OPINION: Truth or Consequences

A sign at the Schuylkill Democratic Action Group’s “Save Our Constitution” rally in Pottsville last month showed one way to solve so many of our country’s problems: “Fight truth decay.”

The corrosion of truth and emergence of alternative facts (a.k.a. whoppers) have been going on for a long time. For decades, we’ve been able to watch and hear what we want, whether it’s objective reporting or some kind of self-serving spin.

The rise of Donald Trump only accelerated the decay, as he and his accomplices bombarded Americans with head-spinning volleys of lies, zigzags and mixed messages. It’s tempting to shrug and say “whatever,” but that’s exactly what autocrats and oligarchs want.

“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom,” Yale history professor Timothy Snyder wrote in his best-selling book On Tyranny. “If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so.

“If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”

Admittedly, it’s less stressful to tell yourself that despite their numerous conflicts of interest, Trump and Elon Musk are serving their country instead of helping themselves to whatever they can grab from it.

Or that consumers won’t end up paying whatever tariffs Trump imposes.

Or that the Musk-Trump, or Mump, administration really won’t decimate safety nets as DO(D)GE and congressional allies wield chainsaws at them.

Or that the White House isn’t really siding with the Russian dictator/war criminal who invaded Ukraine instead of the statesman defending his war-torn country.

Or that the people in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were just tourists, not the terrorists we watched in real time.

Much as Trump would like our media to be state-run, it isn’t, although some news outlets are kowtowing to him. Even before he won, the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times reportedly backed off on endorsing Kamala Harris in favor of sitting out that election. And Meta stopped fact-checking on its Facebook, Instagram and Threads social media platforms in January.

That’s not to say Trump hasn’t done his part to squelch dissent. The White House PR team, rather than its press corps, now decrees who gets that “very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office.”

So the Associated Press, which didn’t change its style guide when Trump unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico, was among several news outlets that were barred from Trump and JD Vance’s Oval Office bashathon of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Not so for Real America’s Voice correspondent/Marjorie Taylor Greene boyfriend Brian Glenn, who got some mainstream attention by criticizing Zelenskyy’s attire (which was more formal than what Musk wore for an appearance there).

Glenn deserves some credit for saying the House set a disturbing precedent in censuring Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas for reminding Trump during his address to Congress that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid. (Where and how Green said it didn’t make the statement any less true.)

Between that controversy and the media’s willingness to keep the spotlight on Trump, I almost forgot that there was a Democratic rebuttal to his speech.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan spoke for only 10 minutes, but she provided a much-needed antidote to Trump’s hour and 40 minutes of whines, boasts and lies.

Slotkin addressed the threat the Mump administration poses to our economy, national security and public welfare, and she warned that its divisive rhetoric and unhealthy alliances with billionaires seeking ever more money and power are putting our system of government at risk.

She called on Americans to resist the urge to tune out, which isn’t easy for those of us who haven’t swallowed the truth-eroding MAGA Kool-Aid. It’s horrifying and exhausting to watch the Mump administration dismantle so many norms and defy so many laws that have made our country as humane, fair and civilized as it is.

As Snyder wrote, it’s on each of us to stay current through in-depth news coverage from trustworthy media instead of internet memes and soundbites that may or may not be true.

And to speak up, as Slotkin did. If we don’t, there’s no way to avoid the consequences of letting the Mump team run amok.

Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.

Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.

Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.

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