Lies I’ve Been Told

Feb 10, 2022

Recently I have taken stock of the many statements presented as facts that my government, the media, academia, and the medical community has told me over the course of my lifetime. It took me just five minutes to jot these down. If I thought about it longer, I’m sure I could have tripled or quadrupled the list.

Here are the things I’ve been told that we now know are lies:

The Vietnam War. From the Gulf of Tonkin Incident which was used as a pretext for sending 600,000 US troops in, to Agent Orange, to “body counts”, to General Westmoreland and Robert MacNamara telling us we we’re winning, to the media coverage of the Tet Offensive, to the “Domino Theory”, to Nixon denying an invasion of Cambodia (at first), to our government telling us that we left no POWs behind…we were lied to.

The Energy Crisis (1973 to sometime in the early 80s). Remember how we were told we were running out of “fossil fuels”? Remember the long lines at the gas pump, and some gas stations running out? Remember George C. Scott on commercials telling us “Don’t Be Fuelish”? Remember Jimmy Carter telling us to just put on a sweater if it’s cold? We were never running out of fossil fuels, and the whole thing was a lie.

The New Ice Age. I was taught in Junior High, from 1974 until my early years of high school (1977-78), that temps would continue to fall and we were going to have a New Ice Age. We didn’t.

Richard Nixon: “I’m not a crook.” Yeah.

George H.W.Bush: “Read My Lips, No New Taxes.” Ha.

Bill Clinton: ” I did not have sex with that woman Miss Lewinsky.” Well….he did.

George W. Bush: “Iraq has Weapons of Mass Destruction.”. Nuff said.

Family farms were going out of business in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. Panic! Except that they didn’t.

Cholesterol is the enemy. Wait, only LDLs are the enemy. Wait, now we know we need LDLs too. Take a statin to lower it…wait. Wait, maybe cholesterol is NOT the enemy, and inflammation is the enemy!

Salt is the enemy. Wait, maybe not.

I’m really getting tired of being lied to, but that is the way of the world I suppose.

Maybe I should just be a real good student of history, ask a lot of questions, challenge “authority”, and use my good common sense.