You have just read the title of this blog, and you thought, great idea but impossible. There is no way that we can stop the lies and misinformation that infect our political system. I submit that you are wrong. I submit that nothing is impossible if “We the People” decide that we have had enough. I am sure that this year in the USA, we have all had more than enough. I don’t care if you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Green, Libertarian, Constitutionalist or Socialist, I know that you are probably as sick and tired of the continuous lies that fuel our election process as I am.
“But wait” you say, “In twenty-five days, it will all be over.” I sincerely wish you were right, but you are not. No sooner than this election is over then you will get requests from someone running for dog catcher in Fairbanks, Alaska asking you for money.
Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for your generous campaign contribution for my election. It was thanks to your help and thousands of other donors that I was elected. But now is not the time to let up. Our sleazy lying opponents have already collected a million dollars to fund their next campaign. We must stop them now before it is too late. Please pledge at least $100 dollars (or whatever you can afford) before midnight to help us reach our goal of 10 million dollars to re-elect me as dog catcher of Fairbanks. My opponent says that she will ban stray dogs from wandering around our streets. I promise to do better than that. I will take all the homeless dogs off the street and provide adequate food and housing for them. My campaign motto is “Make American Dogs .” That stands for MAD because I am mad that we have so many homeless dogs.
PS: You can buy a MAD hat at my office for the low price of only $39.99. All proceeds will go to building more dog shelters
IF you think the above letter is funny, it is only so because you know it is true. No sooner than this election is over, the cycle of lies, slander and calumnies will begin again. How can we stop it? Believe it or not we can stop it. But before describing what I think we can do, it is important to define some terms. What is a Calumny? What is a lie? What is a slander? I will use the Oxford Online Dictionary to provide a common definition of each and a few examples.
A Calumny is the making of false and defamatory statements about someone in order to damage their reputation. — https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en
As an example, I have a flyer before me that claims one presidential candidate will send police door to door to seize firearms. This is a lie because it is not true, but it is also a calumny because it is designed to damage the candidates reputation.
A Slander is the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation.
Here is one example from another political flyer. Candidate X has invited criminals, drug dealers and terrorists into our neighborhoods. Another lie because no candidate on either side has ever done such an egregious offense.
If you study these two words, calumny and slander, they are very confusing. One source describes the differences as follows:
“While both “slander” and “calumny” refer to making false statements to damage someone’s reputation, “calumny” is considered a more formal and serious term, often implying a malicious intent to spread false accusations, while “slander” simply refers to making a false spoken statement that harms someone’s reputation; in legal terms, “slander” is the specific act of making a defamatory oral statement, whereas “calumny” is a broader concept encompassing the act of making a malicious false accusation.” — Generative AI
A Lie is an untrue statement with intent to deceive. She told a lie when she said she didn’t break the vase. He lied to create a false or misleading impression.
Lying is common to both calumnies and slanders but whereas slanders and calumnies can be illegal and subject to lawsuits, lies are a more generic family of comments that seem to escape legal action. Part of the reason deals with intention. A lie may be intentional, but it may not be meant to harm but only to deceive. (Some might quibble about my distinction here). For instance, I lie to my date because I want to impress her or him but not because I want to harm him or her. I lie on my resume to get the job because I think the credentials required are ridiculous and I know I can do a great job despite lacking the formal requirements.
Today, we see lies about everything. Sadly, people are willing to believe these lies. The famous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and German Leader Adolph Hitler have both been described as partisans of what has been called “The Big Lie.”
“The German expression was first used by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf (1925) to describe how people could be induced to believe so colossal a lie because they would not believe that someone ‘could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously’. The phrase “Big Lie” was used in a report prepared around 1943 by Walter C. Langer for the United States Office of Strategic Services in describing Hitler’s psychological profile. The report was later published in book form as ‘The Mind of Adolf Hitler in 1972.’ Langer stated the following in respect to Hitler’s personality.” — Wikipedia
“His primary rules were; never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” — “Mind of Adolf Hitler, 1972”
When I was a young student going to a Catholic School, I learned that there were two types of lies. One was called “White Lies” and the other were simply “Black Lies.” White lies were lies told for good reasons. White Lies might be defended by those who believe that the ends justify the means. Thus, politicians who believe they can save the USA from defeat by its enemies might tell “White Lies” to get elected so they can save the country. Black Lies are generally regarded as lies told for selfish reasons or reasons to benefit someone else. Using AI again, we find the following distinctions:
White Lies are told to please someone or to benefit the relationship and are generally considered acceptable. For example, telling a friend that their new haircut looks great. White lies are often motivated by empathy and compassion.
Black Lies are told to gain personal benefits or to avoid a deserved penalty. Black lies are generally considered universally wrong. For example, a used car dealer lying about the condition of a car. Black lies are often motivated by selfishness. — Generative AI
The nuances depicted in many of the definitions given above make ascertaining any criminal liability for lying very difficult. One person’s “good intentions” might be another person’s “road to hell.” Lawyers and pedants would have a field day debating these distinctions. For those of us who know a horse from a cow, the distinctions are quite clear. Namely, we are sick and tired of being lied to and having to listen to calumnies and slanders from either side attacking and trying to destroy the reputation, character and morals of people whom we personally respect.
I do not care which side you are on, left, right, up or down, enough is enough. To demolish the character of people with lies and more lies simply to win an election is wrong.
It is wrong.
It is sick behavior, and it is destroying our country. You can proclaim all you want that the country is too divided, but it can never come together when one side demonizes the other. Lying Fascist Greedy Right-Wing Republicans versus Lying Commie Radical Left-Wing Democrats. What if someone called your mother or wife one of these terms? How would you feel? What would you do? I know what I would do, and it would probably land me in jail.
What is my solution?
Let us start a national movement that puts power back in the hands of voters. You can argue all day long about false ballots, hanging chads, illegal voters, fake ballots and you will get nowhere. As long as we have a voting process there will be human errors and even some iniquities in the process. But what if we refuse to vote? There are no laws against NOT VOTING in the USA. What if we say, “I have had enough. I am not voting in any election until we have a fix against political slander, lies and calumnies.”
There is no law that could put us in jail for not voting. Imagine what it would do to the political process. It would be like throwing a giant monkey wrench in the system. The elections systems all over America would come to a grinding halt. All we have to do is “NOT VOTE.” We agree to stop voting for anyone until some efforts and sanctions are enacted for lying, slander and calumnies in the political process. Until then, I say we sign petitions not to vote. Buy yard signs saying “I am not voting anymore.” Start a National I Am Not Voting Party consisting of people like us who are tired of a system built on money, greed and lies.
Please feel free to share this blog with anyone else who is sick and tired of lies and more lies.
The abyss It is so big that there is no bridging it. None of the sides can see the other side. None of the sides has any common ground with the other side. None of the sides understands the language that the other side speaks. We might as well be earthlings talking to Martians. There is no lingua franca. Many of the “well-meaning” experts exhort both sides to try harder to bridge the gap or to work more diligently to listen to the other side. It seems to be assumed that all it will take to jump the gulf is good intentions. I cry bullshit on this. As the old aphorism goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It will take more than good intentions to heal the wound that infests our country.
The wants advertised on the TV and in the media are never fulfilling. We have a nation of brainwashed consumers who mistakenly think that more toys, bigger houses, more guns, and luxury cars will make them happy. We are a nation on a never-ending treadmill of consumer materialism where like rats we keep spinning the wheel and hoping to find happiness, but happiness never comes, and drugs take its place. 
As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the tensions in society grow ever more divisive. We see more road rage, more senseless shootings, more violence between men and women, less loyalty between employers and employees. The underpinning of society that should be based on human integrity and morality is replaced with an opportunism based on an amoral value system. Whatever we can get as long as we break no laws is considered to be moral. We see most politicians that have no commitment to anything except to collect more money so that they can stay in office. Their highest goal is to help the rich get richer, which of course includes themselves. 
I am not talking about the devil here or about spirituality. I am talking about a kind of insidious propaganda that has been spread by many groups and individuals. In this propaganda, one side of America is labeled as moral, ethical, righteous, and just. The other side is the opposite. The other side is everything negative. The other side is a composite of all the demons and evils that Americans believe in. The other side are communists, fascists, atheists, anti-democratic, anti-patriotic and un-American. One side is good. The other side is evil incarnate. You cannot talk to evil. You cannot discuss with the devil why he wants your soul. You cannot debate with Satan over the values that he has. Heaven and hell do not have weekly discussion groups. The language heard today, and what the media publishes drips with hate, innuendo, and disdain. The language fosters violence. I doubt the Founding Fathers ever conceived that the First Amendment would protect such speech. There are three elements that contribute to a hate speech culture that demonizes the other side: 
Malicious labeling is the name calling that goes on between both sides today wherein each side is labeled. You can hear it on almost every talk show program in America today. Name calling and name labeling. Commie pinko leftists! Intellectual elites! Radical socialists! Racist rednecks! Fascist dictators! Politicians, commentators, newscasters, and radio talk show hosts all use malicious labels to insult and demean those they disagree with. What have we let this country become when we allow such name calling? This kind of hyperbole demonizes the other side and creates a divide that cannot be overcome by rational conversation.
I do not think that the Founding Fathers of our nation believed that Government was evil. Certainly, they felt that there could be too much government intrusion on the rights of the populace. They invoked certain safeguards to protect both human rights and states rights. Nevertheless, they did not demonize government and not a single one of the Fathers ever referred to government as evil. Edmund Burke, the famous English conservative said, “The government that governs best is the government that governs least.” He never said, “government was evil.” It has become common place to hear refrains denigrating the role and necessity of government. This steady drumbeat of antigovernmental rhetoric has created a group of people that have no value for government and who support the idea that government should be abolished.
A few years ago I began to wonder why groups like the KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, Antifa, The Proud Boys and many other such groups advocating violence against the government were not labeled as Terrorist Organizations. I asked a lawyer this question and he replied, “it is all politics.” I found that almost all the groups listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “hate groups” were designated as “extremist groups.” This means that they are not illegal, and they have the right to organize, march, rally and basically spread their hate across America. In 2019, The SPLC listed 940 hate groups across the USA. If any of these groups was labeled as a “Terrorist Group,” they would be on the same list as the Taliban, Boko Haram, The Mafia, Mexican Cartels and Al Qaeda. What is the difference between an extremist group and a terrorist group? It might surprise you to learn that a terrorist organization is defined as follows:
If this definition does not apply to the groups that tried to storm the US Capital on January 6th, 2021, I do not know what does. Just yesterday the Canadian government labeled the Proud Boys as a Terrorist Organization. This delegitimizes the group and takes their rights away. For Canada, it is a start. I am wondering when we are going to get started in the USA on such an effort. The First Amendment was never construed to allow hate speech and the advocating of violent actions to overthrow the government. Why do we not have the political will to outlaw these groups? We seem to have little compunction in penalizing Black groups like the Black Lives Matter Movement or the Black Panthers. We have a different standard when it comes to White Supremacy groups. 
The newspapers, TV and the Internet are today the major carriers for the hate and vituperation that has spread across America. On one side of the divide, we find the NY Times, the Washington Post and CNN News. On the other side, we find the NY Post, the Washington Examiner and Fox News. There are countless other purveyors of extreme and fanatical views. Each side reeks of headlines supporting nonobjective views and biased reporting. If objective reporting ever existed in the USA, it has been murdered and buried by the most pervasive media to ever exist. The media carries the hate and violence that is created by politicians, pundits, radio commentators and hate groups and ensures that it gets widely disseminated. Without the media, much of the divide would never have occurred. Hate needs a platform to be spread and the media is more than happy to host anything that it believes will sell itself and its advertising. 
Aging Capriciously 