Imagine two baseball teams. One follows the rules. The other moves the bases, rewrites the score mid-game, and cries foul when challenged. Worse, the umpire shrugs.
That’s the current state of American political discourse. One side flings outlandish claims, walks them back only when cornered, and never pays a price. The other fights with facts and plays fair, only to be labeled extremists for doing so.
So what would happen if conservatives stopped playing clean and started fighting dirty? If we played their game, the way they lie, distort, and walk away like nothing happened, would the world stop spinning, or would we finally be heard?
Let’s try the thought experiment.
Years of “Conspiracy Theories” That Aged Into Truth
For more than a decade, the right has been gaslit. Every legitimate concern has been met with a media chorus labeling it fake, fringe, or worse.
Take Operation Fast and Furious, a scandal so egregious that it involved our own government supplying weapons to drug cartels. Conservatives had warned about it, but their concerns were brushed off until it turned out to be true.
Or FISA abuse. When the right cried foul over secret surveillance targeting American citizens for political purposes, the media called it paranoia. Then, the Inspector General confirmed it, but it was too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Hunter Biden’s laptop was another. Social media platforms silenced it. Fifty-one “intel experts” swore it looked like Russian disinformation. Months later, major outlets admitted the laptop was real, but the damage had already been done. Public trust was compromised, the 2020 election had passed, and nobody paid a price.
Biden’s inflation denial played out in real time. Conservatives warned that reckless spending would crush families. Biden and his handlers dismissed it as “transitory.” Tell that to the families who paid 40% more at the grocery store and 70% more at the pump.
Obama’s Iran cash drop? That wasn’t a conspiracy theory, either. It happened. Pallets of unmarked currency were flown into Tehran in the dead of night. The media spun it as diplomacy. But when a Republican president even hinted at engaging Iran differently, they called him a warmonger.
These weren’t guesses. They were grounded, documented, and provable. But every time conservatives told the truth, they were called liars until they were proven right.
Then, the media changed the subject.
CNN’s Latest Whopper: A Lie Launched and Left to Linger
Saturday night, President Trump ordered a targeted bombing campaign on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. It was bold, strategic, and successful. The media didn’t praise the precision or debate the merit of the action. Instead, CNN ran with a claim: Trump didn’t notify Democratic leadership.
That was false. And they knew it.
The White House stated plainly that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was briefed beforehand. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries? The administration tried to reach him; his office was unavailable before the strike, but he was briefed afterward.
Top Democrats Were Notified Before Strike!
CNN didn’t retract. No apology. No correction at the top of the story. Just a quietly altered headline and an invisible edit buried down in the body. The damage was already done. Another perception was planted, and another talking point was launched.
That’s the pattern. And it works.
Just for Fun: What If We Lied Like They Did?
Let’s flip the script. Let’s say conservative media played their game. No rules. No caution. No consequences. How would it sound?
Michelle Obama secretly ran the Biden administration from a control center buried beneath Martha’s Vineyard. Anonymous sources confirm it. Experts agree.
Or this: the Biden administration built a clandestine weather machine to send tornadoes toward red states on election day. Multiple climate officials declined to comment. Very suspicious.
How about this? AOC is a pharmaceutical clone with a defective speech module and no off-switch. Her handlers reboot her every morning with code uploaded by Pfizer’s DEI team.
Or this: the DNC deploys a second Biden body double during public appearances. He’s stored in a Delaware basement between speeches and activated for stair-walking duty only.
Sound ridiculous? So did Russian pee tapes. So did Brett Kavanaugh’s high school gang rape calendar. So did the idea that border agents whipped migrants.
But those weren’t just headlines. They were national news cycles. They were pushed as fact by people who called themselves journalists.
Why can they get away with it?
Because they lie first and never apologize.
They Never Pay a Price. We Always Do.
Adam Schiff stood in front of cameras for years and claimed to have direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. He had nothing. Never apologized. He’s still in Congress, still on television. Still lecturing us about democracy.
The 51 intelligence officials who signed that infamous laptop letter? Not one has been held accountable. Not even a shrug.
Let's not even get started with the damn Pulitzers.
Journalists who slandered Nick Sandmann as a racist based on a still photo? Still employed.
Meanwhile, conservatives who get a date wrong are permanently banned. Make a joke on social media and get demonetized. Ask a question about the integrity of a government agency. You’re labeled a threat to democracy.
One side lies and gets promoted. The other tells the truth and gets punished.
The Moral Dilemma
It’s easy to scoff and say, “We’ll never be like them.” And that’s right, we shouldn’t.
But let’s be honest: there’s a cost to playing fair when the other team breaks every rule. You can only play defense for so long before you start to wonder if the scoreboard is rigged.
How long can we debate with logic while they wage war with emotion? How many times can we cite facts while they fabricate headlines and get away with it?
The temptation to fight dirty gets stronger when every clean win gets buried.
Final Thoughts
We won’t lie, not like they do. But it’s worth imagining what the headlines would look like if we did.
“Trump cures cancer; CNN accuses him of excluding tumor communities.”
“DeSantis saves missionaries from gang-infested Haiti; MSNBC cries colonialism.”
“Conservative pundit declares 2 + 2 = 4; flagged by Twitter as hate speech.”
Tempting? Sure. But the right’s greatest strength isn’t in inventing narratives. It’s in standing firm while the winds howl.
We hold the line because the line is real. And in the end, it’s the only thing separating a civil republic from mob rule. Truth is not a tactic. It’s our foundation.
We didn’t draw the map. But we still know which side we’re on.
