Why Mistrust In Government and the Media Is So High: Three Examples

   It should shock no one that the "51 intelligence officials" who wrote a letter stating that the Hunter Biden laptop story "had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation" aren't backing down. The letter itself had a CYA caveat, so they think they can just sit pat. What they did was classic "disinformation," planting the seeds of doubt, and letting the friendly left wing media run wild selling it as Gospel truth. Of course, many of these people are employed by those same left wing media outlets, which now admit the laptop story is true. The outlets allow their contributors to fall back on their "caveats," while continuing to ignore the voluminous damning material contained in the laptop. 

   This may be old news to some, but for a growing number of people, these media outlets are being exposed as the true purveyors of "misinformation," while pointing fingers at outlets like Fox News, the NY Post, and others that are considered "right wing." This has been going on for some time, and many partisan left wing groups have taken advantage of the cover their biased media allies have given them. (planned parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, BLM) The tech giants have come under scrutiny as well, for blocking stories on social media and in search results on the same politically biased basis. At the time, the Federal Elections Commission found no wrongdoing in Twitter's blocking of the NY Post's Biden laptop story. Let's look at two other recent examples.

   The inflation story is our second example. Democrat Lawrence Summers, who served under both Clinton and Obama, warned in Feb. 2021 that the many previous COVID stimulus payments could cause inflation, and cautioned against more stimulus. The Biden administration passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act with no Republican support. What's interesting is that while Mr. Summers is a Democrat, all of the left wing media downplayed his warnings. It was obviously partisan, because of GOP opposition to the bill Dems were supporting. During 2021, inflation increased from 2% to almost 7%. The Biden administration tried a number of deflections, first saying it was "transitory," and would end soon, then blaming pent-up demand and the stresses on supply chains, which actually may have contributed. The left wing media parroted every excuse they came up with, and added some interesting twists of their own. Inflation can be good, said CNN. Inflation hits the rich harder, according to a Harvard study. 

   The greatest misinformation talking point was when the Democrats were giving their full-on press to bass res. Biden's Build Back Better bill, and 17 Nobel Laureate recipients wrote a letter in support of the legislation. In the letter, they not only don't mention the previous stimulus packages' role in causing inflation, but they claim that BBB bill, as part of the Biden administrations "broader agenda," will "ease long-term inflationary pressures." Can you see the pattern, here? It wasn't long until friendly media, and the President himself were claiming that the BBB bill would "ease inflation." By that time, though, even some of the usual suspects were hedging their bets. Even the NY Times has run several articles with variations on "Inflation is here" (and here, and here).

   Interestingly enough, big tech and social media didn't censor stories about inflation to the degree that they do for partisan issues. While they may have supported the BBB bill, that in itself was only a part of the larger "inflation" story. What I noticed on fb, in particular was "missing context" or "partially false" notifications on memes about soaring gas prices. These usually were linked to "fact checks" that say presidents don't control gas prices. Talk about missing context, and partially false! There was never an administration that tried so hard to cut domestic oil production and supply. While the statement is partially true, Biden's policies contributed to the rising gas prices long before the Russia-Ukraine war, Biden's latest excuse for high gas prices. On overall inflation, it looks like there was too much evidence for social media to suppress it all. Too many people of all parties are seeing it for themselves to deny, excuse, or downplay, as some media outlets are still trying to do.

   There are many more recent examples that fit this pattern, working their way through the media and legal system. Our third example revolves around COVID, and several aspects of the government's response to it. There are too many specific examples to cover here, but I will mention a few glaring aspects of the government and media's suppression of information, and spreading of misinformation.. On Oct. 4, 2020, a bunch of infectious disease specialists and public health scientists authored what they called The Great Barrington Declaration. They disagreed with many of the public policies being used to fight COVID, and recommended broad outlines of how to replace them. I have to say, I didn't even hear about this for months, and then only vaguely. My first knowledge of them was of hearing them being dismissed as a "fringe group," not to be taken seriously. Of course, the ideas they promoted were echoed by media outlets that I followed, so I was familiar with those, before learning of the declaration. 

   The COVID episode exposed so much hypocrisy and outright lying by both public officials and the media that it eclipses the actions of a few former intel officials, or Nobel Laureate economists. The nations top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, said that masks were not effective at preventing COVID. Later, he admitted that he lied, because he didn't want regular people to buy all of the masks that were needed for medical health professionals. Still later, he recommended "double-masking" to give more protection, which might indicate his first claim about masks was true. He's gotten a bunch of heat for that, and other contradictory proclamations. However, he's only the most prominent example.

   For two years, several theories have been either downplayed, censored, or denied by government officials and many media outlets: The still-unproven theory that the virus originated in a lab, even though China actively blocked any investigation, and what investigation they have allowed hasn't proven the "natural spread" theory they promote, either; That lockdowns did not stop the spread of the virus, and may just have prolonged the time it took to spread; The economic and social harms of the lockdowns could be more lethal than COVID itself; Politicians were blatantly abusing the COVID emergency powers they assumed in an authoritarian, and often politically biased manner; Finally, children should have been in school all along, and only the teachers' unions power over local officials was keeping them out. There was evidence supporting of all of this, but only people who watched or followed conservative media were hearing about it.

   It was really only a matter of time until all of this came to an end, and surprisingly, the Omicron variant proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. It spread faster, but was weaker than any variant before it, and destroyed the ongoing scare tactics that supported the progressive narrative. While China is still blocking accountability, US politicians can not. The school policies spectacularly backfired, as more parents now know what their kids are being taught, and it isn't reading, writing, and arithmetic. The educational and social harm to children done in the service of teachers' union's demands has outraged parents. The economic devastation of the lockdowns is now clear, and the condemnations of states that didn't kill their economies ring hollow. Death rates from COVID didn't vary much, whether there were lockdowns or not. Liberal media is still downplaying all of this, but the cat is out of the bag.

   Nobody should expect an apology from any of the people that lied to our faces. They have no shame, and for them, failure of their policies, or the failure of their corruption to be prosecuted has always equaled personal advancement. They fail upward. You can't really get rid of a progressive hack, especially a bureaucrat, because some other Democrat will hire them, and try selling their snake oil again. On the up side, there are increasingly more people, disillusioned by the lies and disinformation that the Democratic politicians and media, are pushing back. Even better, many of those Dem pols are being forced into admitting their real agenda, as when Terry McAuliffe said parents shouldn't be telling schools what to teach. That's why he's still the former Governor of Virginia.

   In a free society, everything is open to debate. When one political party tries to shut down debate, it may work for some time, but societies that don't allow debate of any and all issues are not free. Our corrupt government, media, and big tech companies have done their best to shut down debate on more than just the three stories I've mentioned in this column. It took some time, but they are failing. More people than ever now mistrust the government, the media, and big tech. This is a good thing, and it represents a break from the dystopia that defined the last two years. I doubt that the progressive authoritarian agenda will be welcome, any time soon. The next test will be in November, and I'm not alone in predicting a huge change in our elected representatives.