Do You Get Paid to Spout Nonsense and Lies?

Do you get paid to spout nonsense and lies? If you've got a job you don't really like, consider it. It seems the pay is pretty good. And  you don't have know a thing. Just say what you're boss tells you to say. Or, if you're the boss, make up whatever makes you look good. 

(Special for politicians: Do and say whatever it takes to get elected or re-elected, nonsense and lies included.)

If you're not sure how this works, let's look at some recent examples.

If you're into watching financial media, just check the scrolls at the bottom of the screen that typically let you know "what's happening." The current war has been the cause of almost everything: market up, market down, sometimes in the same scroll. (Yes, I've seen gold, oil go both up and down - according to these scrolls - on news related to the war. It only takes a few minutes to witness this. (I know because I only spend a few minutes on any given day with these media outlets. I have work to do that I hope benefits others, so indulging in nonsense and lies can't take up more than those few minutes.) 

But let's leave the markets and move on to more interesting - and potentially bigger impact - nonsense and lies.

The current federal administration blames the rise in gas prices on the war in Ukraine. After taking over in 2020, gas prices had increased 53% before the war began. Called on this inconvenient fact, the administration spokes-folks put forth the idea the market had "anticipated" the war. That's why prices rose. Nothing the administration did (like hampering domestic oil production with their "Green" initiatives) had anything to do with it. 

Nonsense or lies? Whichever you decide, there are spokes-folks (like the red-head press secretary) getting paid to spout this stuff.

Yellen (former Fed Chairperson, current Treasury Secretary) just said the economy will experience a soft landing. (Did anyone say the economy was faltering? I must have missed it.) Add this one to her past "spouts" that didn't quite describe either reality or truth - like inflation being transitory - and you might think there's a pattern here. Frankly, whatever this bird chirps should sound and alarm if you've followed her career as Fed Chair, er, person and TS. And sorry, the fact that she's from Brooklyn and grew up in the middle class doesn't earn her a pass. Kind of like Fauci, who also grew up in Brooklyn and grew up in middle class environs.

Anyway, was she spouting nonsense or lies? Whichever, the rule should be that it's a red flag when one of the spoke-folks tells us a soft landing lingers in our future. So prepare. Be wise. As with inflation, you should already know what's up with that.

Here's another one, in my neck of the woods. The former mayor of the Big Apple declared the City was "back" from the draconian lock-downs imposed by the mayor and his cronies, along with the Great White Chief in the White House. That was last year some time. The city was back. Right. 

The current mayor has proposed a new plan for the City to - you guessed it - which will assure that the city will be back. When? Who knows? 

The former mayor spouted pure nonsense. The current mayor's plan seemed a lot like the former mayor's plan. You know, the tourists will be lured back, the office workers will all return by - when was that again? - Labor Day...or something like that. 

Nonsense or lies? We know all about the former mayor. As for the current mayor, despite what he's spouting sounding like what the former mayor was spouting, let's cut him a break. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he doesn't quite realize his plan is likely the same nonsense as the former plan. (I'm feeling generous.)

The spokes-folks do the bidding of their bosses. The bosses make up what they tell the spokes-folks to say, even if its nonsense and lies. 

If you were raised right you know that lies are bad. And nonsense, when it's meant to obfuscate the truth, is bad too. OK? Now, I realize we shouldn't be "judgmental." But if those bosses and spokes-folks we just mentioned were spouting nonsense and lies, do we just give them a pass in the name of not being judgmental? Of course, we don't want to hang them high, but giving them all a pass, as we typically do, can't be right or good either.

So what do we do? Call them out? How do we do that? 

Occasionally a reporter will confront one of these spokes-folks. In some instances they'll shake 'em up. Or, in the case of the red-head White House press secretary, we have a spokes-folk especially skilled at being able to spout nonsense and lies and keep her cool when called out. Most of us, of course, aren't and won't be in the position of confronting such folks unless...

...we get involved in local politics - where that's possible. I say where possible because this more applies to we who live in smallish polities, rather than the gargantuan cesspool of politics of a place like New York City. (Maybe I'm wrong here, but having lived in such environs for many years, I don't think so.) You can confront in local town meetings when spokes-folks, politicians, and bosses spout nonsense and lies. You may have even seen videos of ordinary people doing just that.

If you decide to get active, be prepared to face consequences, maybe some of them unpleasant. Even local pooh-bahs like to think of themselves as being all-powerful masters of their little universes. They don't like being questioned. Our recent (and still not ended) disastrous encounter with the dreaded C-Virus showed us all how power prevails when left unchecked. 

But let's leave off here. I think the point's been made. 

So if you're looking for easy work that pays well, try being one of these spokes-folks. You'll need to be able to keep cool what someone occasionally puts it to you. So if you're the nervous or panicky type this won't work. But if you've got no conscience and a head that swells with pride at the thought of spouting nonsense and lies and getting away with it, this job's for you.