To the editor:

I wish I could ask “what the H, E, double toothpicks has it happened in this country that so many people have gone so crazy that they will literally believe anything?” but I know the answer, Facebook! From the letters to the editor of late all I see is a bunch of algorithm driven, media bubble … spewing some of the most illogical nonsense any rational human just shakes their head at and says “what?” The lack of critical thinking that is demonstrated by all of these right-wing zealots, that hold beliefs as truths, and anything that is not contained in your belief system is relegated to the dustbin of “fake news.”

I mean really, do you seriously think that wearing a cloth mask (or the readily available surgical masks) is in any way equivalent to spending hours a day, for years on end, breathing the dust generated in a pre-OSHA world’s textile factory? Come on, where is your brain? Seriously, medical professionals wear masks for hours a day for decades on end and aren’t gasping and wheezing from some garment worker’s disease of the past! … Well, you read it on Facebook, it must be true.

Then there are all of you decrying of the horrors of the Biden administration. The caravans coming to the border, the immigrants with the “China virus,” the teaching of reality (you know, that racist people have existed in the past and are part of the fabric of this country, not to mention all of history, so why would it not be prevalent today?), and most importantly … Hunter’s laptop!

Never mind the reality of what this administration has been done, say: reduction of childhood poverty by 50%; overall poverty dropped by 40%; the largest and fastest mass relocation of humans in all of history; then there is the simple fact that this administration purchased enough vaccine for the entire country (as well as for others in the world) not just some to be handed out to the states to do with what they wished. Once again the information bubble you people live in does not allow you to know what it is that you do not know! After all, how can you ever know what it is that the algorithm or the propagandists do not want you to know when you are programmed to never listen to those whom do not reinforce your beliefs?

A population that is living longer in an information age wants more education. People contributing to society want a living wage. When a company makes billions in profits their employees want raises. In the richest country on the planet, health care should not be a privilege. The elderly want to hear, see and have teeth. OMG, these leftists are destroying this country! If we don’t have an us and them society, how will anyone know they’re better than “those” people? Well, there is your Facebook “newsfeed” reminding you every day that what you believe is what is true, not that what is true is what you should believe.

It is as if we are living in the upside down world. When I watch right-wing media (which I do, unlike all you sheep that have been convinced that anything you don’t “believe” is “fake news”) I have come to realize that they are always telling their viewers what they are doing but are saying that the “fake news” is doing it. It is such an effective tool for manipulating. Endlessly tell the followers what tools you are using to control them but claim it is the left that is employing said propaganda tool, knowing that the right-wing brain has been so washed that no-one will ever notice. My brain breaks!

“The other people are lying to you so do not listen to them. They want to take away your …, they are deceiving you by …, they want to control you so .., keep being afraid! As 45 told you during a rally “if you just repeat something often enough, people will believe you” i.e., we’re lying to you!

We are at a point where it doesn’t matter what the issue is, this GQP’s stance is to be in opposition regardless. Tax the rich, No! Help the poor, No! House the homeless, No! Generate more energy by building turbines and solar arrays, No! Entire states go to crisis systems of care, No, I don’t believe you! Clean and safe drinking water, No! I could go on and on.

All you people out there that have been brainwashed to the point that you can think that a story on “Fox News” from “Florida” saying “a case” was wrongly counted without then having the next logical thought … “I wonder how many cases have not been counted?” or “I wonder if it was counted as COVID because he could not get care do to the hospitals being overwhelmed with COVID patients?” need to break out of the cult of lies that is as obvious as the fact that water is wet.

Yet somehow, as a society, we have come to a place where a significant portion of the population believes Biden is responsible for a global supply chain failure without acknowledging a global pandemic. And most insidiously, we have neighbors willing to be rude, outrageous and even violent in defense of a demonstrably false narrative based on the ridiculous notion that anyone in the former administration ever told the truth!

So just keep hitting that refresh button on your algorithmically produced news feed and never change that radio or TV channel. “Feed” your “beliefs” with reinforcement by repetition. Keep insisting you know the truth while making fools of yourselves with your profound displays of ignorance. And above all, keep insisting important news must be about what offends you not about what affects you.

You are right where they want you, primed and programmed, ready to believe whatever they want you to believe. Indoctrinated such that you literally are willing to sacrifice children’s health and lives to fight a culture war. Feelings are more important than facts.

If you fail to know history, you are doomed to repeat it. If you can’t even acknowledge current events as reality, you have already given up.

Eric Becht

Mifflintown