No Sweat

Hello.

How do we know what to believe anymore?

The president of the United States says Ukraine started the war with Russia — essentially, that Ukraine invaded itself — and roughly a third of this country seems to believe it. The new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services says that Cod Liver Oil — the icky, nose-wrinkling bane of freckled, eww-ing 1950s sitcom kids — can prevent measles, whereas in fact it mostly appears to help facilitate cerebral hemorrhages. Trump claims that the United States had spent $50 million dollars buying condoms for Hamas, and when that was proven to be a groundless, baseless lie, Trump corrected himself. He said it was actually $100 million. Also, you know, transgender mice.

Political lying has become so thick and blatant and in such plentiful supply that it seems to create an unchallengeable morass of facts, factoids and outright intellectual perjury. How do we fight against this?

Well, I can tell you. Watch what I do, and learn.

Here is an example. Just the other day, I saw an amazing pop-up ad that flashed across my computer screen, a significant bargain on an interesting item of clothing. It was for a colorful, lush-looking sweater that dropped to mid-thigh. (That's the advertised product above.) It was described as a “Men’s Retro Colorblock Patchwork Cozy Plush Hooded Cardigan.” For a mere $56.76, shipping included! That is quite a price for an item of such apparent quality. I noticed, alertly, that the company was called Menweary.com, a name that seemed to betray an odd sense of …. fatigue or lassitude … but these aggressively colorful products bore no sign of lack of care, or energy. I punched up Paypal. This was to be a cross-gender gift for Rachel.