve over what we have lost

Let’s face it, we’ve had everything taken away. We can’t get our kids educated. Our kids can’t buy a house. We can’t buy a house.

Now is the moment to stop and take a look at what got us here. As Einstein said, “let’s question everything.” Why shouldn’t we?

If what we’ve been told is true, then the figures of authority should welcome an investigation because it will vindicate the choices they made and the sacrifices we were forced to make. Let’s prove that these things were necessary.

But on this front, the divided forces of power always become united to turn to the huddling masses and scream a resounding, “No!”

“No, don’t question us. Who are you anyway?”

We are the people, that’s who.

Find freedom in your thoughts at least

I propose that now is the time to consider everything that you have been conditioned to avoid thinking about. Let’s start with our reverence for this country.

You lose your job if you kneel for the anthem. How is that free?

What are we revering now? A country that truly cared about us would have universal health care. Any country in the world that has universal health care is a better country than the United States.

Let’s start saying this. Let’s start demanding that our friends and loved ones and children and families are treated with basic human dignity. Why is that a controversial statement?

Any country in the world where women have their bodily autonomy protected is a better country than the United States. Let’s start saying this.

Other countries are better. Citizens of other countries have more things than we do Why are you so proud of your country when it has taken so much from you and offered you so little in return?

Where’s the justice, where’s the rule of law?

Any country that has free education for its children or which doesn’t have mass shootings is a better country than the United States.

Did you know that some countries pay for education all the way through university? Think about that! Those of you out there who can’t afford to pay for school for your children. What does it make you feel to know that other countries care enough for their children to educate them for free?

But not here.

Here they want your children to work as poorly compensated laborers in dangerous industries. We care so little for education in the United States that we have to bring in qualified workers from abroad. That’s the choice our politicians made. Rather than to invest in the education of your children, they deny them the ability to ever experience that kind of prosperity.

Take off your hat. Put it over your heart. Stand at attention.

What is left to be patriotic about?

I think we need to stop with our absurd patriotism. We have this bizarre construct of behavior that we we are forced and expected to display. We never even give serious consideration to the possibility that life might be better somewhere else.

What if it is?

The simple truth is that this is not the best country in the world. Let’s be honest. This country has massive problems. This country has problems that are both terrible and unique. Don’t try to claim that every country has problems, because that’s a half truth at best. Some of those countries also have solutions. They have solutions to issues that have plagued our population forever.

Why do we let our hubris get in the way of implementing strategies that have been proven to work? Why aren’t we even allowed to discuss it? Don’t tell me we are, because we’re not.

Here comes the oligarchy

Image by Walter Rhein

Look at the incoming administration. It’s made up of greedy billionaires rubbing their hands together in anticipation of how much pain they can inflict on the working class. It’s run by incompetents. It’s run by the malicious. It’s run by the selfish.

I suspect that their plan is to crash the economy because when people go into panic, when people see their life savings evaporating in a crashing market, they sell off their shares and drive down the price. Then the rich people can swoop in and buy those shares back and make an enormous profit.

The stock market crashed multiple times in the previous administration. Down and up, down and up, and every time the rich got richer. When they know the crash is coming, they know exactly when to buy and sell. We’ve put them in charge of pulling the levers. What do you expect is going to happen?

This group that we’ve selected to lead us has made it clear they care nothing about the nation. They care nothing about mutual prosperity. They care only for themselves.

So why should we adhere to this outdated model of patriotism when the country is no longer even pretending to serve us?

Prosperity for all is not an unreasonable expectation

It’s time for us to open our eyes and accept the reality of what we face here. But so many people want to cut the edges off any criticism, and they want to say, well, the country’s still good. They claim you can’t arrive at this viewpoint after only one election loss.

But that statement is another lie that I am no longer inclined to allow to pass. It hasn’t been just one election. It’s been election after election. Even when we win the government refuses to push past the middle of the pendulum swing. They’re only willing to go from a time of abuse to a time of tense and fractured peace, and they never even aspire to bring prosperity for all.

We deserve to demand more. We might never get it, true. But we at least deserve to demand it! Let’s maintain that level of freedom in our hearts and minds. Let’s retain the freedom of hope. Let’s retain the freedom to dream. Let’s not clip our wings and deprive ourselves of any chance.

These are the thoughts that bring me comfort.

Why should my sources of comfort be of less value than those of anyone else? I know the answer to that question. It’s because my source of comfort is seen as a threat to the ruling class, so the thought police send their squads to keep the idea from spreading.

Consider that if oppressors are willing to permit you your comforts, those comforts must serve the purposes of the oppressors.

“Roll out the barrel! Drink and be merry! Let us pray.”

You’re willingly pulling up a blanket of chains designed to keep you down

It’s time to free ourselves of the anchor

Let’s challenge all the preconceived beliefs that have been leveraged to create this horrible present. We have to go through our beliefs one by one, hold them up to the light, and search for flaws even though it might be uncomfortable.

People yearn for truth. So let’s find it. Let’s mine it. Let’s uncover it from where it’s been hidden. Let’s cultivate truth. Let’s allow it to grow.

I’m old enough now where I don’t have the doubts that I used to have when I was in my teens or in my 20s or in my 30s. I’ve seen a few things. I know what it means to be lied to. I’ve endured the consequences of living with lies as young people haven’t. That’s the gift and the curse of age and time.

Some of you are younger than me and smarter than me, but I’ve passed through the fires and I would spare you the burns. I encourage you to test my advice. Challenge it! Use it! If you find a better way please share! But I’m telling you that you’re surrounded by liars and you don’t have to feel you have an obligation to obey them. They’re not looking out for you. If they were, you’d have healthcare and education and a place to sleep.

Embrace the freedom to be angry

Things have changed for me since the election. I used to be willing to allow people their delusions, provided they didn’t cause tremendous damage. Prior to the election, I was confident in what I’d been taught about America. I believed that America valued freedom, truth and justice. I believed that America would never bow to the whims of a tyrant.

But all that turned out to be lies.

There are some decisions you can’t accept and move on. I can’t let go of my sadness and anger over the future that’s been taken from us. We had the chance at prosperity and we chose pain. Now pain will be inflicted on my family, my immigrant family, for what? To protect the delusion that this country is the greatest country in the world? To protect some petty lie that we maintain because we’re too cowardly to face reality and implement the necessary changes to make life better for everyone?

We’re like drunks reveling in the living room while the babies cry upstairs, cold, cruel, and indifferent.

Peacefully, we must resist

I am a law-abiding person. I don’t believe in violence. I will continue to follow the rules. But the laws of this country still say that I’m allowed to speak my thoughts. So I will do that. I will do that until they declare that free speech is no longer permitted. Once they declare that, I will obey that too.

But I won’t obey until they say.

I won’t make it easy for them.

I’m sorry for the pain that’s going to be inflicted on people as a result of the policies of the incoming administration. It’s difficult to comprehend why people would choose this. It’s wrong to say “Give it a chance.”

We’ve already given it a chance. We know the truth. We know what works and what doesn’t. We’ve seen it! We have all of recorded history to guide us, but we no longer teach history. We edit out the parts that make us embarrassed about our past, and so we condemn ourselves to succumb to the same tired and terrible misery.

We have to do better

We have to reassess our assumptions and root out the lies that linger like poison in our minds. We have to examine everything. We have to embrace education. We have to embrace achievement. We have to embrace truth. We have to be deliberate in our choices and not just concede false arguments for the sake of an illusion of temporary peace.

We have to recognize that this pressure is only part of a lever that’s used to rob us of our autonomy and our freedom.

The road to prosperity starts with looking around at our current reality, and simply recognizing that something is wrong. We’re forced to endure too much, and there’s no reason for it, there’s enough to go around.

Let’s lift up our voices and speak of injustice, let’s drown out the false cries of gratitude for a system that only serves 1% of the population. Let’s recognize that our country is built on exploitation. We try to brush these injustices under the rug with pretty words and celebrations and patriotism.

But the infirm can no longer stand for the anthem because they’ve been denied healthcare. The nation expects them to stand anyway. Such cruelty.

A nation “of the people” should HELP the people

The country has to do something for us at some point. It can’t just be us making endless sacrifices for it. We have value despite what the authoritarians say.

This is the web of deceit that we have to dismantle. We have to root out the false ideas that have been implanted into our minds which are holding us back. When you force yourself to believe something that isn’t true, and to accept something that isn’t true, and to never contest something that isn’t true, you suffer for it.

Other people reap the profit of that suffering. Never you.

The ability to speak truth is what freedom means, even uncomfortable truth, even truth you’ve been conditioned never to speak out loud. “This will be our little secret. Don’t tell your parents.” That’s America.

Embrace the “New Patriotism”

Freedom means that you have the right to explore ideas, work for a better future, and work to achieve a better understanding of our reality. But we’re surrounded by deceit. There are layers upon layers of lies that oppose us daily.

Perhaps we should call our movement the “New patriotism.” Maybe that’s the label we can use to soften the blow. We’ll celebrate the Constitution rather than the flag. We’ll bite deeply into the meat of freedom rather than content ourselves with enjoying the aroma from a distance.

The New Patriotism! We’ll stand up for truth, justice, and freedom. We’ll call out the lies that prevent the equal distribution of these noble concepts. We’ll demand that the ideals upon which this country were founded are finally delivered.

We demand it!

Because the ruling class has had plenty of time, and they haven’t ever even really tried. So it’s time for the incompetent to be replaced instead of celebrated.

Let’s try something new

The practices we’ve employed until now are not working. As I said before, I’m old. I’ve experienced abuse in family, at work, and in love. I’m wise enough to know that there’s no profit to be gained by enduring this abuse. That doesn’t make you noble, it’s just a trick to make you waste your life.

I see the 2024 election as a moment of awakening. These moments come where everything changes, where you can’t take it anymore. You’re done, you’re done, you’re done.

You walk away.

From that point forward, your thinking is different. You’ve removed the psychological restraints that have bound you to the abuser with their lies of gratitude and greatness. From that moment your thinking goes in a new direction, and a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you.

But you have to first free yourself of the insidious, and deeply rooted lies.

Let’s be united in our pursuit of truth

I’m no longer interested in participating in the mental incarceration of others. I can no longer tolerate allowing lazy half-truths or half-lies or outright manipulations to proliferate in my presence. I see an overwhelming number of them every day. It’s as if everyone in the country is terrified of truth, whether it be in news stories or in comments or conversations on the street. The wall of lies is terrible and ever-present.

People are indifferent to seeking out truth. Even when a simple search would reveal it, they’d rather default to denial. “I don’t think that’s true,” they say. Then check!

But they don’t check. To them, rejection is enough, and their laziness condemns us all to misery because their vote counts the same as yours.

Propaganda narratives can’t erase the facts

Perhaps the worst part about all this is that the truth is so easy to see. I’ve been doing this for the last five years. You can find the stories that demonstrate the reality of our time. The numbers don’t lie. People still die. People go hungry. Tragedies happen all the time. These are the facts. But the narratives that explain these things are where you find the lies.

The facts are still out there. You just have to condition yourself to consider a different explanation. You don’t even have to believe alternative theories, but take the time to consider them. Don’t take the lazy approach of adopting the viewpoint of your dear leader. He might be wrong. If you look at his past you might find evidence that he’s been wrong before.

See for yourself what happens if you fall into the habit of entertaining alternative explanations.

Follow the numbers. See who’s getting paid. See how much they’re getting paid and for what. See who has had crimes committed against them. See who took the blame. All these things are out there. The generally believed explanations contain the lies, not the facts.

Facts are ambivalent to narrative. Once you get in the habit of doing the work, you’ll see that there are other narratives that fit the facts a lot better than the stories we’re told. When you see that, you’re free.

It’s not going to be okay

You have to wake up from your slumber and accept the reality that things have got to change. This country isn’t working for us. This country is exploiting us. We have a very small percentage of the population hoarding all the wealth. We have to recognize that no matter how much they get, it’s never going to be enough for them.

These are people with deep dark holes inside their souls that can never be filled. As a result they blame the innocent for their misery and perpetually punish them. They’re not going to stop until we make them stop.

It’s a crime to sit on our hands and hold our tongues and hope that it will someday get better. We know it won’t. We have to stand up and collectively demand the end of all abuse. I don’t care if we never achieve that goal. That objective represents the eternal labor of humanity.

We have to do more. We have to do better

Don’t be afraid, the truth will set us free

It’s time to awaken to our bleak reality, but also recognize that it doesn’t have to be like this. In a very short amount of time, we could make it a lot better. Had Harris gotten elected with her programs to help people start businesses and buy houses, along with the continuation of Biden’s programs to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, we would have continued to make progress towards the ideals that were promised.

It would have still taken a long time, but at least they were pretending to try.

But now we’ve embraced the path of making it worse for working class people and making it better only for the people who already have it so easy that they have nothing but time to spend contemplating even more ways to make everybody’s life miserable. It’s like they’re testing us to see how much torment we’re willing to take.

That’s too much to accept.

Since all the lies that represent the fabric of our country have led us to this point, it’s time to unravel those lies and build something new. We have to build something better, something based on truth, something that will serve not just the privileged few but everybody.

It’s a new year. It’s time to embrace a new ideology. Why not start with a renewed commitment to the concept of truth, justice, and prosperity for all? I hold these truths to be self-evident. Why don’t you?

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