45+Facebook
Later this morning Facebook announces its intention whether or when it will reinstate posting privileges to the former President of the United States.
Personally, I feel that the man combined with the medium and far too many minimally informed followers are a toxic threat to our very future as a democracy.
What follows is what I wrote on the general topic one week ago, April 27, 2021, to a friend of many years.
The text is only very slightly edited. While good friends, we are on opposing sides on this issue, and I had finally reached my own personal “last straw”.
(Facebook says I have 514 Facebook “friends” with 43 requests, but I only very rarely actually visit or use the medium. But I have never warmed to it as a primary way to communicate. I can post these posts to Facebook automatically, but so far have chosen not to do so. I do not have a twitter account or other alternative media.)
Anyway, here was my expression via e-mail on April 27.
“Some day, long after we’re gone, and everyone else from our generation, those coming after will wonder how Limbaugh, [45], Hannity, “Paggs”, and on and on and on were so successful in playing so many for suckers in the process of destroying our democracy. How could all of us have been so stupid, our descendants will wonder? Really. There will be no halo around our heads, in their minds. We ruined their future.
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I put the words “Trump lies” in my google search. The Washington Post kept track of the record daily. “30,573 untruths during his presidency”, an average of 21 per day…it got worse and worse as his presidency progressed. In the first 100 days of their presidencies, Biden had 67 misleading statements – less than one per day, Trump had 511, five per day, the same criteria, same length of time. “The truth” was whatever Trump said it was; “A hoax” “fake news” was any alternative view to him.
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Trump et al were truly expert in reflecting the assorted biases of his base – I called it ‘fear and loathing of others”: Muslims, brown, black, immigrants, “socialists”…. That’s hardly a compliment for the right wing tribe. His disciples mimic’ed the master.
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The biggest “Christian” lesson I learned as a kid was about the truth and lies. When Truth becomes optional, every relationship is in trouble. The Nuns taught us about sins of omission and commission – leaving something out, or telling a whopper. It was a primary sin. Of course, a certain amount of “lying” is expected and indeed necessary in things like diplomacy and negotiations, generally. But there is generally a mutual trust between the parties. Sooner or later the truth outs, and both sides know it; indeed know what the truth is. I think that those who worked with Trump thought that he’d mature into the job; he only got worse and worse. The U.S. to him was nothing more than a gigantic personal property.
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Every word I ever wrote about Trump is on record within my blogs, all of which are archived. I wrote almost nothing about him before he was elected because I knew almost nothing about him, personally or otherwise. After he was elected I thought he’d be just a normal president, though he had zero experience in government, which I thought was a serious problem. Turned out, as we found out, he wasn’t interested in negotiating; he wanted to be in control, everyone else shut your mouth. He was a control freak to the max. In my entire life I’ve seen no president even remotely like him. He wanted the country divided, and he basically succeeded, not to the benefit of the country. I told you this almost a year ago.
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Hannity, “Paggs” (whoever that is, Limbaugh – who died at 70 in February – and whoever else, the script was uniformly and consistently dishonest. You say “your truth and my truth are miles apart”. There are not two truths, we learned that when we were little and it hasn’t changed. Its surprising to hear a “Christian” suggest this, except I know other Christians just like you who rationalize what they want to believe is true, when it isn’t. “Belief” and “Truth” are not synonyms.
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Of course, there isn’t any requirement that you either read or respond to anything I write. My mailing list is about 500. Over the years there’s been a dozen or two that have asked me to take them off the e-list – my guess is that some of them look anyway; I don’t know who looks or doesn’t.
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I am by nature an optimist. That’s a daily prayer. I am not subject to being depressed. I march on. There are disappointments – this is one of them for me….”
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Facebook will do what it will do today. If he is reinstated, or not, the tribe will have to decide whether truth or fiction is going to be their norm. We all can survive with truth; we cannot, relying on fiction.
Here’s how Trump and other Trumpian politicians and pundits are different from truth-stretchers of the past: Previously, it was pretty much agreed upon that this class of people could stray from the absolute truth as long as they weren’t caught telling flat-out lies. Now things are said that are totally made up. They use the fact that the “fake media” calls out these lies as proof of their veracity. Very Alice in Wonderland like.