Day: February 12, 2026

I believe in the goodness of people. Nonetheless I think that every single one of us can be fooled by charlatans who hope to influence our views of the world around us. I know that this is a particularly risky situation when it comes to the media. The angle of a camera, the repetition of ideologies and branding can create a false picture of reality. We humans fall for such things because we are good and we want to believe that nobody would be evil enough to attempt to control us with lies. 

I keep repeating the story of my seventh grade teacher shocking us when she boldly insisted that propaganda is everywhere, even in the United States. I had always believed that only evil governments used propaganda to control the population. She corrected that assumption by showing us perfect examples of politicians, businesses and even religious organizations using the tools of propaganda to influence the thinking of certain people. 

With AI, bots, all day news sites, social media sites and such we are continuously exposed to a barrage of propaganda that sometimes appears to be nothing more that facts and news. It takes time to remove the grain from the chaff and to determine what is factual and what is an opinion. All too often we don’t make the effort to really study a situation to determine truth from fiction. Instead we find our familiar sites that seem to reinforce our thinking without asking many questions even when something seems fishy. We ignore obvious signs of propaganda like repetitive labels and accusations that raise our ire and cause us to fall victim to hoaxes.

I make a habit of checking sources continually but even then I now and again get lazy and get burned. Much of the time when something seems too strange to actually be true it is in fact a lie. Other times what seems to be untrue ends up being a fact. Even visual cues can now be altered rather easily on a computer so we have to all be vigilant. 

In Advanced Placement History classes students are taught to carefully study different sources of information. They learn the difference between and primary sources and hearsay. They become good at ferreting the truth through the hard work of analysis. We would all do well to learn how to insure that what we are being asked to believe is real rather than classic propaganda.

Sometimes we have to be especially discerning when an incident pulls at our emotions. We want to see ourselves as good and honest people who care about each other. We want to be patriotic and supportive of our country as well. It is important to differentiate between the helpers and those attempting to drive us away from each other. 

I have been studying Donald Trump for well over ten years now. All of the evidence points to his being a self centered power hungry bully but I understand that these words are filled with emotional content. I know that I must do the research to back up my instinctive feelings about the man. In reading tract after tract about him I have a picture of an individual driven by a need to always be in charge. While there is nothing innately wrong about that it is in the ways that he wields power that I have a problem. 

Donald Trump’s competitive spirit began within his own family. Like most sons he wanted to please his father but he often did so with cruelty. He called his brother who was an airline pilot “a taxi driver in the sky.” At his private school he was such a bully that the powers that be asked him to leave. He is boastful to the point of being obnoxious and his comments about women and people of color are particularly distasteful. His business practices are legendary because he often cheated people out of their rightfully earned payments. Furthermore he ran his fortune into bankruptcy more often than not. Nonetheless he has been able to continually convince a considerable number of people that he is an economic genius. His followers seem to mistake his insults for power and strength rather than cover for the vengeful shell that he actually is. 

Donald Trump constantly preys on people’s fears and frightens them into believing that he is their only hope for good lives. He pretends to be a religious man when nobody ever sees him inside a church and he seems to have no idea how to even say a prayer or show compassion for all people, not just those who vote for him. 

So how did I come to all of these conclusions about Donald Trump? Firstly, I have watched him and listened to him and then I have checked out what he has said and found lie after lie leaving his mouth. I have read accounts of his business practices and the fact that many times his credit score was in the ditch. I learned that his television persona on The Apprentice was staged and edited to a point of ridiculousness. I have caught him lacking any understanding of history or even our laws.

So yes, I do not like or trust Donald Trump. I believe that he is a dangerous cancer in our society. Worst of all is the fact that he has loyal men and women who would rather besmirch the honor of good people than admit to the many times that Trump is wrong. They fear him and think that they will lose their own power if they cross him. 

So while I believe that most people are good I also believe that in this moment far too many of them have been deluded into believing in a dangerous man who will ultimately hurt us all if we do not put a stop to his narcissistic power grab. He cannot be trusted and neither can his enablers. Each day I grow more and more concerned when I hear good people babbling his distorted view of life without questioning the horror of it all. We are all in danger the longer he is in charge.