“Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak when power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound when majesty falls to folly.” Kent in King Lear (1.1.164-167)
Daily opinion pieces masquerading as news bombard us incessantly. Talk radio, print media, cable news, podcasts, and social media diatribes flourish with stories based on innuendo, prevarication, and outright creation with no basis.
And Americans embrace it with gusto. It works in both directions, but one is ahead in their creative skills.
Seeking more information—something that might contradict one’s innate confirmation bias and unveil the truth—is disloyal to the cause.
We have become a nation of us vs them with compromise considered surrender to the enemy.
The examples are abundant. But two—one recent and one existing since the advent of zero-sum politics became the norm—illustrate the phenomenon.
In the most recent case, Judge Merchan, the much-maligned trial judge in the Hush money case—called conflicted, corrupt, and intimately involved in a conspiracy against the defendant—sent a letter to prosecutors and the defense pointing out a post on Facebook that may, with the emphasis on may, be a sign of pre-verdict discussions by one of the jurors in the trial.
Why would a corrupt and conflicted Judge, intent on convicting the defendant, after meeting this nefarious goal, start a discussion that might, and the emphasis is on might, result in a mistrial?
This shows the judge is anything but corrupt. This indicates his overriding concern for fairness and supporting the cause of justice.
But this is not what Sean Hannity et al. report. First, they seize on the posting as absolute proof of a corrupt process before the matter is vetted. Then, they proclaim that a mistrial is the only solution and demand the court dismiss the charges due to this “evidence” of a corrupt process.
And those addicted to a solitary point of view—that everything and everyone who does not support Mr. Trump and the right-wing agenda is corrupt—believe it without the slightest effort to evaluate the validity of the claim.
Let me summarize. A corrupt Judge, intent on convicting Mr. Trump at the behest of the Biden Administration, opens the possibility of a mistrial. Why would he do that? He is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It supports their agenda—perverting the course of justice to secure the return of Mr. Trump to the White House—even as it disproves their contention of corruption.
It would seem many believe a lie in support of an agenda is always better than the truth.
The second example is even more troubling. Along with the belief anyone who disagrees with the conservative perspective is corrupt and criminally responsible for attacking conservatives comes the agenda against the Woke philosophy.
Dictionary.com defines “Woke” as:
“…having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those involving the treatment of ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities:”
and
“Disparaging. as used by political opponents, of or relating to a liberal progressive orthodoxy.”
So, recognition of the long history of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and sexuality is, in the view of the right, a terrible thing. It is so bad that they must combat it in schools by sanitizing history.
“slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” (from Florida Department of Education Policy Manual) That is like saying the people in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and Dachau got free housing.
Joe Broadmeadow
Events such as the Trail of Tears suffered by the Cherokee or the Long Walk of the Navaho from their homes are to be erased from history. The advent of Indian Schools intended to destroy the native language and culture is to be ignored. The theft of ancestral lands to accommodate settlers from Europe is the nature of life. These and others, just to name a few, are rewritten to put a positive spin on the effect on these cultures.
But the most startling is the rewriting of slavery to include the “positive benefits” experienced by those captured or born into slavery.
I will save you the trouble of reading the 216-page document published by the Florida Department of Education. However, I will put the link below. This gem is the most troubling line among a staggering number of disturbing concepts.
That is like saying the people in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and Dachau got free housing.
Skills?
Skills like tougher skin after healing from the slash and snap of the whip?
Skills like how to endure a two-month no frills ocean cruise in the hold of a ship?
Skills like learning English as a second language and effectively using the word “Massa?”
Skills like learning to accept the sale of your children to other slave owners so they can develop a sturdier character and learn new personally beneficial skills?
Skills like embracing the one true Christian religion and abandoning the errors of their culture and heathen beliefs from Africa?
Slaves reaped benefits in their bondage. Really?
I wonder whether, if the circumstances were reversed, those who wrote this abomination of history would feel the same as they watched their child auctioned? Or would they take comfort in knowing that while their children are gone forever, they at least have learned how to pick cotton and set a proper table?
I think not.
What have we come to as a country when educated, intelligent, and rational humans believe there are two sides to slavery? Why is acknowledging the history of discrimination —overwhelmingly benefiting white males over others —and learning from it not a good thing?
Here is my fear. Some embrace the past as perfect. They would have us ignore the reality of the need for the 13th and 19th Amendments. They might argue the Emancipation Proclamation was premature as the slaves still needed more “skills.”
In their view, today’s issues all started when things changed. When white landowners ran this country, we had no such problems.
Is this the real agenda of Making America Great Again?
The Writing of Joe Broadmeadow 
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