Category Archives: Death of Truth

Theological Devotion to Untruth

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics

 

A while back I started blogging about truth. I really had no idea where this would go. After all I was just meandering. I had no idea how every day something crazy happens that I could blog about. Every day!

A friend pointed out a story going viral online as a result of a very frustrated nurse from South Dakota posting about her experience in an emergency room. What does that have to do with truth? A lot!

It seems impossible but sometimes reality just seems impossible. Especially in a pandemic. That’s what happens when people have a theological devotion to untruth.  By that I mean a belief so strong no one could be convinced out of it. For example no Christian or no Muslim can be convinced that their beliefs are wrong.

According to Kathryn Krawczyk of Yahoo News,

“South Dakota has the highest COVID-19 mortality rate of almost anywhere in the world — only North Dakota and the entire countries of Belgium and the Czech Republic rank higher. Without a mask mandate and with low rates of mask wearing, the Dakotas have seen coronavirus cases spike over the past few months.

 

No wonder the nursing staff is run ragged in the hospitals. But it is not just the overwhelming work that gets to them. It’s the denial of reality that overpowers. Remember that South Dakota was the site of 2 big Trump rallies earlier in the year that some have labelled 2 super spreader events, at Sturgis and Mount Rushmore South Dakota about an hour apart. Those events may have resulted in as many as 250,000 Covid cases being spread around the country all in the name of paying obeisance to Donald Trump. The people wanted to rally with their leader, Trump, and would not consider the possibility that such events were unsafe even though experts said they would be. Often Trump supporters don’t support experts.

Recently the frustrated tweets from that South Dakota emergency room nurse, Jodi Doering, went viral. This is one case where that is exactly what should happen. She was upset because every day she has another case of a patient who “a magical answer” rather than the truth. They prefer magic to truth.

Doering  described what she called “a horror show that never ends.” She was talking about patients that were coming to the hospital in deadly denial. People did not believe they were suffering from Covid-19 even though they came to an “overrun hospital,” they were “gasping for air”, with all the symptoms, and after having tested positive for Covid-19, yet believed—firmly believed, that they did not have Covid. They refused to believe what the medical staff told them, namely, that they were suffering from Covid-19. They need so much oxygen there is no other rational explanation but these patients did not accept that.

Instead, as Doering said,

“They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that ‘stuff’ because they don’t have COVID because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens.” When told to connect one last time with their absent families by zoom, the patients continue to deny their status. It just can’t be. The patients are “filled with rage and hatred.”

As Krawczyk reported, “some COVID-19 patients spend their last moments refusing to call family and friends because they’re convinced they’re going to be fine, Doering said. “Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.'”

Even as they are dying in their hospital beds they can’t face reality. Instead they continue to believe their fantasies instead. Some even seem to prefer thinking they have lung cancer. Their entire identity is tied up with the belief that Covid-19 just is not real.

The price for abandoning truth can be extremely high. And someone has to pay it.

 

 “Freedom fighters” Spread Falsehood As Steinbach’s Hospital Fills Up

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics, Freedom

 

This is what the Winnipeg Free Press recently said about my home town:

“As Manitoba recorded a record high COVID-19 death toll Saturday, nearly 200 people gathered in violation of public-health orders to protest lockdown measures, mask wearing and vaccines.”

Will they next protest the fact that they can’t drive 90 km per hour in a school zone? Is that what freedom is all about? What if my religion says I should be able to drive any speed I want?

Reeve Lewis Weiss said he does not trust the information being distributed by public-health officials and news media and that they have a right to refuse to wear masks, presumably no matter how many lives he endangers. He believes that if he does not feel sick he can’t transmit the disease to others and therefore poses no danger to them. This of course is contrary to accepted scientific evidence, but he does not seem bothered by that.

Weiss acknowledged people are dying and said he supports health-care workers, but he downplayed the seriousness of the virus and said he and others who attended the recent protest rally in Steinbach believe they can’t trust the information being distributed by public-health officials and news media, and that they have a right not to wear masks. Weiss also said, “It isn’t a good time to have to hold a rally when people are dying around us. But what you don’t realize, or many people don’t realize, people are always dying around us.”

Yes people are always dying but our hospital to my knowledge has never reached capacity before. A local nurse at our local hospital compared the situation there  to war time where the patients just keep coming. She warned us that health-care workers there have also reached capacity and can’t sustain their efforts much longer. Some people trying to get in to the local hospital had to be triaged in their cars in the parking lot, because there was no room in the hospital.

Meanwhile many of the other protesters referred to themselves as “freedom fighters.” As if having to wear a mask when in public is equivalent to people living under oppressive regimes like Syria. Is there any equivalence here?

Added to the toxic mix is of course religion. We live in the Bible belt and that is to be expected. It is part of the reason the media likes to keep an eye on us here. I am not saying all local religious people are the same as the protesters. But when I heard that one of the protesters yelled “Go home to the devil, you!” as provincial officials left the rally, I knew we were in trouble. These were government officials doing their best to ensure that the hospital could accept more patients if needed. Working to save lives in other words. The protesters treated them like Nazis.

Yet as this was going on “rally-goers listened to Christian music piped through loudspeakers affixed on a flatbed trailer and cheered as several speakers — including retired chiropractor Gerry Bohemier — decried shutting down churches and schools, imposing restrictive lockdown measures and mandating masks. They held signs with slogans such as “love over fear,” “honk for freedom” and “the media is the virus.”

To which I say: Honk if you love truth.

Conspiracy in Southern Manitoba

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics, religion

 

Hundreds of Manitoba gathered in Steinbach recently to protest the imposition of government restrictions on their personal freedom in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is interesting that they chose Steinbach, because at the time it had the highest per capita rate of active Covid-19 cases in all of Canada. At the same time our hospital was completely filled. Basically people brought to the hospital could not be taken in because there was no room for them until someone died. Some patients were sent  to a major hospital in Winnipeg. Others  had to helicoptered to Brandon a city about 3 &1/2 hours by car.

Yet, in violation of Manitoba Heath orders, a large crowd gathered at Steinbach’s A.D. Penner Park and most of them, by a wide majority, did not wear masks nor maintain social distance from each other. As a result some of them were ticketed for violating provincial health orders. Meanwhile loudspeakers played hymns and Christian songs, proving once again that you don’t need science or health orders if you are on the side of the angels and can read conspiracy theories on the Internet. The event was covered by national media.

Here is what CTV News reported one of those in attendance saying,

“Each person here in this country is so incredibly important, and I have nothing but compassion for everybody here, regardless of what side you are on, regardless of your beliefs,” said Kayla, one of the attendees at the rally.

“What we’re seeing here is people gathering from all different races, nationalities, backgrounds, careers and they all just want one thing, and that is freedom.”

 

For some reason the protesters believe being required to wear a mask so that other people are protected is a horrendous infringement on their freedom. Why do they not oppose the law that prevents them from driving 90km in a School zone? Don’t they have a God-given right to drive any speed they want? How about the law that prevents them from walking into other people’s homes and stealing their money? How about the law that requires food to be checked for safety before it is sold to the public? These are all laws that prevent us from doing whatever we want. No one in Canada has the right to do whatever they want.

Some of the protesters heaped abuse on Health officials trying to enforce health orders. Some suggested the officials go to the devil. Conservative Christians were photographed holding up signs demanding religious freedom.

Lewis Weiss the Reeve from the nearby Rural Municipality of Labroquerie made another comment that demonstrated he has learned about conspiracies  when he commented,

“It seems very strange that our loved ones are being allowed to die when there are medicines available that very quickly and easily can cure this.”

 Clearly, he is another political leader who is closely tethered to conspiracy theories rather than science or just plain truth. I guess we are just as good at this as our American neighbours.

Folly on Stilts in Southeastern Manitoba

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics

The Winnipeg Free Press last week reported how the head of a Rural Municipality near us reacted to suggestions he should wear a mask at council meetings:

 

“A Manitoba reeve has unmasked his conspiracy-laden scepticism about the validity of COVID-19 just as health officials moved his community to “critical” on the pandemic-response scale.

RM of La Broquerie Reeve Lewis Weiss used the word “plandemic” in an interview with the Free Press Friday, implying the deadly global health crisis was orchestrated by people in power.

“It’s almost like it’s been planned out, and maybe it didn’t get as bad as they hoped it would, so they’re just playing it like it did,” Weiss said. “It’s a terrible thing.”

 

Hard to believe but  they have a political leader who disparages science in favour of conspiracy theories! Is he an American?

Weiss made these remarks just as Southern Health-Santé Sud health region, the regional health district that includes Steinbach and the neighbouring Rural Municipality of La Broquerie was elevated to Code Red on the provincial analysis of the status of Covid-19 there. This required masks to be worn in public indoor places such as Municipal Council Chambers. This did not sit well with Weiss who has not been wearing a mask.

This is what Reeve Weiss  said when asked if he would wear a mask: “I told some of my council members, when we talked about masks, I said if I’m ever forced to wear a mask, I’ll probably just wear a snowmobile helmet.” In other words he thought mask wearing was a joke. He also made this amazingly stupid statement: “Who am I affecting, by me not wearing a mask? I am not putting anybody in jeopardy because I am not sick.”

Imagine that. This sounds to me like what Jeremy Bentham once called “folly on stilts”.

 

Truth is Dying in in Southeastern Manitoba

Death of Truth, Epidemics/Pandemics

 

I have been blogging about the death of truth. Now I find the issue is potent in my home town.

Recently, The Winnipeg Free Press reported how the head of a Rural Municipality near us reacted to suggestions he should wear a mask at council meetings:

“A Manitoba reeve has unmasked his conspiracy-laden skepticism about the validity of COVID-19 just as health officials moved his community to “critical” on the pandemic-response scale.

RM of Labroquerie Reeve Lewis Weiss used the word “plandemic” in an interview with the Free Press Friday, implying the deadly global health crisis was orchestrated by people in power.

“It’s almost like it’s been planned out, and maybe it didn’t get as bad as they hoped it would, so they’re just playing it like it did,” Weiss said. “It’s a terrible thing.”

 

They have a political leader who disparages science in favour of conspiracy theories!

Weiss made these remarks just as Southern Health-Santé Sud health region, the regional health district that includes Steinbach and the neighbouring rural municipality of Labroquerie has been elevated to Code Red on the provincial analysis of the status of Covid-19 there. This requires masks to be worn in public indoor places such as Municipal Council Chambers. This did not sit well with Weiss who has not been wearing a mask.

The community of about 6,000 people located southeast of Steinbach is in the Southern Health-Santé Sud health regional authority, all of which will join the Winnipeg metropolitan area at the code-red level of infection-suppression protocols Monday. This is what he said when asked if he would wear a mask: “I told some of my council members, when we talked about masks, I said if I’m ever forced to wear a mask, I’ll probably just wear a snowmobile helmet.” In other words he thought mask wearing was a joke. He also made this amazingly stupid statement: “Who am I affecting, by me not wearing a mask? I am not putting anybody in jeopardy because I am not sick.”

Meanwhile with leaders like this in our area it is hardly surprising that we here in the Steinbach area have among the highest active rates of Covid-19 in all of Canada and our hospital is crammed with patients as never before and health care workers are warning they are exhausted and cannot sustain working like this indefinitely.

When ignorance marches, people  had better seek cover.

 

 

The Plot Against America

American Fascism, Death of Democracy, Death of Truth, Television Shows

 

Philip Roth was a brilliant America writer. He understood the American tendency towards fascism long before any one had ever head of Donald Trump. He wrote a book about it in 2004 called, The Plot Against America. It was a lifetime ago in other words. This year a limited television series was shown based on that book. It was well worth seeing. It really demonstrated how easily America could be tipped into fascism. I would add that Canada is not all that different.

If you think fascism could never come to America or Canada this is a series worth watching and thinking about. The series asks us to consider what life in the United States would be like if Charles Lindberg a famous aviator and racist pundit had defeated Franklin Roosevelt in a presidential election in 1940. Remember, in real life, America had a lot of Nazi supporters at the time. Fro example, there was a political rally in New York that filled Madison Square Gardens with Nazi supporters. Is that hard to believe? In the series Roth Imagined the president signing a treaty of neutrality with Adolf Hitler as a significant number of Americans actually advocated. Then president Lindbergh slowly unleashed his anti-Semitic views, though often his words that were emitted by dog whistles that his supporters understood and many other Americans took as innocent. How would that turn out?

The New York Times described the series this way:

“In other words, as James Poniewozik of the New York Times wrote when the show debuted in March, “HBO asks the audience to imagine the outlandish idea that the presidency might have been won by a celebrity demagogue new to politics who appeals to bigotry and fear, who ran on the slogan of ‘America First,’ who boasts of having ‘taken our country back,’ who sees fine people on the most reprehensible side of history, who cosies up to despots and behaves as if he were their puppet.”

 Can you think of anyone this might describe?

Even when Trump is no longer the president, whenever that happens, as Allen Levine University of Winnipeg professor of politics and Winnipeg Free columnist opined, “It is not surprising that many political commentators are wondering if the country is veering toward fascism and authoritarianism.”

Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, not exactly a flaming radical though tinged deeply with leftist tendencies, said  in a tweet on June 2, 2020, “Trump is a fascist, and he is promoting fascism in America.” I keep repeating this but I am not concerned so much about Trump. I am more concerned about the fact that more than 70 million Americans voted for him in the 2020 election. That is deeply troubling to me.

Actually, I agree with Levine , that 

“In truth, Trump is not so much a fascist as an authoritarian; or more accurately, a would-be tin-pot dictator: “An autocratic ruler with little political credibility and delusions of grandeur.” He declared last year that article II of the U.S. constitution — which defines the powers of the president — gives him the right “to do whatever I want.”

In an interview a few months ago, he claimed that as president his “authority is total.” It is not, but by his impulsive actions Trump has shown time and again that he has no understanding or will not abide by the “checks and balances” system of American government if he can help it. This has become even more blatant after he saw how loyal to him his supporters remained after the impeachment trial earlier this year.

The television series shows how with such leaders the country could slide toward fascism. With the prospect of the current president refusing to leave the White House, we are now seeing evidence of that all around us. I don’t think it is wise to assume that this could not happen. Watch the series because it might disturb your sleep.

Poisoning Democracy

American Fascism, Death of Democracy, Death of Truth

 

This is a continuation of my blog about Stephen Colbert’s reaction to Donald Trump. Colbert got serious: “Donald Trump tried really hard to kill something tonight.” Colbert was dressed in black because he said he was dressed for a funeral. Actually that was true. It was a funeral. According to Colbert, speaking of Trump, “He tried to “poison American democracy.” True again.

Trump said the same thing in 2016 that the election was rigged (even though he ended up winning the election). I suppose he discredited it in advance just to give himself an excuse if he lost  Well he did the same thing this year for weeks. In 2016 he said, “I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters, and to all of the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election–if I win!” And he thought that was funny! Was it funny?

 

Even before it was held, in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election, Trump promised the 2020 election would be “the most corrupt fraud in the history of the country.” He said that for weeks. Right up to the election he kept making the same point he did in 2016. How did he know? The answer of course, is that he didn’t know. He wanted to sow doubt in case he lost. As always he wanted to obfuscate and deceive.

Trump was trying to poison democracy for his own selfish ends. Colbert spoke out against Trump supporters who failed to object to Trump’s attack on the election with deep emotion: “Because he just attacked the thing that makes us most great. And it is time for you all to mean what your hats have been yelling.”

Colbert started by saying, “So, we all knew he would do this.” But he choked up and briefly broken down for about 15 seconds to collect himself and then, he continued with obvious deep emotion.

Colbert did not stop there. He begged Republicans who by their silence and failure to criticize Trump have enabled him. He implored them to condemn Trump as he richly deserved: “Republicans have to speak up — all of them. Because for evil to succeed, all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing.” Everyone who supported Trump should speak up and disavow his toxic presidency. Everyone who does not do that is a party to the offence.

Those are strong words, but I think strong words are needed. Failure to speak up against demagoguery and tyrannical tendencies is crucially important. Here is how Colbert put it:

 

“Say something right now, Republicans… You only survived this up till now because a lot of voters didn’t want to believe everything that was obvious to so many of us: that Donald Trump is a fascist. And when it comes to democracy versus fascism, I’m sorry, there are not fine people on both sides. So you need to choose: Donald Trump or the American people? This is the time to get off the Trump train. Because he just told you where the train is going.”

 

This really caught my ear. Colbert called the president of the United States a fascist. Could that be true? That is a serious claim and on a national TV network. It was shocking. Was it true?

Trump challenging the legitimacy of the American election without any evidence is to challenge the legitimacy of the government without any evidence. If Trump does that successfully that can lead to only one thing American fascism. And no one should think that is impossible.

I want to think more about that.

Trump: From Demagoguery to Fascism

American Fascism, Death of Democracy, Death of Truth, Trump

 

I have been talking a lot about truth and what I have called (as have others) the death of truth. I could not have had better examples than what the president of the United States said to the American people after the 2020 election. He demonstrated that he was, as Bill Maher kept saying, “a whiny little bitch.”

Did you see Stephen Colbert after the presidential election? It was surprising in more ways than one.

As Stephen Colbert explained, before all the votes had been counted, “President Trump came into the White House briefing room and lied for 15 minutes.” He said nonsensical stuff about dumping ballots and corrupt officials and secret Democratic counting cabals.

The Washington Post was not as coarse, but just as firm: The Washington Post called it “a speech of historic dishonesty” and “a litany of falsehoods and grievances, with some baseless conspiracy theories thrown in for good measure.”

Trump  said many things, always, entirely without evidence. I heard Trump tell the American people that he had been “robbed of victory.” He said he was the winner of the election since he had more “legal votes” than Biden. He said he had been “cheated out of victory.” Trump said the “mail-in-ballots are a corrupt system.” even though he had used it in the past. He said, “They’re trying to rig an election.” Many of us tend to dismiss the rants of president Trump. After all they seem too absurd for a rational person to seriously consider.

The problem is that words matter and this is particularly important when the speaker is the president of the United States. Millions of people actually believe what he says, as absurd as that sounds. They do. When Trump says the election is fraudulent his supporters tend to think that must be true and get enraged. That can be dangerous. We have seen this over and over again, whether it is the Proud Boys or the Boogaloo nuts from Michigan. Trump drives them to action and often those actions are dangerous. Trump often treats this as a joke but it is not a joke. It is serious business.

When I heard these strong statements I wondered what would his rabid supporters do? He has plenty of those. I heard and saw one on TV the next day. The supporter approached an election official who was explaining to a Nevada TV interviewer how careful he and others were being about counting the ballots and rejecting the bad ballots. They were interrupted by one of those rabid Trump supporters.

Colbert’s interpreted the incident this way, according to Emily Yahr,

“Colbert concluded by playing the viral video of Joe Gloria, the registrar of voters in Clark County, Nev., whose televised briefing this week was interrupted by a man shouting about how the “Biden crime family is stealing the election.” Gloria waited patiently until the man left and calmly asked, “Where were we?”

“He let that guy spew his crazy till he was tired and then watched him walk away. And then Joe Gloria took a deep breath and did his job. Which is what we should all do. Just stay cool,” Colbert said, and then segued into his regularly scheduled monologue.”

The election poll workers were still counting on Friday. Interestingly Trump wanted the election officials to stop counting in Pennsylvania where he was ahead but keep counting in Nevada and Arizona where he was behind. This is not quite as nonsensical as it sounds for every state has different rules. Yet we all know what Trump meant. He was not making a nuanced point. He never does. Bill Maher commented on that this way:

 “If your position is that they have to stop counting ballots in the state where you’re ahead, or its fraud, and they have to keep counting in the state where you’re behind or its fraud, you have to consider maybe its you who’s the fraud.”

 

Of course, as always when Trump makes outrageous statements he did so without any evidence to support the claim. He doesn’t need evidence for he knows most of his supporters will believe him without evidence no matter what he says. So why bother? His supporters, and there are millions of them, believe him entirely without evidence just like Christians believe Jesus. Evidence is not important when you talk about religious belief. Faith is important.

All of this had an important consequence however. I will get to that in the next few posts.