When the truth is found to be lies.

In his own twisted way, Rudy Giuliani was right, the truth is not the truth.  To a select few, truth is perception; whatever is perceived to be the truth, to them, becomes the truth.  By that logic, a lie repeated often enough to gain believers, becomes the perceived truth-ergo, the truth.  It doesn’t mean anything to them that what is true will still be true and what is false will still be false.  They only care about perception and how they can bend perceptions to steer the will of others to their cause, no matter how corrupt that cause may be.

Donald J. Trump has adopted this philosophy with gusto.  He tells his lies and half-truths with the straight face only a sociopath could muster.  Perhaps we haven’t been judged worthy of the truth by Trump.  While I doubt he ever read Mark Twain, it is possible he has heard Twain’s admonishment, “Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”  After over three years in office, it is only now that social media is being vilified by our liar-in-chief because Twitter, Facebook, et.al., are attempting to bring some semblance of regulation to their heretofore wholly open and unregulated platforms.  Yes, Trump’s beloved Twitter has placed his recent tweet behind a warning label that indicates the hidden tweet violates Twitter’s Rules in that it is “glorifying violence.”

The fact that some social media platforms have been forced to police the content of their users is a sign of the times.  Beneath the Twitter warning was just Trump being his usual bullying self.  Trump’s post was, “....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.  Thank you!”  Trump was apparently quoting the former Miami police chief Walter Headley, who in December 1967 promised violent reprisals to protests over stop and frisk tactics.

From Walter Headley obituary August of 1968

Trump’s earlier tweets about mail-in ballots being rife with fraud were not hidden behind a banner but were tagged with a link to find the actual facts about such voting methods.  So, Trump was permitted to lie about mail-in balloting but the truth was just a click away.  The “get the facts about mail-in ballots," link would take anyone concerned about the truth to real information and not the unsubstantiated false claims made by the president.  Even his own Justice Department had been forced to abandon their investigation into mail-in voter fraud for lack of evidence.

I am not on Twitter beyond an account I set up years ago to see if I had any interest in the platform.  I am, however, on Facebook where I have seen their fact-checkers at work.  A recent post by a Trump supporter on my feed got a Facebook version of the Twitter warning label.  In that post, a family member had posted a meme about Greta Thunberg that was filled with false information.  He had falsely claimed that she had protested the manufacture of chopsticks as it killed trees.  It went on to falsely claim that the Chinese government reminded her that chopsticks were made from bamboo, a grass.  The truth is that 1. Greta never said anything about chopsticks, 2. China never responded to any such claim and 3. China does use real wood in many of its chopsticks as well as bamboo.  When this was pointed out by me the poster’s reply was just that he stood by his opinion.  A copy of the FB warning is provided below for reference.

"When the truth is found
To be lies
And all the joy
Within you dies"

“Somebody to Love” was written by Darby Slick (Grace Slick’s brother-in-law) and was originally performed by The Great Society in 1965 with Grace Slick on vocals.  The song later became a hit when Grace took it with her and the Jefferson Airplane performed it live at Woodstock in 1969.

The real truth here is that, with all the power that the Internet provides, lies a responsibility to seek the truth.  It requires some effort but it is readily available for all who want to find real information and not some justification of preconceived notions.  Trump and his supporters will no doubt continue to post anything they stumble upon that validates their way of thinking while either ignoring the truth or branding it as Fake News without bothering to justify their opinions.  Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.  Think of it--always.” 

Trump, meanwhile, has decided to retaliate against these social media platforms by issuing an executive order that directs the executive branch agencies to ask independent rule-making agencies including the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to study whether they can place new regulations on the companies.  Without an act of Congress, this would appear to be him flailing in the wind.  To quote Macbeth, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”  To further paraphrase The Bard of Avon, Trump is but another poor player strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.  We can all only hope.  Remember in November.


“The truth." Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should, therefore, be treated with great caution.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone