Here's the misinformation that's going to get you

Yes, we're being firehosed with misinformation right now; but you're probably looking out for the wrong kind.

(This was supposed to publish on Monday, Feb. 17, so pretend it did.)

As I write this Substack in my capacity as an individual private person, and not in my capacity as a nonprofit science writer with Skeptoid Media; I can freely state my personal thoughts here. For example: the current Trump/Musk administration is a shitshow of such epic proportions it defies description. They are an international embarrassment on the world stage. Every single world leader is laughing at their incompetence and misplaced arrogance.

Rightfully so. As I have said many times, most political ideologies include good ideas. No truly wise person would glue themselves to every platform position of any one party. However: Populism, the ideology that has replaced conservatism in the Republican party, is the one ideology that includes no good ideas at all.

(Populism: A political ideology exploiting widespread discontent by demonizing elites and other groups, oversimplifying complex issues, and promoting division. It often undermines democratic norms and stokes public fear for personal or party gain, disregarding long-term societal health for immediate, superficial appeasement.)

Populism — never better exemplified than by Trump and Musk — is the party of proud ignorance. It is the party of sticking it to others, for any reason, or no reason. It is the celebration of brash superiority — imagined though it may be. It is also the party to which all bigots are drawn, as their priorities are the most superficial of all.

Some examples:

• Deport all the undocumented workers! Never mind the enormous harm to our agricultural and service industries which depend on this cooperatively migrant workforce.

• Stick it to the foreigners with tariffs! Never mind that tariffs are taxes paid by American consumers, and you cannot expect to tax yourself and come out ahead.

• Cancel our gay and transgender fellow citizens! Never mind that they commit crimes at a lower rate than white christians, and are victimized by hate crimes by white christians.

• Stop giving welfare to the lazy homeless! Never mind that giving free basic services to the homeless reduces costs in police and emergency medical services, reduces the homelessness rate, adds to the workforce and to the GDP, and that this effect is generational.

Obviously we could go on all day, and this kind of misinformation is now being trumpeted from the highest towers across the nation. Populism is literally asking stupid bigots to give their uninformed kneejerk reaction to something, and making that policy, which appeases the ignorant majority.

But, like I said in the headline: populist bullshit is not the kind of misinformation you have to worry about. We all know it’s bullshit. No secret there.

What you need to worry about is leftist bullshit that exaggerates or outright lies about populist bullshit. Populist bullshit self-debunks; it does not need any help. When far left activists try to portray it in the most negative possible light, sometimes they exaggerate (and even outright lie about) it to make it look as horrible as possible.

Here is an example from this week.

Musk gave a press conference from Trump’s Oval Office, and his 4-yr-old son X was there (actual name X Æ A-Xii, because Musk is not weird at all). Watch this video to see what allegedly happened:

Hilarious! Right? Well, only if you heard the same things Mr. Beard here heard. I did not. Neither did Snopes, which put some actual work into it:

https://www.snopes.com/articles/469232/musk-son-told-trump-shut-up/

They heard only a very few discernible words, unlike Mr. Beard who said they were as “clear as day”. They weren’t to me. Nor were they when Snopes ran them through the latest and greatest AI audio separation software.

Friends, we all know we are being continuously flooded with lies and bullshit from the populist right. Where our guard needs to be now is against lies and bullshit from the opposition left.

Stick to the strong middle of the road. Be a part of the solution. 💪🏼