Truth is Truth: Bernie Sander’s Big Lie

Bernie Sanders is a top contender for the nomination to lead the Democrat Party into the 2020 election against President Donald J. Trump. His passionate followers “Feel the Bern!” and they are fully committed to carrying Bernie all the way to the Presidency. The Democrat’s big problem is that Bernie believes his truth. America’s bigger problem is that his supporters believe Bernie. There will be consequences. In Bernie’s 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, he made some contentious comments regarding Fidel Castro’s Cuba. “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?”

After a firestorm erupted, Bernie doubled down on his defense of Castro in a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo. Cuomo contended that many Democrats felt that because Fidel Castro destroyed freedoms in that country, you don’t give him a pat on the back for anything. Bernie responded with, “You don’t – it’s not a – truth is truth, all right?” With that comment, Bernie showed his steadfast commitment to his truth and unwavering conviction in his beliefs. Beliefs he has held his entire life and is not afraid to speak to. Bernie’s long held admiration and support of totalitarian regimes has caused more than a little panic within the Democratic party and worse, for Bernie at least, the mainstream media who will have a tough time packaging Bernie in any pro-American light without exposing their own hatred for their country. Bernie Sanders has been open and outspoken his entire adult life and yet here he is, on the verge of leading the Democratic Party and possibly becoming President. It’s perplexing, Bernie’s views are the antithesis of America. How could his ascension occur in a country whose constitution is founded in Liberty? Freedom of speech should prevent the vacuum necessary for a man of his ideological principles to rise to such a position. Freedom of speech has obviously failed its duties and that’s because, as I attempted to explain in Liberty’s Lips or Tyranny’s Tongue[https://canadafreepress.com/article/libertys-lips-or-tyrannys-tongue], the mainstream media have long pushed one message, sung with one voice, and shared one tongue. However, maybe Attorney General William Barr says it better as he describes the media being “remarkably monolithic in their viewpoint”.

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Bernie’s “truth is truth” defense of Castro reveals more than his narrow justification for defending totalitarian regimes, it is the very defense the mainstream media use to justify their agenda driving deceit. They present the facts they want, facts that paint a false picture of the truth, and then defend their work as being true. Fact check it for yourself. Bernie’s, and the mainstream media’s, big lie is that they conflate truth with fact, but truth is not defined by any single fact, or even several facts.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Statistics can be viewed as a collection of facts, and as the phrase Mark Twain made famous points out, statistics can turn factual truths into damn lies. The reality of truth is dependent upon all relevant facts. Cherry picked facts are just spin designed to shape perceptions to serve a narrative. Without all the relevant facts, our understanding will lie somewhere short of truth, but that misunderstanding will still lead to belief. This doesn’t mean we can’t make good decisions without the whole truth, but it does mean we need to remain cognizant of the fact that facts don’t necessarily represent truth. However, we like facts because facts represent knowledge, and as many are keen to say, knowledge is power. But is what we believe to be knowledge, knowledge, or is it ignorance?

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Ignorance is Strength

Orwell was onto something in his dystopian novel, 1984. In it, Orwell introduced the concept of doublethink, which is people’s ability to hold two conflicting beliefs in their mind at one time and believe both. He used the following three paradoxical statements to illustrate doublethink. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. To explain Ignorance is Strength, we must start by taking another look at what constitutes knowledge. Knowledge is determined by our ability to utilize our intelligence, guided by experience, to correctly process the information we consume, to connect the dots, so to speak, and come to an accurate understanding of any situation. As our world is information driven, our understanding of it is heavily influenced by the information we digest. As mentioned, information, even when true, doesn’t necessarily represent truth and therein lies our problem. If the information we consume leads to an understanding that isn’t truth, it doesn’t lead to knowledge, it leads to ignorance. In that case, “knowledge” loses any claim to power, doesn’t it?

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Canada today isn’t Orwellian, it’s Gorewellian: Cold is Hot, Wet is Dry, Calm is Stormy

So, how is ignorance strength? The power inherent in knowledge shifts when information leads instead to ignorance. It moves from the consumer of information to the creators of that information because if ignorance is one thing, it is exploitable. This leads to ignorance being a strength for those who can create it in others and those willing to exploit it. This is the media’s superpower. It explains the symbiotic relationship of our mainstream media and the success of their favourite political parties. The media mangles facts and when those dots are connected, an ignorant and highly exploitable society is created. Ignorance is Strength, just not for the ignorant. It is a mistake to link this ignorance to a lack of intelligence, because without experience to say otherwise, we will connect the dots we were given. It is, however, important to note that manipulating people this way is an extremely abusive practice and our misplaced trust in a deceitful media is a massive mistake. Canada today isn’t Orwellian, it’s Gorewellian: Cold is Hot, Wet is Dry, Calm is Stormy. But I digress.

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The Truth of Bernie’s Cuba

Bernie’s comments did not resonate well with the large population of exiled Cubans in Florida and his poll numbers in Florida remain low, though they did increase by 2% from February 19 as reported by in StPetePolls.org. Even Floridians are “Feeling the Bern” and while Bernie’s admiration for Fidel will doom his chances at winning Florida’s electoral votes, it remains to be seen if they will stop his run for the Democrat Party nomination. Still, the truth of Cuba isn’t told by its literacy programs. It’s revealed in the desperate eyes of Cuban men, women, and children fleeing that paradise on rickety rafts knowing full well they must traverse dangerous, shark infested waters but only if they are first lucky enough to escape the Cuban government’s gunboats. People risking all to flee their home is the sad truth of Cuba. Bernie presents his “Truth is Truth” as immutable knowledge, but it isn’t knowledge, it’s cherry picked ignorance. Ignorance Bernie and his supporters fully believe in.

The Truth of Bernie

Bernie’s rise happened in a media made vacuum. It may not have been desired, but the media’s deliberate actions over the last several decades made it inevitable. Bernie is Frankenmedia’s monster, and the “Age of Bernie” will not end well. It may even lead to civil war. Here is the problem. It doesn’t matter whether Bernie wins the Democrat nomination or not, whether he wins the Presidency or not. Politically motivated violence is coming to the streets of America. Bernie’s followers are just as committed to his vision as Bernie is. Antifa, self proclaimed anti-fascists, are Bernie’s ideological soul mates. In other words, they are communists and they have already shown a willingness to instigate mob violence against any who disagree. They see themselves as a force of good fighting the evils of fascism. Who are these bad fascists in America? Well, apparently everyone not antifa. If Bernie loses the nomination, there will be riots. His campaign workers have already made this clear. If Bernie wins the nomination but loses to Trump, there will still be riots because the revolution must not be denied, as his supporters have made clear. If Bernie wins the presidency, although he claims to disfavour authoritarian rule, its hard to imagine the implementation of his agenda without it. He wants guns out of the hands of Americans. He wants total government control of health care and education, from pre-school through College and University. He wants to eliminate borders and trillions in student debt. He sees business as an enemy of the people. He is committed to battling the climate change emergency. He wants to transform the country into a socialist nation. Rank and file Americans would rebel, and they would be met with a different antifa, one with the authority to silence them. Bernie would do to the US economy what Trudeau has done to Alberta’s but unlike some Canadians, Americans believe in freedom and are willing to fight for it. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Neither Liberty nor Tyranny will kneel, so blood will flow, and the world can only hope it refreshes the tree of liberty because if that tree withers and dies, only darkness follows. For people who value freedom, what is the main difference between fascism, socialism, and communism? Spelling.