False Prophets

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." Matthew 7:15

See, this is how my mind so easily flutters about. I had something else in mind altogether and then I watched John Oliver’s Coronavirus V video over my morning coffee and workout session and, like a terrier with a bone, I just can’t let it go. I like the way John Oliver gets to the point.

Two things in this episode jumped out at me.

The oily televangelist who dupes gullible people who desperately believe in a higher power into thinking he can blow the coronavirus away and the supposed Stanford spokesperson who makes the claim on “fair and balanced” Fox News that hydroxychloroquine has been shown to have a 100% success rate.

Televangelists creep me out because it always seems they are living lives of the rich and famous while their viewers struggle to make ends meet. Somehow their believers revel in the televangelist’s gold-plated success, private jets and gargantuan estates as if it was ordained by the almighty himself and not the accumulation of their meager weekly tithings, which in aggregate, adds up. Combine that with a tax-free status from the federal government and property tax exempt from local governments and, well, as L. Ron Hubbard once exclaimed, “The easiest way to become a millionaire in America is to form a religion.”

Mr. Hubbard was a science fiction writer and the founder of Scientology.

Televangelists represent churches on steroids. It came as a bit of surprise to me when I realized at some point in my life that a church was little more than a business. Ministers have to put butts in the pews on Sunday or they are not going to accrue enough revenue to keep the lights on. Televangelists have taken the selling of religion to a whole new level. And they are shameless and relentless about it.

And now this guy wants his followers to believe he can huff and puff and blow the coronavirus out of their lives. Another religious snake oil salesman peddles a silver colloidal solution, with no scientific basis, of course, as a means of warding off the novel coronavirus. That particular televangelist spent time in prison for fraud and conspiracy during the ‘80s.

It was the Fox News segment with the dude posing as someone affiliated with Stanford pushing hydroxychloroquine that truly ruffled my feathers. Hydroxychloroquine, by the way, is a drug sorely needed by persons who suffer from lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and, additionally, as a chemical bulwark against malaria. Shortages of the drug because of its anecdotal usefulness against coronavirus would be tragic.

Oliver reports that Stanford University denies the huckster’s affiliation. The trouble is Fox’s millions of viewers, including our lunatic leader, saw the interview and began regurgitating the nonsense being sold as newsworthy. There have been other articles and news reports about this “miracle” drug, the first I’d heard of it was a news story out of France, but this guy claimed association to one of the most prestigious universities on the planet AND said the success rate was 100%! It was a straight up con. Very similar to the televangelist.

You can see the misinformation and messaging being sown by televangelists, the national propaganda network, hate radio broadcasters and our insipid president showing up at the Stay-At-Home protests. Goons with guns expressing their opinion the coronavirus is no more of a danger than the common cold or flu. Placards stating the “cure can’t be worse than the disease.” As a retort, I read a post that said something to the effect Anne Frank hid in an attic for years without complaint while Americans cracked after a little over a month with the added benefit of Netflix and takeout pizza.

I am not opposed to the protests, but I am opposed to the purposeful dissemination of easily verifiable hogwash.

You may have forgotten, or never known this, but the airwaves are our property. Those who act as if they own them have merely been granted the privilege to use them. It’s just another example of how our mutual Commons has been plundered in plain sight. And it’s gotten away with because of our indifference to political sausage-making.

It is something to keep in mind when we take over the “Deep State” in November. Among the thousand other things.

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You know how to argue against Flat Earth believers (whom are the very least of our worries these days)? If the world were flat, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now. (I had to work that in somehow. Thanks, Robert Kolden, for bringing that up in conversation the other day!)

Also, if you really like to dive into the weeds of our present political predicament and if you have a nagging sense of dread that there is more to what’s going on than meets the eye, I suggest signing up for Greg Olear’s Prevail newsletter.