To Be Or Not To Be

Full disclosure. The Kernersville News is not part of the mainstream media that I am speaking about here.

We’ve all heard a lot about the mainstream media and how it has been infiltrated by corruption.  There is nothing “mainstream” about the media in the United States. Sometimes I think that stream meanders through the Peoples Republic of China. 

The job of the media is to shed light so the people can find their way. In other words, just give us facts, true facts, and let us make our own decisions. Instead, we usually get propaganda and only what they want us to hear.

There’s very little trust left in most media. That’s sad because we need honest journalists to do their job so that people can hold government accountable. Journalists need to ask questions, of government officials, and then give us unfiltered answers. Not to mention the many other issues, outside government, that we need to be informed about. We need facts and truth to influence the culture that we live in.

One major media failure that I recall vividly was during the Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The event shook the nation to the core, but the media’s coverage of the event and subsequent investigation made things much worse. Remember Richard Jewell? He was a security guard who had initially reported the suspicious package that contained the bomb. The media portrayed Jewell as the prime suspect, with headlines such as “FBI Suspects ‘Hero’ Guard May Have Planted Bomb,” before any official charges were filed. This false accusation resulted in a damaging smear campaign against Jewell, who was hounded by the media and publicly shamed for months. It wasn’t until several months later that the real perpetrator, Eric Rudolph, was identified and arrested. 

Jewell’s name and image were splashed across national news outlets, and he was portrayed as a failed law enforcement officer and potential domestic terrorist. He was hounded by the media and harassed by the public. His home was searched, his belongings were confiscated, and he was interrogated by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. He also lost his job as a security guard. He was also unable to escape the shadow of suspicion, as some continued to believe that he had played a role in the bombing long after Eric Rudolph was identified and caught. 

If the media can’t even tell the basic truth about a major story like the Olympic Park bombing, how can we ever expect that we can get accurate reporting on more routine matters like what happens in state and local politics? 

We’ve recently seen the need to change language to fit an agenda. We can identify ourselves as male or female and nobody is supposed to question our self-identity. We use whatever pronouns we like regardless of science or history or any other logical reasoning. 

What happens when more and more people decide to identify as something other than what they are? If I identify as a man, that’s my right. Perhaps, I may want to identify as black, Hispanic, or Asian. 

I told you before about the people that are self-identifying as animals. They don’t consider themselves human. I understand there are two main groups, otherkin (people who identify as mythical characters) and therians (people who identify as earthly animals.) Oops, I called them people. My bad, I mean individuals.

You might assume these folks are mentally unstable.  Clinical psychology professor, Dr. Marc Feldman, explained to The Daily Dot that it isn’t true. He said, “People in advantaged countries like to think of themselves as especially complex, colorful, and special. The otherkin phenomenon certainly reflects this first-world preoccupation. But it isn’t illegal, doesn’t victimize other people, and isn’t a form of mental illness (unless people become delusional about it), so I don’t see a particular need for ‘treatment.’”

A serious media would be calling this stuff out, don’t you think?

I have decided to identify as a 30-year-old, wealthy woman who looks like Marilyn Monroe. Don’t you dare try to tell me differently.