Thoughts with Richard Bleil
Even as Faux “News” is receiving a thrashing in their defamation case with Dominion, a voting machine manufacturer and target of many conservative news hosts in their claims of voter fraud, Tucker Carlson is at it again. If you haven’t been keeping up with the trial, more and more evidence is coming up that demonstrates that behind the scenes, news personalities, producers, and even owner Rupert Murdoch were fully aware that Trump’s claims of tampering were false and “unhinged”, even as they continued to feed the lie that was contrary to what they knew to their viewers. Many of my own conservative friends decry the “false” narrative of major news sources, but the number one watched “news” show (I cannot even write it without the quotation marks anymore) is, indeed, Faux “News”. That makes it the mainstream news leader, and while proof has been and continues to be presented demonstrating the lies it fed to the viewers to promote their own agenda, these conservatives continue to follow and support it.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Now, major Faux “News” host Tucker Carlson is at it again. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in an apparent attempt to bring back the good old days of McCarthyism, provided over 40,000 hours of security video footage from capital building taken during the January 6 insurrection. Acting alone like a self-appointed prophet in his effort to provide what he calls “transparency”, he only provided it to Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson, in turn showed the first of what he promised to be two airings of this footage “so his viewers can decide for themselves”. He hand-picked scenes from the day that shows insurrectionists milling around the building, taking pictures and acting like simple tourists. In my mind’s eye, his actions should open up Faux “News” to another multi-billion dollar class-action lawsuit on behalf of those injured or killed in the insurrection and their families.
The footage would be the equivalent of showing videos of the Grand Canyon to deny the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and frankly, it’s just as un-American as such a video would be.
And yet, his followers are eating it up. While I disagree with the actions of the January 6 investigation committee to present their evidence for political gain rather than criminal proceedings, they did lay out a reasonable and strong argument that the resurrection was planned, criminal in nature, and at the very least encouraged by Trump and his administration. Tucker Carlson is attempting to show “the other side”, providing select few hours of video while ignoring any video that might show the truth. Some Republicans, including Mitch McConnell who I believe has previously shown disdain for the Constitution and rule of law, have tried to distance themselves from this circus act. Others are using it as fresh “evidence”, as weak as it is, to again toss about false allegations of the insurrection claiming that it never happened.
The problem with this kind of mentality is that there is no arguing with it. These conservative Republicans are so certain that they are right that they don’t even want to entertain any evidence to the contrary. Recently I came across an article that suggested that at one time the Earth had two moons that eventually collided and merged into the one we see today. I didn’t pay much attention to it. Although I thought it was interesting, the history of the moon is just not a subject I follow. A friend of mine posted a photo of the moon saying that he was curious about how the moon was formed. I made the mistake of assuming that he actually meant it, so I commented on the article. He insulted me, and frankly my entire life, by throwing a quote from Mark Twain, a fictional writer and humorist, to discount me and all of science in one sentence. What I had forgotten is that he’s one of those followers of the Bible so devoted that he believes the universe, in its entirety, is only about six thousand years old.
This kind of belief actually stifles two of God’s greatest gifts, namely a curious mind, and second the ability to figure things out intellectually. How did the moon form? Well, if it’s less than six thousand years old, there’s no answer but to say “God”. And if God created it, then there’s no reason to look at evidence to the contrary, or actually think about the science that is all around us. This is what these Conservative Republicans are doing. They’re so convinced that they know the truth that they are seeking the evidence to support their own unfounded conclusions and refuse to consider any evidence to the contrary. So what’s the point in even trying to talk with them?
Bleil's Banter 