CXXXII. The Internet Did Not Kill Lies

Editor’s Note: I attended my daughter’s high school graduation. It reminded me that the face of America is still out there. It was a very diverse group of kids full of passion and optimism. It gives me hope that the current outrage and intolerance that is trying to take over the American identity will be stopped. This Memorial Day, remember the diversity of Americans who sacrificed themselves for the freedoms we enjoy, especially freedom of speech, and freedom of religion (and from religion). Hang on and keep fighting. Could be a bit of a bumpy ride.

We live in a time that ancient scholars dreamed of: an age of infinite information. The encyclopedia of life and almost all known wisdom can be accessed anywhere at any time. There is no longer any reason or excuse for any lie or nonsense to take root anywhere in the world.

Yet it does.

In the 20th century alone, after the horrors of WWII, one would think that the forces of division and evil were vanquished for good, but human nature evolves slower than the tech that can store all of our knowledge. We continue to find disagreements, many by choice, not necessity.

History is replete with wrong choices. Pull up videos of Joseph McCarthy's wild accusations as a 1950s senator, images of southern politicians berating Black Americans for wanting the same freedoms as them, Jim Jones's creepy sermons that led followers to their deaths, Nixon's steadfast denials before the recordings did him in, and now the effort to paint American immigrants as a problem. It's all there within seconds on your phone. Human ego at its worst. It still occurs though you can cross-check any claim, anything called news, against decades of archives, fact-checking apps, and a million well-researched books and publications.

With this steady and predominately free flow of information, it should be impossible for a grifter to have gotten this high without everyone spotting the con.

And yet, here we are.

McCarthy used his office as a senator to terrorize America with fake lists of communists, fueled by newspaper reporters who amplified his panic. Jim Jones sucked 900 people into Guyana in the 1970s with a bunch of empty promises and drove them to mass suicide. Nixon won the presidency twice, with some evidence of a secret deal with the North Vietnamese government to postpone peace. He couldn't survive the Watergate lies with his own voice exposed and the determined work of journalists to get to the truth. George Wallace, you may remember, was the governor of Alabama who preached segregation to a willing populace, only to apologize years later after an assassin nearly killed him. The John Birch Society, an ultraconservative, anti-communist organization founded in the 1950s, was really about unfettered business growth. They helped create plots and conspiracies and supported ego-minded people such as Senator McCarthy to view fellow Americans as enemies or tools. Folks eventually saw through them, but not before corroding the American identity.

The internet promised a golden age of communication and information. Anyone can do research on anything, anywhere, at any time. Google facts. Watch raw footage. Share counter-evidence instantly. Media literacy programs even exist to teach kids to spot bullshit before it sticks. It should be harder than ever for fraudsters to climb the ladder.

But it is not.

Disinformation scaled up with the open access. Social media lets liars target the exact people hungry for their poison. Algorithms developed by Meta and others reward rage and repetition over boring facts. Idiots can find their tribes and firehose falsehoods everywhere. Even political candidates use bots, fake accounts, and targeted ads as standard gear. You scroll through your feed. It feeds back your biases. If you have no ability to discern, the truth drowns in the noise.

It's us who are not advancing as a species. You and me. We crave stories that match our grudges. Voters pick leaders who echo their worldview, especially on tribal instincts, fear, and nationalism. Psychology papers point toward our zeal to feel right despite the evidence of being wrong. Fraudsters do not need universal buy-in to take hold. Just enough to sow doubt and exhaust the institutions that rely on and report the truth. In the 1950s, it took years for someone like McCarthy to fall after the damage he wrought. Now it takes a day or so for the power of one lie to spread worldwide.

The unfortunate reality of our times is that speed favors the con artist. Trust collapses, not just in politicians, but in government, media, courts, churches, and experts in the field. It takes only one bad senator, president, or priest to spoil the bunch. When you distrust the referees, you put your trust in your own tribe instead.

That is the fracture. Without a shared reality, no one agrees on what constitutes fraud. One side sees a crook, while the other sees a savior.

Think about how crazy this is.

America has advanced to send rockets to Mars and put an information portal in every pocket, yet we are electing entertainers, grudge-holders, and people who feed on causing chaos. Why? Because our modern system rewards the wrong stuff. Charisma beats competence. Fast beats facts. Outrage outpaces oversight. It is much easier to form coalitions around grievances, not good governance.

While Watergate was just brewing and the country was still in Vietnam, Nixon crushed McGovern in the 1972 election. Voters continued to use their shortcuts even then: Does he fight my fights? Does he own the libs? Even if he's wrong, he doesn't admit it. That's a toughness I like.

That's the glitch in our system. The masters of information still know how to exploit voters' weaknesses. When Nixon finally fell, his public support eroded slowly, then it was sudden. Democracy bent but didn't break.

This time is different.

The cons are operating in the open, and people are loving it. Get rid of public servants. We don't need them, anyway. Immigrants? They just take what is ours. The president and his family enriching themselves while in public office? It's not hurting me.

Trump will finally fall, but it may be rough. When it does, the system will need deep and systemic reinforcement. Civics in schools. Trust-funded newspapers not depending on billionaires. Taxes on everything over a billion. No war by executive decision. Tame the algorithms and break up the social media giants. No more shadow campaigns by Citizens United groups. More ranked-choice voting and manufactured town-hall debates.

Make competence great again.

Rebuild trust from the ground. Local papers, safe and open civic spaces, and libraries. People trust their neighbors more than networks. Invest there in sidewalks and public schools and traffic calming. Punish corruption hard. Independent watchdogs with teeth. No slaps on the wrist. When a fraudster tests the limits, push back hard and united. Polarization thrives on weakness and disorganization.

Here is where it gets uncomfortable. None of this happens without you. Voting is not enough. Call out the con in your own feeds, your family chats, in your city commission meetings.

The fraud today rose because good people were too apathetic.

It is well past the time to give a shit.

Credit where it's due. Bezos and Amazon democratized publishing. As a writer who can put work in front of readers without waiting years for a publisher, it’s been phenomenal. And the Kindle Paperwhite mentioned in this piece remains one of the best products I own for bedtime reading without searching for a light.

But the company that made the device is not the company it was. Bezos has steered Amazon toward something corrosive: warehouses that grind workers down, a marketplace that hollows out Main Street, a Washington Post becoming a shadow of what it once was. The damage shows up in our current civic trust.

So I don’t use Amazon anymore. There are alternatives, almost always, if you'll do the searching. And searching is exactly what Americans owe themselves right now, in an economy increasingly tuned to the convenience of a handful of billionaires. That kowtow is dangerous. It is profoundly un-American. Use the power of your wallet to make a difference.

I. El Presidente Rubio. Pay attention to the choreography. Venezuela fell in winter and within twenty-four hours Marco Rubio was already saying Cuba was "in a lot of trouble." Since February the Pentagon has run at least twenty-five surveillance missions within forty miles of the Cuban coast, and on May 1 Trump signed Executive Order 14404 authorizing sanctions on anyone "responsible for repression in Cuba and for threats to United States national security." Rubio followed a week later with designations against GAESA, the military's economic spine. The administration has not ruled out force. Read the Axios piece on the buildup and tell me this doesn’t look like another grab. The prediction: by the end of 2026 the regime will manufacture a pretext and install Rubio as a transitional figure of some kind. There will be talk of making it a state. Florida conservatives will love it until they experience boatloads of more Cubans, and it will create havoc in Taiwan and other places under threat from bigger means better neighbors.

II. The Strike Nobody Sees Coming. The AI layoff numbers are already climbing. A reported 113,000 tech workers in the first months of 2026 alone, with GM swapping 600 conventional engineers for "AI-native" replacements on a single Tuesday in May. Nobody is striking yet, though the fear and anger is burning in private. The American worker still believes, against all evidence, that the next layoff is somebody else's, a message used skillfully by the current regime. That changes when a politician takes a risk. Labor has already drawn the line, and POLITICO covered the Sacramento ultimatum where the AFL-CIO told Gavin Newsom that 2028 runs through AI regulation or it doesn't run through him at all. The prediction: the threat does not register with the public until a presidential candidate, possibly Newsom, calls for a coordinated walkout. Auto workers, nurses, baristas, coders, the whole pyramid. Not a union strike. A class strike. Something this country has not seen in ages.

III. Putin's War Comes to an End. On May 10 in Moscow, in front of a scaled-down Victory Day parade, Vladimir Putin told reporters he believed the war "was coming to an end." CNN's analysis called it his first real signal in four years. Russia has burned through a generation of men and drained their economy. The Kremlin elite is restless. The mothers are growing bolder and angrier. The oligarchs who funded this thing want their yachts back. The prediction: Putin will try pulling another country in but will ultimately end this war within twelve months, and he will end it in one of two ways. He will declare a manufactured victory and annex whatever Donbas territory the front lines hold. Or, he won’t get to choose because he won’t be there to do it. Coups in Russia rarely look like coups. They look like resignations, sudden sickness, or problems with open windows. Either way, the war ends.

ESSENTIALS

Needs, requirements, wants are small

Little necessary to live

A place to work, play, rest, and home

Peace of mind free of constant stress.

Laughing, happy tots at the park

So much joy watching children’s games

Family strolls along the trail

Strangers tip their hats while passing.

Watching young ones grow smart and tall

The seasons will pass so swiftly

Perhaps just a blink of the eye

That’s all there is no need for more.

A place where there exists enough

Without demanding much extra

Will remain a cozy haven

Where all have their want and no more.

Marc J. Yacht 4/2026

And Now….

Democracy and freedom go hand in hand, but they were not divinely mandated. Most of human history is written in toil, loss, and suffering. Democracy is young but perhaps a natural outcome of a steadily enlightened people. It must be nourished and protected. It faces the greatest threat of our lifetime. Be active in whatever way matches your abilities. But above all, always strive to be a good human.