A reminder about 2016

The truth makes Donald Trump look bad, but we still feel like we have to lie about him. This was painfully obvious in 2016 and perhaps a contributing factor to Trump's victory.

In 2016, the media pushed all kinds of dishonesty aimed at Trump. Members of the media destroyed their own credibility. This led to an increased skepticism of the media's narrative. As a result, many voters stopped believing the truth when it was presented by the media.

I have said before that if the media would have eased up just a little, they might have succeeded in electing Hillary Clinton. It appears that the media has been making similar mistakes as we approach the next presidential election. They are trying to secure a victory for Joe Biden, but they are completely destroying their credibility in the process.

This problem became especially obvious when the media intentionally removed context when Trump mentioned a bloodbath in the auto industry. I knew the moment I first saw anything posted online that this was fixation on a word that they were taking out of context. In fact, I looked for comments because I thought someone would correct the story. Unsurprisingly, my suspicions were validated.

You would have to be incredibly gullible to fall for this misinformation. A lot of people did fall for it, but this was primarily by Trump-obsessed individuals who are already going to vote for Biden. They tried to find ways to defend themselves such as insisting that Republicans were spinning his words by restoring the context that had been removed. They insist that intentionally removing context is justified because they hate Trump.

What about voters who aren't already locked into their choice? How does this story impact them? Technically speaking, I don't think I can nail down the impact. I'm a big believer in individuality, and it's clear that the impact will not be the same for everyone.

Society has gradually become dumber and dumber. Voters are likely more vulnerable to this form of misinformation than they were eight years ago. On the other hand, this is a much more obvious example of misinformation than we saw eight years ago. Which is happening faster, the dumbing down of society or the shamelessness of our corrupt media? If I had to guess, I would say that eight years is probably not enough for people to start falling for the bloodbath hoax.

Once again, the media is trying to manipulate election results while proving they can't be trusted. This is more likely to help Trump than hurt him. Because the media is destroying its own credibility, people aren't going to trust anti-Trump reporting, even when the media is being honest.

Now, it's time for the part of the post I hate. It's time for me to clarify things that shouldn't need any clarification. Unfortunately, living in an era of mass mindlessness, far too many people struggle to grasp the obvious. Without clarifications, people are going to criticize me for believing things that I don't believe.

Not everybody embraces binary partisan conformity. It's true that I tend to side more with Republicans than Democrats. That's primarily because of the Democrats. I openly refuse to allow the Republicans to dictate my beliefs, thoughts, and opinions. My frustrations with the dishonest liberal media should not be interpreted as trust in dishonest conservative sources or as support for the antics of Donald Trump. Similarly, nothing in this post should be interpreted as an endorsement of either political candidate. The truth is that I view both as having automatically disqualifying traits.