RUTHFULLY YOURS

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…I was a Madison Avenue copywriter. I was thrilled, until I realized I was a liar for hire.

I was assigned an ad for a diet aid. The account executive sent out the marketing strategy. When I read it, I felt something akin to an inner eye squint, the feeling you get when you suspect you’re being conned. I realized we were being asked to market this rather dubious product to young, anorexic women by capitalizing on their already-fragile sense of self and lying to them about what the product could be expected to do.

So I wrote the ad that changed my life. It featured a close-up of the product with the headline “FAT CHANCE.” I was the only one who appreciated the irony.

Ah, well.

I soon realized that in the sport of marketing (sic: lying) I’d never be a team player and that I’d have to find an honest way to make a living.

Since then, the great spin turbines in Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and D.C. have spawned a culture built on an ever-destabilizing pyramid of lies which cannot support the existence of a republic, the essence of which is self-governance.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the political arena. The other night after the live broadcast of the Republican National Convention, a friend called. She said she had been flipping back and forth from the real-time telecast to CNN and MSNBC. She was irate: “You’d never have known they were speaking about the same show. Everything they said was completely disingenuous, if not bald-faced lies.”

In the last ten years or so it has become increasingly evident that you are are either believing what the left (or the diet pill manufacturer) is saying or you are paying attention to reality.

There are at least 10 major lies that are now so ubiquitous that most people never question them:

Lie #1 – Truth is Relative

In the leftist handbook, truth is a function of feeling. This may be the greatest deception ever perpetrated on humanity since Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Yet, for so many of the academically indoctrinated, this is the fulcrum of their philosophical worldview and the secret source of their smugness.

Lie #2 – Abortion is Personal

There is no “other” in the womb, no independent life. This has become so embedded in leftist ideology that abortion has become the banner issue in nearly every election over the last 60 years. In a conversation with a friend with very progressive leanings (he needs the money), abortion came up. I questioned him about partial-birth murders and he said, “That hardly ever happens.” Really? As if one baby homicide were okay? The more irrational the argument, the more ingrained the original lie. Little lives apparently don’t matter.

Lie #3 – Utopia is Possible

Perfection is possible if we just…make solar powered air planes, dump Trump, make everyone wear masks forever. The list goes on and on and is a direct result of the Madison Avenue spin machine. Whatever ails you, we’ve got PRODUCT X. And if you’re a millennial, now you can have it all on someone else’ dime. Just ask Bernie. But whatever you do, don’t look at the facts, especially in Venezuela.

Lie #4 – Death is Avoidable and You Can Feel Safe Forever…

…if you do the right (sic: party-approved) things and take the prescribed chemical cocktails. So anything that keeps you youthful and sexually active is good, no matter what. Do I really need to elaborate on this one?

Lie #5 – Biology is an Illusion

There are no true genders; only states of mind. After 35 years in clinical practice, after hearing just about everything noble, demented, or delusional, this still astounds me. Have you ever had a conversation with someone speaking “word salad?” This is it. And the ultimate goal of this lie? The elimination of the family and the stable, present father.

Lie #6 – If you Love America, You’ll Destroy It

Violence means “I love you.” This is the core BLM deception. Because they care so very much, they are driven mad by normal citizens who are minding their own business, so mad they are compelled to burn down stores, attack you while you’re dining out, break into cars, set fire to your home, and tear down historic landmarks. This lie strikes me as particularly interesting since they also claim to be the advocates of minority’s, women’s and children’s rights. “I hit you ‘cuz I love you” is the excuse of every single narcissistic abuser I’ve ever met.

Lie #7 – The Lie of the Mask

Remember The Minority Report in which “criminals” are prosecuted before they’ve committed a crime? Welcome to the machine.  Because it’s all about potential, proof is not necessary, but we all need to be afraid. Very afraid. If it isn’t the end of all life with climate changes, it’s a virus that will end yours soon if you don’t wear the solidarity mask even if you have no symptoms. In this version of leftist Utopia, we are faceless disease vectors, quarantined forever in pursuit of an impossible level of safety.

Lie #8 – Money Solves Everything

Housing projects are the answer to poverty and poverty is society’s greatest ill (as if some of our greatest citizens weren’t poor and many of our worst criminals weren’t rich). It is a monstrous lie as anyone who lives within 50 miles of a major city can attest. (See Thomas Sowell’s piece A Legacy of Liberalism.) This is the lie that decimates community.

Lie #9 – God’s A Crutch for the Unsophisticated

Anything is permissible because there is no God. And if, just if, there is a God, He’s just plain mean and doesn’t deserve our obedience. In the post-Disney age, not being nice is the greatest sin of all. This lie is, in my opinion, the crux of the matter, because it makes all the other lies possible.

Lie #10 – If It’s On Television, It’s True

They wouldn’t lie, would they? Wish it were so. Marketing, and corporate-subsidized news networks, are all about spin. Truth is never paramount. I mean, what good would it do to spend millions of dollars coaxing the public to buy a product that’s “kinda okay?” It has to be subliminally attached to a need that drives us to make purchases that are irrational. Lying is breathing in marketing.

One of the most egregious lies I’ve ever seen:  Ali Velshi, in an MSNBC report , (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1mxJMIIMuE)  is standing in front of a burning police precinct claiming the riots were just protests and not really “unruly.” What does lying like that do to a person? To a soul?

The Grub Effect: The Anti-Lie Instinct

Here’s what lying does: It eventually kills us. There’s something I’ve noticed about healthy people no matter their culture of origin. When exposed to a noxious substance, they instinctively recoil. I call it The Grub Effect. (They’re those critters in the soil that roll into little balls if you touch them. They don’t like us.) It’s a sane and natural response to the appropriate stimuli. It promotes survival. When it ceases to exist, so—eventually—does the organism. Even when the organism is a nation-state. And that means: When you lie to yourself enough, when you fail to recoil from noxious agents, when you no longer see good for good or bad for bad, when you cannot face the truth, you are facing your own end. Ignore it at your own peril.

Judith Acosta, LCSW, CCH is the author of The Worst is Over and The Next Osama.