Plague Journal (27): muddy waters

The president uses words like a teenage boy who's figured out that certain words will make him sound smart, even authoritative. That's the way he uses the word "constitution." It more often reveals his ignorance rather than his authority. It's a kind of numbing task to sort through his calculated vacuities. Everything he says is simply a salesman's chatter. The one and only goal is to get you to buy the product, and the product is himself.

I don't plan to get political on this blog very often, but once and a while I like to stop and admire the train wreck. If you're interested in the truth, you don't credit salesmen much. You understand they have one agenda, and will bend the truth to suit their purpose. You walk around the lot with the used car salesman, hoping just to sort through the onslaught of falseness and key in on something that is true. You're trying not to be manipulated, but a good salesman knows how to get through all your defenses.

I notice that some networks cut away from the president's press conference yesterday when he started showing a campaign-style video about his greatness, and his flawless response to the virus. The news isn't meant to be billboard space for him to post his free advertising. And then when reporters had the effrontery to actually question the approved narrative, well that really gets his goat.The whole press-conference turned into a Festivus-like airing of grievances.

The narrative, you see, is everything. It is all he has. If there's any truth in the narrative, it's carefully selected to bolster the overall effect, so the truth and the lies are carefully stirred together. As I said yesterday, this is a battle between two competing stories, but it's important to realize that the truth is being misused in both. It's as if there are two competing used-car dealerships, right across the street from one another. Over on this side is Dem Motors, and across the street, Republican Auto. They've both got their long strands of little triangular flags, their ad-buys on local TV, etc. But the simple fact is, none of us have to listen to either of them. They're just noise, and in our search for truth we must understand that propaganda never contributes anything valuable. It only muddies the water.