Why Bother With The Truth When A Lie Will Do?

Two events this day provide a bit of insight into the sad state of our intellectual world today.

The first has to do with the images of American Airlines Flight 77 impacting the Pentagon that were recently released by the government. There is no reasonable doubt that 19 members of al-Qaeda attacked this country on September 11, 2001, and killed thousands of innocents in the process. Yet just look at some of the reactions to the images of tragedy. For some, anti-Americanism is a reflexive reaction. Of course the government was really the one responsible for September 11 – because America is always guilty. Never mind that Flight 77 carried with it dozens of innocent passengers who were immolated when that plane hit the ground in front of the Pentagon.

Denial of the events of 9/11 is no less odious than Holocaust denial – it is the true misappropriation of tragedy for not only a political end, but a political end that systematically dishonors and dehumanizes the victims of tragedy. Sadly, the idiocy of such conspiracy theories is leaking into even mainstream political discourse.

We have forgotten, haven’t we?

The next concerns Colorado charlatan Ward Chamberlain, who was caught red-headed in plagiarism, academic fraud, and fundamental dishonesty. But like another charlatan – Noam Chomsky – Churchill’s lies are just too convenient to truly discard them. Who cares when “speaking truth to power” becomes nothing more than spreading lies? It’s not the content that matters to some, it’s the perspective. Or to put it blunty, goodfacts will always beat realfacts to some. It doesn’t matter that the reality they live in, the self-serving vision of America the Police State in which only the benighted and enlightened few posses the truth, is all a complete sham. When you can play the superhero fighting the evil and intractable forces of the neocons, the Zionists, etc., what more does one need?

Meanwhile, millions of people in Iraq still live in fear while we play our foolish games. The Taliban are threatening to undo all the progress in Afghanistan since 2001. Iran is inching closer day by day to obtaining nuclear weapons and continues to threaten the annihilation of Israel. The West Bank and Gaza continue to teeter at the edge of a true civil war. The real enemy, the people who really would put everyone into a real police state, are still out there.

It’s so much easier to think that real bravery is some comedian making fun of the President safe in Washington D.C. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, real heroes are putting their lives on the line.