We begin a new year, but not much has changed for the better. Instead, we drag our past mistakes and disasters in tow, with no intention to learn from them or cut them loose, only to repeat them.

We’re all a little older and, hopefully, a little wiser; however, what I see and hear from mainstream media causes me to wonder about how our leadership’s deceit impact’s this country. They’re all pathological liars.

Any critical thinker can recognize that the noise coming our way via the mass media is either a lie or based on lies. I’ve shared my thoughts on this multiple times over the past decades. Synthesizing the content from my last few commentaries led to the title – America’s become a culture of liars.

We live in a Country where lying is an acceptable practice. It’s so customary that it’s evident in everyday life. Most people wouldn’t know the truth if it jumped up and bit them on the ass – that’s how common and customary it is. Unfortunately, some professions, particularly politicians, appear incapable of telling the truth. Lies go unchallenged even when we recognize them; we immediately disregard them.

It’s how we’re programmed…

Every lie spawns another, and they begin to infect every facet of life. The infestation warps our ethics, destroying our moral compass.

Casually and inadvertently, we join the Culture of Lies.

Welcome to the cult!

~

I’ve used quotations by Nazis, “The National Socialist Workers’ Party,” in this and many of my past commentaries. The Nazi ideology fine-tuned and expertly employed the art of mendacity. I find the Third Reich a despicable and evil empire, but fortunately for posterity, their statements and observations were captured and archived. Who knew the Nazis would become the model for most modern autocrats and despots.

These quotes’ importance, accuracy, and applicability are astonishing historically and should serve as an illustrative lesson to everyone worldwide, especially in this country. The parallels between the authoritarian Nazi Reich and America’s direction are unmistakable.

Considering the quotes, observations, and tactics of these Nazi leaders, and when viewed in the context of the lies American politicians proliferate, you can begin to appreciate what history can teach.

~

I’ll begin with a few quotes.

Heir Hitler remarked,

* “What luck, for governments, that people are stupid.”

* “The greater the crime perpetrated by the leadership, the less likely it is that the people will ever believe their leaders to be capable of perpetrating such an event.”

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, had much to say about disinformation. He should know… he pioneered its practice in the 20th century. [Link]

* “If you repeat a lie often enough. People will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”

* “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.

* “Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.”

* “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

* “Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.”

* “It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

These men and others like them were monsters; however, they also serve as sterling examples for leaders who study history and apply the lessons it teaches. Unfortunately, contemporary politicians bring this knowledge to bear and proliferate the Culture of Liars.

By now, you should realize why knowing and understanding history is critical to the prosperity of our republic. It’s not so you can follow those examples but so that you can recognize the tactics and guard against them. Of course, history also offers positive examples and lessons, but that’s not the message of this article.

My last commentary, “Perception,” deals with the optics of lies and how they shape our beliefs. “Culture of Liars” follows that path to explain how we arrived here.

We’re conditioned to be liars. It is the example set by our government and everything around us; yes, even religion.

I’m aware this is a controversial comment, but I suggest that man has debased the intent of millennia of positive, practical wisdom and teachings to manipulate the uninformed. The example set by religious leaders and others in positions of power is the root of most of what we experience concerning lies and devotion to control. Yes, they lied, too…

Wisdom’s purity was perverted by an elite few to influence and control us. The religious lies faded when people learned to read, and the printing press made knowledge available. Still, the great manipulators found other ways to twist their messages through print by adding compelling and misleading images.

The quest for power is the engine driving the perception machine forward. Consider the proliferation of religious sects, political factions, radical splinter groups, and cults in today’s societies as proof of the liars’ sovereignty.

In the absence of bread, people will eat sawdust. In the lack of truth, people will believe anything, even outright lies. Heir Goebbels was right: “We have made the Reich by propaganda.”

Politicians, in fact, most unelected government leaders, are all perennial liars. Up is not down, nor is down up, yet that’s what we’re expected to believe. So we accept what they say and not what we see. It’s our government’s blizzard of bullshit. We know it can’t be accurate, but our conditioning and programming find a way to rationalize it into a tempting and credible fact.

It would be easy to divide this commentary into distinct groups of politicians and citizens, but aren’t politicians citizens, and are not the citizens responsible for the politicians elected?

I grant that the media controls the preponderance of what we know, but we, the citizenry, still have the final say. Don’t we? Yet that’s suspect in light of recent election tampering allegations. First, the media tells us who and what’s best. Then, in league with the administration overlords, they install these puppets.

Fair and honest elections? Seriously? John Federman, a US Senator? He can’t read a prepared statement without stumbling through the sentences.

Then we have Joseph Marionette Biden, Prez #46, who shakes hands with ghosts and loses his way leaving the room. He is a perennial prevaricator, one of a thousand morally bankrupt miscreants in government. He even fouls up carefully scripted notes and cue cards. Sadly, Biden is a useful idiot.

Kamala Harris, the V-Peeeee – queen of the hyperbolic word salad and unintelligible rhetoric, has yet to complete a vice-presidential assignment. Her appointment was perception and not pragmatic – she checked the appropriate boxes. Madam Swallow’s staff exodus confirms they are at least as intelligent as the rats abandoning a sinking ship.

We’ve lost touch with reality. Maybe more correctly, we embraced new elastic ethics, malleable morals, plastic perceptions, and tractable truths courtesy of these confident, eloquent, enthusiastic con artists who obfuscate the theme of manipulation and control with their ambrosial propaganda. Our enthusiasm and ease of acceptance for this bullshit are bewildering and indeed disconcerting.

Most disturbing of all is the example prevarication sets for society. We see this mendacious melody played unendingly in every media outlet on every screen in America. Remember that only 2% of Americans have NEVER seen a TV, and only 4% DO NOT have internet access. The Boob-Toob is our Alter of Mis-Information and the tool used to program us.

Are you surprised that America’s susceptibility to suggestion, i.e., advertising, has fostered a culture of liars? Considering the extended reach and inundation of the deception, it’s no wonder we’ve embraced this culture of lies. It’s honestly a game of “follow the leader.”

We see myriad examples of successful liars everywhere; few dare to expose or challenge them. Instead, anyone that does is excoriated, branded as a traitor, and un-American. You’re told it’s a matter of perception and that you’re not looking at it from the proper point of view.

Our government is the most egregious offender facing the country. Elected, appointed mis-representatives trade their integrity for political gain and advantage. Their lies should trouble us, and their abandonment of this country for personal gain is cause for outrage. Yet we believe their every word as though it came from God Himself.

Yes, that’s how we’re programmed. So we joined the Cult of Liars.

According to the Pew Research Center, public trust in government has fallen from nearly 80% in the mid-’60s to just 20% today. In 1964, Americans had an incredible level of confidence in President Kennedy. The CIA killed him. By 2022 America’s faith in leadership has fallen to an all-time low of 20% under the Biden Reich. [Link]

Justice Louis Brandeis said, “Behind every argument is someone’s ignorance.” Sadly, we read these words, but they have no impact, like so much of history. Time passes, and the lies wear thin; the truth is exposed, and we’re disappointed, maybe even devastated. But here we are, waiting patiently for the next flurry of fluff, the blizzard of bullshit – and America believes these career con artists.

Are we blind, or are we stupid?

You only need to touch fire once to learn that it’s hot, but we believe these habitual hucksters every time they speak. Are we so starved for honesty that we’re willing to accept anything that even presents a glimmer of fact or hope?

YES, our programming and belief in the Great American lie is our problem. Our programming has twisted the words of the Constitution into a massive dose of Hopium by misinterpreting: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

When we read this phrase through our programming lens, we hear “Guaranteed Equality, Equity, Happiness, and Wealth.” GEEHAW!!!

Where in the hell did we get that idea?

It’s what the media tell us. And we’re too gullible or lazy to check it or think through it ourselves.

That’s our American Dream and the misinterpretation of some of the most profound words ever written… undoubtedly the most often misquoted and, by far, misunderstood.

When you read the entire sentence as intended, you understand that these are not guarantees but God-given rights. No one can take them from us, not even the government, but we can and are, surrendering them to the charlatans in government.

We’re so accustomed to lying we even deceive ourselves. We hear a viewpoint or opinion that agrees with what we WANT to hear and process it as truth. The constitutional passage above is a prime example. From here, our delusions and confusion blossom until everything we hear is filtered through the rose-colored glass of what we’re told.

I’m amazed by America’s lack of integrity and moral turpitude, especially in politics. Every speech and media post is an exercise in stretching credibility from the sublime to the ridiculous. Perspective be damned; a lie intends to deceive and misdirect; it is and always will be a lie.

What we believe and how we act belong solely to the individual, not society. We are responsible for ourselves. Blaming the government or any other entity propagates deceit.

“Hypocrisy is the characteristic feature of the dying bourgeois epoch.” ~ Joseph Goebbels

January 29, 2023

~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.

He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; we’re not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.

Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.

In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!

That’s Charlie… a proud, opinionated, and passionate American.