Oxford English Dictionary just announced the new word of the
year “post-truth” meaning supposed truth without the use of facts. Something we noted quite a bit throughout the
recent election campaign. However, as
writers, we often stretch facts and truth for the sake of our stories.
I hadn’t planned on blogging about this but on a writing
topic, but listening to the news constantly it is hard to separate things at
time. As many of my readers know I am
not pleased about Trump’s win – mainly because a lot of his campaign seemed to
run hate mongering against Mexicans, Muslims, disparaging women –especially
those who stood up to him, and others without really giving us any facts about
his plans for tax reform, women’s rights, gay rights, immigrants, and many
other issues including climate change as a Chinese hoax?? (He says he will not touch Medicare and social
security but his friend Paul Ryan vows that he will make changes.) Then he hires someone as his main advisor a
man who has spearheaded a white supremacy movement. Despite some saying that Bannon is not
anti-Semitic, actions speak louder than words.
Already there have been a huge increase in hate crimes and
scrawlings across the nation like notices that this is a White Christian Nation
and pictures of the Auschwitz death camp with the notice “Wait for the trains”
beneath. Kind of scary.
No Hillary was not
perfect, but who is? Many of her
decisions in the past were indeed flawed and as a Jew, I was concerned about
her continuing Obama’s coolness toward Israel.
Many of the “facts” that Trump presented were exaggerated or
flawed. According to one poll, he lied
54:3 (Hillary). He has indicated he
wants revenge on the media that showed him in a negative light and talked about
removing their FCC licensing. He
forgets all the free publicity he received that pushed him into the limelight
when his boisterous words echoed. Now, he is banning reporters from certain
places. He slammed and made it appear
that Hillary wanted the Muslims to overrun the country while not taking any of
his own flaws into consideration. (Oh
wait – he doesn’t have any flaws. He
doesn’t use charity donations for his own use or glorification, right? He doesn’t sue people on the drop of a pin
for a perceived sight or cheat people?)
Today he is receiving accolades from various dictators
around the world as Putin, Syria’s Assad, and others. Do they see a fellow demigod in front of
them?
However, a lot of people, especially in the middle of the
country are angry and some with good reason. And we have to give them some credence which
apparently the Democratic party did not. (Though as you recall it was the
Republicans who shut down the government not one but twice because they did not
want to pass the budget. That hurt a lot of people.) This country is great for many, not so good
for others, but still probably better than most countries out there. It still shocks me at whom I know that voted
from Trump, that they did not consider the possible consequences of his words. But it doesn’t do any good to argue.
Trump did win the electoral college, though not the popular
vote, which I still do not understand.
Nevertheless, according to our laws, he is now the President-Elect. I heard him say that as a businessman many of
his stands were part of negotiations. But now he seems to be taking those
backs. So what really is his bottom line? Will we
ever know? Will he set off nuclear
weapons in a temper snit? Will he be
able to control the hatred that seems to have increased with his own license to
speak? Will he keep any of his good
promises like more jobs for higher pay and lower taxes? He does have a majority of the Congress as
Republicans now – but how many will support that?
So it seems the new word “post –truth” will now be part of
our dictionary. I hope that people learn
to look beyond the post and read the real facts. If you don’t believe the “liberal” media like
CNN, New York Times, etc at least listen and take things with a grain of salt
(as the cliché goes.) I am trying to listen to places like FOX, etc to balance what I am hearing, but don't see much hope there.
I guess we can only watch, wait and pray that somehow he
will do what is right for the majority of the country – and be prepared to act,
if we must, in some way to defend our rights for the next four years.
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