SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
What a bunch of BS.
BS is all over television, blogs, podcasts and newspapers these days.
It’s spouted by politicians and pitched by product spokesmen.
Modern life is manufacturing an unprecedented amount of it.
Thanks to cable “news” channels and social-media platforms, there are numerous opportunities for people to BS us about all kinds of things.
Just weeks ago, our newscasters were telling us President Biden was as fit as a fiddle. How dare we think otherwise!
Then we saw his debate performance, which was so painful to watch, he was forced to drop out of the race.
We decided to believe our own lying eyes, rather than the mistruths our esteemed talking-heads were telling us.
The truth is, BS has a long history in America. During our early years, the “tall tale” was an accepted form of BS. Exaggeration lent more credence and entertainment to stories, and yarn-spinning became a celebrated part of American culture.
From our beginning we’ve had our share of snake-oil salesmen and flimflam artists. These scoundrels weren’t judged on the rightness or wrongness of their scams, so much as the skill with which they practiced their craft.
The truth is that we want to be lied to in America.
Whereas the truth can be painful, costly and time-consuming, we’re suckers for a clever, though deceitful, yarn that puts us at ease and helps us sleep better at night.
In America, we want our politicians to limit spending — and build a new bridge in our backyard.
We want “free” health care and fatter Social Security checks — and we want believe such spending won’t raise taxes or the deficit.
But our politicians and “news” people are doing such a horrible job spinning their mistruths, we no longer believe much of anything they say.
I think it’s because they’ve gotten lazy.
I remember the “good old days” when news shows, such as “Dateline,” went to elaborate lengths to pull one over on us. They rigged up a truck with explosives, blew it up on-screen, then blamed the automaker.
Some time ago, cigarette companies said smoking wasn’t bad for us. They cited paid-for studies, and we happily believed them.
Lyndon Baines Johnson said government spending was going to end poverty, and, trillions of dollars later, we know how that whopper turned out.
I’m really missing Bill Clinton. He could twist and contort any mistruth into the prettiest, most believable tale.
We knew he wasn’t telling the truth, but we loved the way he didn’t tell it.
But we don’t like the way half-hearted mistruths are being sold to us now.
Cable news channels on the left and right spit out sensationalized reports to draw viewers, so they can sell advertising to make their newscasters, producers and corporate owners rich.
Social media is happily pitting us against each other, so we spend more time on their platforms demonizing and hating people who disagree with us — because the more we do that, the more advertising revenue we will generate.
As a result, none of us knows who or what to believe anymore.
If our press and political leaders have any hope of restoring any credibility, one thing is for certain: They better come up with a better line of BS.
