Thursday, April 7, 2022:  The End of Truth – a.k.a. The Disinformation Age
The internet and associated social media are the gifts that keep on giving to the despots of the world. There are now multiple conduits that connect today's evil emperors to the duped. There have always been snake oil salesmen and tyrants willing to lie and manipulate, but it is only recently that they have had the efficiency of the internet, social media outlets, and cable television to facilitate their grift. The advantage is the reach of the tools. Speaking to a group in a closed setting has limited reach. Posting to a blog, tweeting, or getting a spot on fox news, gets you access to millions of the ready, willing and dupable.

American has been in moral decline since early 60's. Much of that decline has been deliberately facilitated by the rich and powerful. Fact is, they don't give a shit about anyone but themselves. For them it is all about manipulating the masses to their own ends. They know that there is power in numbers. That's why they have successfully beaten down unions and why they continue to fund disinformation that undermines our democracy. They have taken full advantage of the efficiency of the disinformation age as they apply a basic underlying formula – pander to the grievances and prejudices of the masses and use lies and misinformation to turn the resulting energy into hatred that pits one neighbor against another.

I am a pessimist to start with, but even taking that into account, I can't see any hope that the current political situation in the U.S. will end well. Our version of the Russian oligarchs, the Koch Clan, and their money have fragmented our country to the point that we are a second or third rate power in the world. Putin and Xi Jinping are laughing their asses off and that little North Korean twerp is dancing around clapping his hands just waiting to launch a nuke on one of his hypersonic missiles. We are the laughing stock of the world's despots.

Sadly the rich and powerful think that they will be immune to the fall out. They won't. The fallacy in their thinking is that they believe they are smarter than the average bear; that somehow their wealth and power can offset any tendency for history to repeat itself. Won't they be shocked when they are stood up against a wall and shot.