I have learned that its important to evaluate a person by their words and actions first. All other outsiders’ viewpoints need to come with receipts or it didn’t happen.
I’m really put off by sensationalist, tabloid-esque commentary and yellow journalism nonsense. We all should be. Someone trying to stir up publicly targeted hatred of another by all manner of misrepresentations and outright lies qualifies as evil and insane in my book. Repeating false rumors like a parrot is not necessarily intentional lying, but it is bearing false witness, without verification of the facts. There is an odd telltale sign that clues you in that you’re dealing with a false witness liar, this sign has been consistant over many generations now. In this era, the “sign” is the predictable lament, “You should be in jail”, without the accuser providing any substantiated evidence otherwise. The “wokest” people, who seem to be not impressed with the Constitution and Bill of Rights, are often the most hellbent offenders who spew such erroneous absurdity. The 1st Amendment protects free speech, but there are legal limiters when it comes to defamation/slander/libel and the cliché of yelling “fire” in a crowded venue.
Now I’m not “churchy”, but “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is the 9th of the Ten Commandments and there’s an important reason why. Experiences with false witness for most people starts out as them being bullies or being bullied as a child. Historically, false witness against whole groups has been the origins of many atrocities such as pogroms and genocides and has sparked the outbreak of full-scale wars. The dangers in bearing false witness against an individual are two-fold:
1. The intent is to purposely distort the truth to defame and humiliate a person of their good reputation or feelings of self-worth. This can result in the draconian “cancel culture” being applied against that person, the modern version of tribal shunning-on-steroids. The attempt here is to have that person and perhaps their family, shunned from the entire human race, lose their business or job, unable to be employed and provide for themselves and/or retain social relationships. Its intended for that person to not be able to normally function and exist, and in extreme cases this can lead that person to suicide or some form of degraded health that leads to death. This is often what the haters bearing false witness want as a result. With the internet, its difficult to undo damage caused by even a single incident of false witness.
2. The intent is to set the angry mob against a person, possibly resulting in psychological and/or physical harm or death of the person and/or their loved ones by the hand of others.
In several instances where someone has committed false witness against me, it ended in their own self-destruction, with me not having to do a single thing in my defense. There’s something to be taken seriously about having a forked tongue, since lies seem to eventually travel full circle back and bite the snake who told them.
Aspire. To. Truth-Telling.
You’ll feel better.
