To Vanessa — Debunking the Biggest Hoaxes

You were abused, in my non-ironic opinion, psychologically by posts like the one you referenced. So many people I’ve cared about were abused the same way, and I don’t want to blame the victim. They were turned into perpetually angry, hurt, and hateful people. I hope the same hasn’t happened to you.

But as a result, you will probably see red when you read this. It will feel like the ground beneath you is giving way — like you say — like a reality bubble is being popped. Debunking the top hoaxes can make people reconsider everything, and I’ve been there too — it is super disorienting.

And I’m not saying Trump is perfect. You’re right about the deficits. You’re right about some of his rude and sexual comments, and I won’t defend those. But that’s not the full story. Did you hear about our energy independence, the Abraham accords and the Kosovo Serbia peace, something we’ve worked toward for decades, or our advances in nuclear tech? Trump did such a good job in foreign policy, it didn’t come up in the debates. He was far more lenient with protesters than Biden has been, he gave states for more freedom than other Presidents, solved the crisis at the border, and was far more inclusive of minorities and LGBTQ+ than any other Republican would have been.

But getting back to your laundry list.

Most of them are false, and it only takes one or two sentences to debunk any one single claim — which is why the person you got this list one made such a long list, to make it artificially hard to debunked, an extremely dishonest tactic. I think doing so can save lives, literally.

Of course, some of these can’t be debunked because they are just opinion. For instance, we *should* buy Greenland. Otherwise, we would cede military and economic control of the Arctic to China and Russia. He did threaten to get rid of Mueller — as he should have. The investigation was based on falsified FISA warrants and the Steele Dossier paid for by Democrats — and it revealed nothing. Also, I’m Chinese, and I call it the China Virus. Because it is. Those who hear a dog whistle are the racists. But these are all matter of opinion, could go either way, and the fact this person presented then as fact means they’re NOT credible.

But here’s the five biggest whoppers told (in the first comment):

More damaging then presenting opinions as facts are the straight-up lies he or she told. Let’s start with the biggest one, the Fine People Hoax. If you actually watch the video or look at the transcript you’ll find that he NEVER called “white supremacists ‘fine people’” as you claim. He said there were fine people on both sides, referring to the pro and anti statute protesters. And then he says immediately “I’m not talking about the white supremacists.” This hoax gave birth to all the other “Trump is a racist” hoaxes, but it is so easily debunked. All those are false through lack of context and misleading framing.

There’s another easily debunked hoax with the “drinking bleach” comment. If you look at the video or transcript, he NEVER mentions ‘bleach’, ‘lysol’, or other household cleaners. It’s not there. He was referring to a UV light treatment that could be “injected” into patients, and which was being researched. I wonder how many people died because access to experimental treatments were denied?

Besides just lying, this person also dishonestly framed issues in an objectively dishonest way. Take for instance the “worst jobs report in American history.” I can’t actually think of a single way in which that is true. Actually, Trump presided over the longest period of American growth in US history. It’s true it started under Obama, but it’s easy to go from 2008 to business as usual in 8 years. By 2016, we were due for another recession since market cycles are about 7 years. But it never came. Instead, minority unemployment hit record lows.

Then, of course, the Coronavirus hit, which caused a slow down GLOBALLY. Blaming that on Trump is deranged. In fact, looking at the data, his response was pretty good, at least economically. Economists were predicting 10% unemployment through Christmas, but the real number was way below that. At one point, the market grew 33% in one month, shattering all expectations, and Red states are almost back to pre-covid conditions, something no one expected. In hindsight, which is 2020, the pandemic didn’t wreck the economy — Democrat governors did who put their states on lockdown.

So, not only is saying “he had the worst job record in history” false, but the author supported this lie by ignoring COVID-19. Someone who does that is either a liar or a moron.

For number four, the “If we tested less we’d find fewer cases” thing — he was right. WHO changed the PCR test standard from one to two after Jan 20th because using only PCR test, what Trump was alluding to. In fact, most other nations did not set policy based on the single-PCR test standard because it was so blatantly oversensitive.

Before we get to the last one, some thoughts — and I mean this — I hope you get help one day. What they did to you was psychological rape and assault. To be filled with hate, anger and misinformation is 1) Not something a single Facebook comment however long is going to fix and 2) Not something you get over easily. I’ve watched so many people descend into a state of constant fear, anger, and hate after being manipulated for years. It’s tragic. I hope you won’t be a victim in the same way. I hope this post can be a first step toward mental health, although I know it’s a process, not a conversion.

But I ask you start to see, even if you never like him, how dishonest the media is. I don’t care if you hate Trump forefver, just, please for the sake of democracy, for truth, for the sake of those around you, please stop believing whatever they tell you. People’s lives depend on it.

That’s why I saved the Syria Lie for last, “he abandoned the Kurds to Turkey.” False. He pulled US troops out of Iraq, and Syria, and let the Turks patrol their own border. Republicans fell for this hoax too, maybe more Republicans than Democrats. There was a week of small, sporadic fighting between the Kurds and the Turks, but no massacres, no huge battles — nothing like the panic-porn news industry reported.

They just wanted us to stay in the Middle East. And that’s why people’s lives are at stake. When we let warmongers go free, when we don’t hold people like Andrew Cuomo accountable for putting Covid patients in LTC facilities, when the fake news papers over this, people die as a result. Fake news really is the enemy of the people, and it gets people all over the world blown up, chopped to pieces or neglected unto death in un-visited nursing homes.

I’ve spent too much time on this already to make it any shorter. I know it won’t change your mind, but I do hope it helps open it to the other side of the story and how dishonest your sources have been to you — dishonesty so bad that it should be called abuse and which does require some level of therapy.