The federal government has a mammoth bureaucracy that stands guard over our eyes and ears, enforcing what they call “truth in labelling.” Pringles potato ch*ps, for instance, are not legally allowed to call themselves potato chips because they are powdered and reconstituted before being fried. Don’t you feel so much safer knowing the word “chip” is being so vigilantly guarded? Which raises the question, of course, of who guards the guards? The federal government seems daily to invent new ways to mislabel what they are and what they do.
Even when they do tell the truth, however, they prefer to whisper. Consider the shocking news last week that National Public Radio would no longer have a presence on Twitter. I know, I know. Tragic, but we must press on. Their departure wasn’t, by their own admission, driven by ideological objections to conservative commentary on Twitter. They aren’t triggered by the presence of Elon Musk at the top of the food chain. No, they took their scintillating social media presence and went home because Twitter accurately labeled them as “state- affiliated” and “government funded.” As my friends at the Babylon Bee put it, “National Public Radio Announces It is Not National and Not Public.”
The truth is that governments at various levels contribute roughly a third of NPR’s budget. Some percentage comes from private donations, from everyone from the person who donates $10 in exchange for a tote bag to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Another percentage comes from “corporate sponsors” that reveals yet another lie from NPR- that they are commercial free. Seriously? In case you’ve never tuned in to NPR, know that you are regularly reminded that NPR wants to thank their sponsors, like Lands End, purveyors of fine clothing for all your family needs. True, the commercials are typically understated and reserved, but anyone can see they are commercials.
The old saw that there is one sure sign that a politician is lying- his lips are moving, is true enough. NPR learned this art from their masters, the federal government. This sponsor is the proud purveyor of the Respect for Marriage Act which codified the monstrosity that was the Supreme Court’s Obergfell decision that imposed homo mirage on the states. This sponsor is the proud purveyor of the Inflation Reduction Act, which does nothing to reduce inflation and looks suspiciously like what it is, a pork-laden green boondoggle. And all of these are brought to you by the fine men and women of Federal Reserve Bank. If they had to practice truthful labelling their motto would be, “We are not federal and we have no reserves.”
The wanton destruction of truth, the massacre of words, the shameless lies of politicians, in the end isn’t mere fodder for stand-up comics or the Babylon Bee. It is central to the destruction of our entire culture, to the war against reality. It is Orwell’s Ministry of Truth at work, seeking to cram life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness into a memory hole.