Living in an Age of Doubt in the Age of Information

The Earth is flat. 

History is all a lie.

Religion is a lie.

The moon landing never occurred.

9/11 was an inside job – no, it wasn’t – yes, it was, etc.

The list can go on and on and on.

I keep asking myself what is it we do believe, and I am having difficulty coming up with an answer. There are books that have been around for a while as well, echoing the same sentiments: Things They Didn’t Teach You in History Class is one of them. There are countless others.

Each day, it seems, someone is debunking something else, while another person is debunking the debunker. Politicians on both sides of the aisle these days always contradict “the other side” on just about everything, polarizing the populace in the process—a polarization that seems to be getting worse and worse.

Then, there’s the cable news cabal. Fox News says this—MSNBC says that—CNN says something that contradicts one or the other—who the hell do we believe anymore?

Partisans—those that live in their particular silo— are also part of the problem. They fight for “their side” no matter what.

“Vote Blue No Matter Who”

“Vote Red Until I’m Dead”

What? This is how we conduct our elections? Some are so partisan that they no longer care about policy or politician, but vote party no matter what. Political parties—the scourge of a republican government. 

Even the politicians these days are so hyper-partisan they refuse to admit “the other side” might be right on something. One party is elected into office, and immediately the other party begins resistance, as though it is their duty not to cooperate in any fashion unless it’s their way. If it isn’t, sorry, we simply refuse to work with you. We’ll organize protests (with so many protesters having no idea what they’re actually protesting about—vague ideas with pre-made signs), harass, protest some more, and generally cry and whine until we get our way.

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge… is itself a frightful despotism.”

-George Washington (from his Farewell Address in 1796)

Well, can’t say we were not warned.

We’ve reached a point where we don’t even trust our own eyes despite the constant barrage of people recording other people’s actions. We watch a person harm another person and even though it’s on video, there is somehow doubt sown into the defense narrative, rendering the actual footage moot in some people’s eyes.

People whip out their camera at a moment’s notice, recording every encounter as though the phone is more powerful than a gun. I remember when it used to be a pen. The pen was a lot cheaper and could sow as much doubt—even beginning revolutions.

Oh, well. Times change.

We’ve even reached the point where we’re willing to allow people who commit murder in broad daylight to go free, or at the very least become folk heroes. Such is the case with Luigi Mangione, with some saying things like he is a “morally good man.” 

A murderer—a morally good man. Let that sink in for a moment.

We seem to have lost our compass. I hesitate to say moral compass for that connotes we understand the meaning of morality; classical morality that denotes murder in cold blood something much less than moral. 

Say the word moral and you’ll get a thousand definitions because, they’ll say, there isn’t one morality, it depends on what you believe. In Great Britain where this nation got our founding philosophy, spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and supported in our Constitution, people have been allowed to go free for rape. Why? What could possibly be their defense in engaging in, what I believe, to be one of the most heinous acts one can perpetrate on another human being?

He was ignorant of the law and was given a suspended sentence for raping a 13-year-old girl. That is what the court in Great Britain agreed with when handing down the suspended sentence.

It seems up is down, black is white, and all the world is truly some sort of macabre stage where the players, more and more, are dispensing with the laws they simply don’t like, and courts, along with the public, are defending “their side” no matter the infraction.

Judges are supposed to be nonpartisan, but increasingly, showing their partisanship without regard to what it appears. Where, then, is true justice? It no longer resides here if the trend continues.

Even our politicians, those who are supposed to be the ones driving the boat, are in on it. Insider trading, ignoring the Constitution, and in some cases, calling for outright violence against other members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and even encouraging the public to do so, and nary a word against them— the recent comments by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker just one example.

Social media exacerbates the problems as well, with anonymous keyboard warriors stirring the pot, threatening people, and generally speeding into a room tossing it up for grabs, then running out of it again—and making money doing it. In some cases, a lot of it justifying their actions.

There are entire accounts on X, among others, devoted to showing violence each and every day—people being gunned down in the streets, mobs attacking individuals, fights, the list goes on. 

Is this what we believe? Have we become so depraved and morally bankrupt that this now serves as “content”? What we see, we emulate, so it is no wonder we are sinking into the morass of lawlessness, becoming the law of the land.

Young women on Only Fans making more money in a month than some do in a year or more, satisfying whatever lusts are out there. Listen, if they can make money on the depravity of others, so be it. No one is twisting anyone’s arm to pay them—it’s a free country—I think. 

What is obscenity anyway? 

“I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [‘hardcore pornography’]… But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”

-Justice Potter Stewart

Maybe we’re approaching anarchy, that state wherein there is, essentially, no government, no governing body, and an absence of a recognized authority. The result? A breakdown of the social order. 

If you think there are those that don’t wish this, you would be incorrect, for there are those actively working for this flawed philosophy. The problem with anarchy is that it not only doesn’t work, but sows the seeds for true authoritarianism, the kind where there are concentration camps, gulags, and just about anything else one can imagine so that order returns. 

When there is chaos, and then order is returned, the order is seen as authoritarian, often leading to more chaos until the chaos is subdued through authoritarian means. 

See the problem?

This is not speculation—but history.

Some will say this article is bunk—I’m only focusing on a small minority of people or problems, exacerbated by social media to make the problems seem larger than they really are. Others will say it’s the big cities where so much of this is occurring, those outside of them are not like this at all. Still others will tell us that it’s the coasts—the flyover states are “still OK.” 

Still OK…implying they won’t be at some point in the future. Interesting.

So, again, I’ll ask—what do we believe? What do we really believe?

We have one blueprint already—it’s called the United States Constitution—although there are those who want that gone, too, discarded and re-written.

What do we believe? I don’t know, I really don’t. 

But, we’d better figure it out soon.