They Are All Around Us

Today came the most shocking of news. Had I been told that my children were not really mine, I could not have been more surprised and disappointed. At first, I refused to believe it, but then the reports kept coming in – all repeating the same, sad refrain. Yes, it was true. After     months together, the Golden Bachelor couple was divorcing. 

Of course, anyone who actually felt that way should not be allowed to vote. And therein lies the problem. There are more than likely millions of people who felt that way. And they will vote.

When their show ended, The Golden Bachelor couple (I don’t know their names, nor do I care to) pledged their undying love to each other. They had met their soulmates. They were lauded as a symbol of hope for aging singles – there was still a chance to find that missing life partner.

Except, the whole thing was bullshit.

The poet, Edith Sitwell, said, “The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.” How true.

The Golden Bachelor is a “show” in its truest sense. It portrays reality. It isn’t actually reality. And yet, it is called a “Reality Show.” That may seem to be an oxymoron. But it really isn’t. It is a perfect description of a theme in today’s world. 

All of the crying and angst and drama of The Golden Bachelor was utterly phony. And yet the public ate it up. They waited each week for next spellbinding episode. Loyal watchers argued over which woman should be chosen and, more importantly, which one should be sent packing. The Late-Night Show on the same network, “Jimmy Kimmel,” brought the contestant-actors on as guests. It went on and on.

Did these fans know that it all wasn’t real? Did they think the tears were authentic? Of course they did, at least a lot of them did. 

The lines between reality and bullshit are now blurrier than Ray Charles’s eye chart.

Why is this? At the risk of appearing to blame him for even a rainstorm, I must point to the man who makes Pinocchio look like George Washington. I speak, of course, of the Orange Defendant. He didn’t start the process, but he has been its biggest proponent.

By now when one accuses the Orange Defendant of being a bullshitter, to some, no explanation is necessary. To others, no explanation is believed. But to all Americans, the pernicious impact of his constant stream of pretend has blown down whatever walls used to exist between fantasy and reality. And it is a pernicious form of pretend. It is the pretend that pretends to be real. 

The Orange Defendant spews it and although he is not alone, he is the most wicked practitioner of it. The Golden Bachelor and its ilk entertain with it; the media broadcasts it; and the advertising industry relies on it. After all, could it be more perfect that the good buddy of the bullshitting Orange Defendant is that blowhard emeritus, “The My Pillow Guy.” Peas in a pod.

It permeates us. Because it does, it is not easy to turn our backs on such a prevalent condition. And even if we wanted to, are we capable? We may think that we are impervious to bullshitting influence, but then again when we go to see a biopic, don’t we often come out of it thinking we “learned” something about the subject? But how could we? It’s illogical. Even if some scene in the film is really accurate, if it portrays something that we did not previously know, then we can’t have “learned” it unless we assume that it is true. 

By the way, I don’t claim immunity of this disease myself so I ain’t preaching, I’m just observing. 

The Bachelor, the Trumpster, the biopics, they are no different. They are all of a piece. They are merely manifestations of a society that wants to believe what it wants to believe. That was a much less harmful mind-set in the past. But not now. Now there is a plethora of sources of information and all of those sources are capable of feeding us with daily bullshit-a-la mode. Now, the menu of “factual” options is larger than a menu at a Jersey diner. We will inevitably land on one entrée that fits our pre-conceived inclination. 

And it will only get worse. Here come deep fakes and other AI misbehaviors. Believing just what we want to believe creates the perfect environment for Trump-land.

We are in no position to persuaded by bullshit. Too much is at stake. The bullshitters are all around us. They must be rejected. Circle the wagons.