People get really angry about lies, but let’s be honest, it was their fault for believing me in the first place.
Let me rephrase: Only 4% of Americans are vegetarians. But I’ll betcha a big, fat, juicy steak that there are way more vegetarians named Hunter than meat-eaters named Farmer.
Because everyone knows a Hunter. In 2000, it was one of America’s most popular names. I have one in my family, and I’m 99.9% sure none of us hunt. So, of all the zillions of Hunters in the world, there are gonna be a few vegetarians.
But even the hippie-vegans, hardcore left-wingers, and (one of my favorite oxymorons) “militant pacifists” won’t name their kid Farmer. (Or Gatherer, for that matter.) It’s a practically nonexistent name. Isn’t that weird?
Not enough aspirational oomph, I suppose.
That’s awfully revealing, because names are the original brand. Branding is, quite literally, naming something: attaching specific words or qualities to another product, person, or business.
Just a few centuries earlier, brands were direct: If you know someone with the last name of Miller, there’s a pretty good chance one of their ancestors worked in a mill. Smith became shorthand for blacksmith. So on and so forth.
But then we figured out the aspirational angle.
And suddenly, we began developing brands that appealed to the consumer. It became less about accuracy and more about profitability. The #1 purpose of branding campaigns was ringing registers, so businesses tied their brands to whatever best separated a customer from his wallet.
If that was telling the truth, great. You’d tell the truth.
But if it wasn’t, you didn’t.
Which led to lying in advertising, lying in marketing, and lying in PR. False claims, implied benefits, and exaggerated promises. Lies of omission, commission, and everything in between.
Like this one:
But sometimes lies reveal more than the truth.That’s because the truth is what it is; it’s singular. But lies reveal the truth about what the liar wants us to believe.
(In the case of the YouTube Camel ad, the nice folks at Camel were desperate for audiences to believe that Camel cigarettes were doctor-approved, so you could enjoy that “mild good-tasting cigarette” with confidence. Ah! Safe and delicious!)
Same goes for lies of omission: When reporters refuse to ask the most obvious question, it reveals the truth about their own biases and intentions.
I’ll give you an example: If, five years after 9/11, Mayor Rudy Giuliani had still been in charge of New York City, and New York had been struck by another large-scale terrorist attack, what would be the most obvious question a reporter could ask Mayor Giuliani?
Right — it’d be something along the lines of, “What lessons did you learn from the first attack?”
Because, in a life-or-death crisis, audiences want to be reassured that their government will keep them safe. If someone experienced a similar crisis five years earlier, we want to know how that’ll inform his response to the new one.
It’s the easiest, most obvious “human interest” question a reporter could ask a leader during a crisis!
And that’s why it’s so revealing that not one member of the mainstream media has asked Gov. Tim Walz what he’s learned from the 2020 George Floyd-BLM riots that left dead bodies in the street, cities on fire, and billions of dollars in property damage.
Since the death of Renee Nicole Good, Gov. Walz has held numerous press conferences. He’s posted numerous times on social media. He’s held court with numerous reporters. He’s answered numerous questions.
But not one single question about what Gov. Walz learned from the BLM riots!
By his own admission, Walz’s response to the riots was an “abject failure.” And he ain’t lying: Demonstrators overran the Minneapolis Police Department’s third precinct and burned it to the ground. Roughly 1,500 property locations in the local area were damage by arson, ransacking, and vandalism. A man named Oscar Lee Stewart was trapped in a pawn shop that rioters torched; it took more than a month to recover his body.
And now, deadly riots are poised to break out all over the country — with Minneapolis once again being Ground Zero for the national chaos — and Gov. Tim Walz once again in charge of his state.
The parallels are uncanny!
Americans are scared. We want to know how our government will protect us from looters, rioters, and lawbreakers. We want to be reassured that our homes and businesses won’t be set ablaze. We want our children to be safe.
Yet the media still hasn’t asked a single question about what Walz learned from the BLM riots — or why this time will be different!
It’s a revealing omission. But, I suspect, 100% deliberate.
Because if they dared ask that question, the media would be implying two things:
- Gov. Walz is at least partially responsible for what happened before and what will happen next — as opposed to it all being the fault of President Trump/racism/ICE.
- There’s a clear and obvious risk that the (now-inevitable) anti-ICE/Trump protests will endanger public safety.
The first implication interferes with their smear campaign against ICE/Trump. The second throws a monkey wrench into their attempt to stoke outrage, inflame passions, and encourage more anti-ICE/Trump protests: The media wants this story to explode.
It’s why they can’t ask Gov. Walz the most obvious question in the world!
But a lie of omission is still a lie. And very often, it reveals more than the truth.
And the truth is, the media isn’t here to report the truth. They’re cheerleaders for one party and marketers for a very specific ideology — working 24/7 to sell us their preferred outcome.
If you believe ‘em, it’s your fault.
Pay attention to what journalists say — and just as importantly, what they don’t say. It reveals more than they’d like to admit.
Truth in media? Ha!
You’re more likely to run into a meat-eater named Farmer.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First: It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battlelines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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