Over the last several weeks, as I’ve watched the news, it seems as though our great national fraying has accelerated and we continue to descend into a cycle of bitter vitriol, hysterical accusation, advocacy of extra-constitutional action and appeals to passion.

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I’ve thought at length about this for a few days and I’ve come to the conclusion that what we are witnessing are the results of two fundamental, insidious and pernicious lies. 

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Not untruths, not factually incorrect statements, not misrepresentations – lies.  Lies because, as opposed to those who sincerely believe in them, those who propagate them do so knowingly as efforts at self-aggrandizement, profit and power. 

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The lies to which I refer are these:

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1. The presidential election of 2020 was not fairly conducted and the results are illegitimate.

2. The United States of America is a fundamentally or systemically racist country.

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Each of these lies begets more and more lies, and each sets up a paradigm of false remedies, often worse and more destructive than the fundamental lie itself.   

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Each lie appeals to something in peoples’ nature – whether it’s an opportunity to validate grievances or to demonstrate how good and empathetic a person is – but they are nonetheless lies; wholly unsupported by evidence. 

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Each also plays off and reinforces the other – the more people hear how racist their country is (and by extension, how racist they must be), the more they may tend to embrace the other lie.  The more people advocate for the first lie, the more adherents are drawn to the second lie as a facile explanation of the first.

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Thankfully, most Americans believe neither of these lies.  Many, though, are probably reluctant to openly admit it for fear of what it may do to their stature within their particular tribe; they are reluctant to be labeled a sheep, an unkind person, perhaps even a racist themselves.

The lies, however, have almost fully consumed our two major political parties.  There are precious few authentic liberals or conservatives serving in Washington these days, and their ranks are thinning at the state level.

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All of this is of course reinforced by social media and in many cases by the “mainstream” media we choose to listen to.  There is undeniable comfort in having your beliefs validated.  And in this I am no different than anyone else; it is a constant effort to keep applying reason to matters where my emotions are triggered.  

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We need to break free.  We need to reject these lies; to demand evidence in support of the others they spawn; to not let up in a commitment to truth and to reason, and we need to seek out leaders who model this approach.  Life is too short, our country to precious, and the world too in need to do otherwise.