When you’re writing for a respected online news magazine, you have to do your best, to always tell the truth.
Trust is a fragile flower, easily bruised and broken.
Ha ha ha, LOL.
The fact is, it doesn’t matter what you write in a respected online news magazine. Half the people are sure you’re lying… and the other half are wondering if you are, but hoping there’s at least a shred of truth in the story.
Same goes for political speeches, of course, and the advice distributed by public health agencies. But mostly, I’m concerned about the news industry. Because I’m right in the middle of it.
Ha ha ha. LOL. That was a lie right there. I’m not even close to the middle of it.
In the vanguard, really. When it comes to lying with a straight face, that is.
Last I looked, I’ve had 381 humor columns posted here in the Daily Post, and I doubt there are more than a dozen truthful statements in that whole bunch.
But mostly, I’ve been writing lots of little white lies. Not the whoppers like we get from U.S. Presidents, and other elected and appointed leaders. I would never write, for example, something like this:
“If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized; you’re not going to be in the ICU unit and you’re not going to die.”
Or… “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”
Those are cruel lies. I like the ones that are funny.
Lies shouldn’t hurt. They ought to make you laugh.
I came across a story about some funny lies, in the March 26, 2017 issue of the Toronto Star, discussing Trump voters and their feelings about the lies that were emanating from the White House. The reporter, Daniel Dale, had done some street interviews and came to the conclusion that some Trump’s supporters were absolutely tickled by those lies.
In this case, the funny lie concerned Trump’s claim that Barack Obama and the FBI had been wiretapping him at Trump Tower.
“He’s ruffling every feather in Washington that he can ruffle. These guys are scrambling. So, yeah! I like it. I think it’s a good thing. I want to see them jump around a little bit…”
“What he was wanting to do was keep things stirred up so it was all confused. He said he was going to do that, from the time he started running for the election. That’s what it’s going to take. When they’re confused, they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re going to make a mistake, and he’s going to grab them…”
“I think that was just something just to rattle Obama. I don’t think any less of him because of it. As long as he don’t keep it up continuously — every once in a while, sure, take a little stab and crack at him or something. You expect that. He’s a humorous guy…”
This was back in 2017, and I’m still laughing.