The False Idolatry of Fake News
Read Time:6 Minute, 4 Second
by Bill Formby
There many stories that were made up to drive home a point to children and those with a less than impressive intellect going back as far as the classical times. In reality, there is a great deal of truth in those stories and they still exist today. They still exist not just to teach children lessons but because, even with all of the educational possibilities available to most every human in this country, we still have an overabundance of lower level intellect surrounding us. This is just one of those stories and it’s not fake news.
There once was a lad from (here pick your own country, state, city, whatever) who had but one job. It was indeed a very important job, but as important as it was, it did not require the mind or willpower, or tenaciousness of a King, a knight, or even a stable keeper. It required only that the lad round up his sheep each morning and herd them out to the meadows to graze, sit and watch them to make sure wolves did not get them, and before the dark round up his sheep and herd them back into town. Simple job for a simple boy.
One has to wonder what kept this young lad occupied during those long days sitting in the meadow minding his sheep. I would suppose one could only go out and sleep there just so long. We know from some history books that some shepherds came poets, writers of songs, and philosophers who spent vast amounts of time thinking about worldly things. But, not this lad. He craved more action, turmoil, and quite frankly, more attention. It is this that brings us to his claim to fame.
One day while sitting under a shade tree thinking about a more adventurous life, he noticed a dog running up a hillside. Though it was clearly just a dog because not even the sheep stirred he thought to himself, “That could easily be a wolf trying to get to the sheep.” Suddenly, the idea struck him, “I will call him a wolf,” he thought. He sprang to his feet and as fast as he could run into the town screaming, “A wolf, a wolf, a wolf is after the sheep.” Everyone in town lept into action with shovels and pitchforks and headed for the meadow.
When they arrived there was no wolf to be found. The boy pointed to the little hillside and said he was up there. One of the men looked but didn’t see a wolf. The townspeople patted the boy on the head and went back to town. The next day there was a repeat of the situation, and the day after, and every day after that for weeks until finally, the townspeople concluded, finally, that the boy was lying. That happens.
After a couple more tries the townspeople just laughed at the boy and told him to go back to his sheep until one day, as he was lying in the grass he heard a low growling noise. It was a noise he had never heard before. He raised up and on that little hillside was not just a wolf, but a wolf with company. There was a pack of at least 5 wolves and they were slowly surrounding the sheep.
At once, the boy sprang to his feet and as fast as he could he ran to the town and upon arriving began shouting, “wolves, wolves, they are about to attack the sheep.”
“Wolves say you” cried the old blacksmith, “So it is now more than one, ha, ha. Boy, I have no time for foolishness.”
“No. no. for real this time” cried the boy. “At least 4 or 5 of them. Hurry the sheep will be slaughtered.”
“Well,” said an old lady making a quilt, “I guess you will just have to earn your keep and chase those critters away.”
No one believed him.
I won’t bore you all with the moral of this classic tale of the boy who cried wolf. We watch a real live version of this every day except our shepherd is playing the president of the United States. I haven’t bothered to count his days in office but I will offer this bit of information. Every day he has been in office and spoke to the public he has lied. I mean. this is nothing new, right. He lies about everything but that was to be expected. He lied about everything while he was running for office. So, if he has slid a truthful statement in there somewhere, I have not noticed. His lying is contagious also so I would not want to be around him.
Just think about his chief of staff Marine Corps General Kelly who was a trusted person before he hooked up with Trump. Next thing you know he is lying through his teeth about a congresswoman from Florida. His press secretary, well, what can you say, Sarah Huckabee Sanders! Consider her maiden name and you understand her lying nature; she comes by it … honestly? Oxymoron there. But the big, orange-headed guy, what’s his name, Drumpf lies when there is no need to lie. To him, hypocrisy is a constant state of mind as is his long distance from the truth. It does make one wonder if, in addition to having a borderline personality disorder he is also the epitome of a being bipolar.
While James Comey said he did not think Trump was mentally off I bet his former employees at the Behavioral Analysis Unit would differ with him and the biggest danger is that he does not know reality from fake. Just as the shepherd boy lied so much no one believed him. I am the same way about Trump.
When he says something these days I automatically assume he is lying until it actually happens. The sad thing, he does know if it is true until it happens. Just like the recent tax bill. Trump talked about what was in it but nothing he said made sense. Even after he signed it he still does not understand it because all he read were the Republican cliff notes. He announced that the U.S. was going to strike Syria for the chemical attacks and his defense department was like, “We are? When? Gee if you had told me we could have planned something.” See, they didn’t believe him either. So after a few days, there was Trump on TV reading from a teleprompter sounding like a ninth grader reading off the blackboard in class about the missile attacks on Syria. Trump said, “Mission Accomplished!” Uh huh. Heard that before. When the Syrians said we missed I almost believed them until I heard the Pentagon version. But here lies the danger.
POTUS will say anything about anything at any time about anyone whether it is true or guesswork or a blatant lie. It makes no difference to him. We are at a point in history where whatever the president says is probably not believable but the danger is that on the rare occasion that he does tell the truth and we ignore it, it may well be devastating to our country. Sad man. Very sad.
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Appreciate it. Neil.
Excellent stuff old bean.
Trump is going to learn his lesson like G.W. the hard way. The mission is not accomplished until there is indeed no mission left to do. Trump is already softening his rhetoric on Russia again. I am convinced that either Putin has something on him or he is just scared shitless of Putin. The latter might be wise because I think Putin would use him as a mop to clean the floor. I would like to catch him in an alley somewhere and try to slap some sense into him. He is using Sean Hannity as an advisor for Christ sake.
Well of course he’s scared shitless of Putin, Bill, and you’re right, Putin is much tougher, smarter and in much better shape than DJT. Enjoyed the article man.
Thank you David.
Barnum and Joseph Goebbles:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Just let that sink in for a minute. Goebbles’ words are guiding our witless and unwitting president. How depressing is that?
We hear endless comparisons to historical breakdowns of civilized societies and most commonly the Weimar Republic, but the collapse of the Republic into Fascism was a response to a real situation even if the cause as having origins in a Jewish conspiracy is fake.
For quite some time, the American Right has been crying about economic and social dangers that don’t exist or are exaggerated beyond recognition. I don’t know why we’re still looking for wolves and seeing them everywhere. Not one prediction about Obama came true. No Democratic President was ever a secret Communist and the list of our failed fears seems aimless. It’s all been a pack of lies
Maybe it’s just that Barnum was right about the sucker birth rate and maybe the manipulators, confidence tricksters, flim flam men and Republicans simply have Harvard degrees in scientific fear mongering and yes, you’re right it’s sad and scary as hell.