Killing Democracy

I don’t know anyone I can trust. Sooner or later everyone lets me down. Most people on the other hand are very trusting. They repeat lies they find on the internet and have no capacity for critical thought. Whenever someone continues to deliver me questionable information I start to tune them out. When the Democrats kept telling lies about Bush and how the Iraq war was going, I stopped listening. Only years later did I discover that a few of the things they told me were true. Later, Sean Hannity was so unfair in his criticism of Obama that I concluded he was just being partisan. He was never able to support anything he said. Today, the news media is notoriously misleading. They are called fake news – and not just by the president. Trump too has been accused of being loose with his facts. There are those so turned off by the continuous lies being published about Trump that they have stopped listening and will miss it if Trump ever does do something that should concern them. Then there are those so tired of Trump’s lack of clarity and other antics that they are predisposed to believe anything bad about him without questioning the source.

Mexicans Are Rapists

Trump’s comments on those illegally sneaking across the Mexican border is the quote played over and over supposedly showing Trump calling Mexicans rapists. More than any other of his quotes it is used as the example proving him to be racist against Mexicans. However, actually listening to the quote in context with an open mind proves quite the opposite. First, Trump opines that when Mexico sends its people, it does not send its best. In other words, the “good” Mexicans stay in Mexico (or come in legally) and the “bad” Mexicans sneak across the border illegally. Obviously, he recognizes that some Mexicans are better than others – just as in any people group. He does not lump all Mexicans together and all Americans together and imply one inferior to the other. Then he says “they aren’t sending you,” apparently speaking to those he recognizes as good Mexicans, thus reinforcing the proof that he is not valuing people based on race. He then lists some of the crimes committed by the criminal Mexicans (sneaking across the border illegally being by definition a criminal act), following it up by saying, “and some, I assume, are good people,” again showing he is not only not being racist, but is not even going so far as assuming that those guilty of one criminal act must be guilty of other criminal acts. After this, he goes on to say that a lot of those sneaking across the Mexican border are not even from Mexico, showing he is not picking on any one particular group. Only a very very very very stupid person could see anything racist in these comments. They are quite possibly the least racist thing ever said! Trump DID NOT call Mexicans rapists; he called rapists rapists, a few of which happen to be Mexican. Whenever I hear people repeat the lie that Trump called all or most Mexicans rapists, my ears shut tight and I hear nothing more they say. Why would anyone listen to such liars?

Founding ISIS

Fortunately, just because I don’t trust the news doesn’t mean that I have started to trust Trump and his supporters either. He has also been rather careless with his words. During the campaign, he accused Obama and Hillary of being the founders of ISIS. Even after listening to his words in context, I still hear him making ridiculous accusations. On at least two separate occasions I heard reporters ask Trump if he wanted to explain, suggesting that he might have simply meant that Obama indirectly enabled them by creating the power vacuum that allowed ISIS to thrive, but Trump dug in his heels and refused to elaborate. With statements like these, why would anyone believe anything that comes out of Trump’s mouth? Why would anybody read his Twitter feed?

Last Night In Sweden

Now Trump is being accused of making up a non-existent terrorist attack in Sweden just to make a point. Trump says he was referring to the various problems Sweden has been having with its immigrant population, such as crime and riots but not terrorism per se. The problem is that he uses the phrase “last night,” which implies an event rather than a trend. He says he was referring to a story that ran on FOX the night before. Seriously? That’s the weakest excuse I have heard in a while. What am I supposed to believe? I can’t believe Trump, but at the same time the news media has been very unfair and misleading to conclude Trump was referring to an imaginary terrorist attack. The truth is, nobody knows what Trump was talking about and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.



I don’t have time to check everything out. I need someone I can trust in order to know what’s going on and who to vote for, but I can’t trust any journalist and I can’t trust anyone in government. Both have “cried wolf” so many times that I can’t even be bothered to pay attention. It might be better not to vote, but if I stay home the decision will just be made by the gullible, brainless masses. Democracy is dead.

​We need to start listening to each other and stop believing whatever our favorite politician/pundit tells us unquestioningly. The fate of the world rides on this.