Tag: lies

Posted in Communication

Acceptance Begins at the Edge of Discomfort

Posted on by simplebender

If you want a hard truth heard, do not force it down a tribe’s throat. Put it at the edge of discomfort: enough to unsettle, not enough to trigger denial.

That is the persuasion problem of our age. People do not reject hard truths mainly because they are stupid. They reject them because identity is a jealous god. Push too hard, and the mind stops weighing evidence and starts defending the tribe. The goal is not to shrink the truth. It is to keep it alive long enough to be considered.

America today is tribally polarized. Roles harden. Citizens become partisans, partisans become enforcers, and institutions become stages for moral theater. Once people put on the uniform—left, right, patriot, victim, savior—they begin protecting the costume more than the country. That is when perception narrows. People stop seeing what is there and see only what their side allows and encourages.

Assumptions are now doing the thinking for us. We assume motive, assign malice, infer treason, and skip the harder question: are we defending truth or just our people, our tribemates? A culture built on bad assumptions is easy to manipulate because it is forever reacting to ghosts of its own making.

Politicians understand this perfectly. Their dilemma is simple: outrage pays better than honesty. The incentives reward escalation, not recognition. So they sell salvation by tribe. Every movement gets its redeemer, every grievance its gospel, every rival its devil. Once politics becomes a theology, evidence no longer persuades. It offends.

It is a patriotic act of citizenship to confront flag-wrapped deceit. It is betrayal to protect the propaganda because it flatters your side. Tribes rarely change when they are merely condemned. They change when they realize they have been used and duped. When loyalty and trust have been exploited and promises broken.

Credibility is the fulcrum. Not charisma. Not certainty. Not volume, but credibility. If the messenger is fair, restrained, and willing to judge friend and foe by the same standard, hard truths stand a chance. Without that, even truth sounds like contrived spin.

Perhaps the first duty of persuasion is not accusation but calibration: how do we tell people what they do not want to hear without pushing them so far into defensiveness that they cannot hear at all?  NeverFearTheDream   simplebender.com

.-. ..- – …. / .. -. / … — .- .-.. .-.. / -.. — … . …

-. — / ..-. . .- .-. / -. — / … .. .-.. . -. -.-. .

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com Stand For Truth

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..

Books You Might Enjoy…

Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read

Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read
Posted in Philosophy

Promises Don’t Pay the Bills

Posted on by simplebender

Promises don’t do much. Action does.

Every day, people, institutions, and governments make promises. We make them to others and to ourselves. But promises are hollow until backed by something tangible. A bell is hollow, too, but it makes no sound until someone strikes it. The bell is potential. The strike is proof. So it is with promises.

We are buried in them.

There are financial promises. Politicians promise lower costs, higher wages, and prosperity just over the next hill. Employers promise loyalty until the quarterly numbers disappoint. Contracts promise fairness right up to the moment one side decides the fine print matters more than the spirit.

There are civic and public-policy promises. Protect the safety net, cut taxes, improve schools, enforce the law equally, and restore trust. But how often are these promises used to manipulate or distract? Clarifying this helps readers recognize when promises are genuine and when they are empty words.

Then come the personal promises, those daily little monuments to human self-delusion. Promises to spouses, friends, family, and, especially, ourselves. I’ll do better. I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll be there. I’ll change. Of course you will.

The hard truth is simple: promises are cheap in speech and costly in practice. Contracts become “just words on paper.” International agreements are twisted, ignored, or discarded with astonishing ease. Personal commitments are even easier to betray because the excuse-maker and the offender inhabit the same skin. Actions, however, reveal true integrity.

This is where character, credibility, and policy are revealed: not in the promise, but in what follows. Failure to act tells you one thing. Follow-through reveals true character and commitment. So watch closely. Listen carefully. Ignore the rebranding, the rephrasing, the rehearsed sincerity, and the endless re-promising.

Watch for the strike, listen for the bell, not the promise of sound.

But yes, “I’ll love you in the morning,” “the check is in the mail,” and “you’ll get tired of winning so much,” I promise. NeverFearTheDream   simplebender.com

.–. .-. — — .. … .

-. — / ..-. . .- .-. / -. — / … .. .-.. . -. -.-. .

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com Stand For Truth

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..

Books You Might Enjoy…

Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read

Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read
Posted in NeverFeartheDream

Never Fear The Dream…

Posted on by simplebender

Those who give of themselves are remembered in the hearts of others long after they are gone. Those who care only for themselves are remembered, too, as examples of how not to act. 26.05.03

-… . .– .- .-. . / – …. . / -.-. — -. — .- -.

-. — / ..-. . .- .-. / -. — / … .. .-.. . -. -.-. .

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com Stand For Truth

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..

Posted in NeverFeartheDream

Never Fear The Dream…

Posted on by simplebender

Self-deception is self-deprivation—denying yourself the truth denies you growth. 26.02.08

-. — / ..-. . .- .-. / -. — / … .. .-.. . -. -.-. .

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com Stand For Truth

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..

Books You Might Enjoy…

Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read

Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read
Posted in Favoites

Accountability Gunned Down

Posted on by simplebender

and Credibility Mortally Wounded…..

The first videos weren’t clear. They were chaotic—grainy clips, partial frames, shouting without context. But the official messaging arrived before evidence was gathered, witnesses interviewed, or a timeline stitched together, the verdict was delivered. Heroic officers. Clear self-defense. Thwarted mass terror. The dead were “deranged domestic terrorists,” and the valiant officers had barely survived and saved many.

That’s narrative warfare—not investigation.

This is the modern media playbook: speak first, speak loudly, and force everyone else to prove you wrong. Flood the zone with ‘certainty,’ half-facts, and righteous adjectives. Let supporters do the rest. If later evidence complicates the story, it won’t matter; the first impression has already been welded into identity. And if you can manufacture images, clips, or “context” with AI, you can make doubt look like proof while you stall, bury, and obscure the real record.

What makes the lie persuasive is that it rides on a few fragments of truth. A legal concealed-carry permit becomes a justification for killing. A photo of a holstered firearm becomes “brandishing.” A moment of chaos becomes “attempted assassination.” A tender snapshot of agents “helping” a frightened child becomes moral cover for whatever came before or happens after. The lifestyle of one is used to instill moral judgment and question motive. Just enough ‘truth’ to make the rest feel plausible to the true believers.

We’re told to relax. Trust the regime and its process. Wait for the facts they want to show us. The rest of the facts arrive late and edited—while the narrative sprints ahead, unchallenged and amplified by officials who treat accountability as optional.

There’s a deeper fatal wound: credibility. Bullets may have killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but the words that followed targeted something larger—the public’s ability to discern what is real. When institutions train citizens to doubt their eyes and distrust every correction as “spin,” they aren’t governing; they’re conditioning. They are self-serving protectionists maximizing propaganda’s bullhorn.

So we should ask, without hysteria or naiveté: Was a five-year-old used as bait or as a shield? Was Good’s death justified or convenient? Was Pretti killed because he believed in the 2nd Amendment or because zealous masked bullies lost control of themselves? If we can be pushed to accept a finished story before an investigation even begins, what else have we been trained to swallow—about elections, wars, enemies, or the files that power keeps sealed? Move along, citizen. Nothing to see here.   NeverFeartheDream   simplebender.com

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com Stand For Truth

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..

Joy in Alzheimer’s
W.C. Barron
Lap Around the Sun
Daily Steps Forward — W.C. Barron
Posted in Favoites

Credibility: The Fragile Currency of Character

Posted on by simplebender

Credibility is a delicate characteristic — slow to earn, swift to lose, and nearly impossible to fully restore. It’s like a crystal goblet: clear, strong in purpose, yet so easily fractured by careless acts. Once shattered, even after the best repair, the cracks remain visible and weak, and the goblet, once pristine, is forever damaged. Those who’ve tried to rebuild their chalice of credibility know the haunting truth — it becomes easier to break again, and probably will. Credibility doesn’t erode overnight; it erodes through capitulation, excuses, and the convenience of shifting with the wind.

There was a time when credibility was among our highest personal currencies and a source of pride. A person’s word was their bond. Their handshake was a contract. Their consistency was a mirror of their moral compass. Their willingness to admit mistakes and change positions in light of new information was seen as extreme emotional maturity and self-confidence. Perfection doesn’t—and didn’t—earn credibility, but integrity does. A visible, demonstrated alignment between belief, speech, and action. Today, that alignment is bent under the weight of expediency and twisted for target audiences.

The credibility of leaders — political, pulpit, legal, law enforcement, academic, athletic — has become collateral in the age of populism and applause metrics. When polls become the goal, truth becomes negotiable. When power is the aim, credibility is an afterthought, and diversion and deceit are the tools of choice. The words ‘I promise’ and ‘trust me’ become code for watch your back. We see it in leaders who flip their stances to appease whichever crowd can give them more leverage. They conveniently forget that credibility is built through conviction and compromise—not appeasement. It’s not the stance itself that matters most; it’s the steadiness of principle that gives credibility its meaning.

In this swirling chaos of contradiction and convenience, we, and the world, have grown cynical. Our long-standing allies no longer trust our national commitments. Those who stand ‘against us’ leverage our lack of credibility to their advantage.

We no longer trust what’s said, only what’s repeated—and if a lie is told often enough and loud enough, some believe it to be a truth—but it’s not, it’s still a lie—with or without a sprinkle of truth to placate the gullible. And, unfortunately, when the truth is actually told, we are all skeptical, uncertain, with no clear way to confirm or deny—so, everything feels like a lie, or a hybrid truth.

We no longer follow those who lead — we watch to see if they’re trending. We analyze ten-second snippets or AI-generated memes designed to slander and divide, not unify. In doing so, we participate in the erosion we claim to despise—we, the people, become willing players in the deceit and the shattering of credibility.

We need to stop outsourcing integrity and credibility. Stop waiting for heroes to save us, saints to guide us, or perfect voices to speak for us. The world doesn’t need any more idols, demigods, or people placed upon false pedestals. It needs individuals who live as examples — quietly, calmly, patiently, consistently, courageously.

Let’s stop looking for heroes and start being credible ones — with every choice and every word you make every day. #NeverFearTheDream

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com Stand For Truth

If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:

For Every Problem...A Solution...
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward

If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:

Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..

Posted in Communication

Parallax of Truth… Perspective’s Facets

Posted on by simplebender

Our view of events is our perspective. As much as we value our experiences and hold our viewpoints in high regard, perspective differs from Truth.

Perspective is shaped by a lifetime of influences—experiences, education, training, family, friends, and the organizations we belong to. These factors color how we interpret what we see and hear. Perspectives aren’t inherently wrong—but they aren’t inherently right either. In today’s polarized, “no-gray-area” world, where nuance is often lost, this idea can be unsettling or outright rejected. Of course, my perspective is correct—what I see is what I see. But are you absolutely sure? We like to believe we wouldn’t deceive ourselves. And yet, we often do—unknowingly.

Try this: extend your arm, raise a finger, and align it with a distant object. Now close one eye, then the other. Notice how your finger shifts left or right depending on which eye is closed. Your eyes, just inches apart, see differently. So, which view is correct?

Neither. Both. That’s the point. It takes multiple viewpoints to approach the whole Truth. Without both eyes open, you lose focus and depth perception—the ability to judge distance and spatial relationships is skewed. Everything flattens into a single plane. Truth becomes distorted, even as your perspective seems perfectly valid.

Perspective is not the whole Truth. It’s a fragment of it. And if such a slight difference in viewpoint can shift what we see, imagine how much greater the distortion becomes when shaped by different life experiences, cultures, ideologies, and geographies. That’s why two people standing shoulder to shoulder can witness the same event—and come away with different interpretations.

Now consider the effect of ideology—a corrective or distorting lens we all possess. Ask yourself: Does your ideological lens help you see more clearly, or has it merely reshaped your version of the truth to make it more convenient? But the Truth is not about convenience.

If we claim to stand for Truth—and we should—that means being willing to hear perspectives beyond our own, even when they challenge us. It also means others should be willing and eager to listen to ours. Truth is not found in a single view, but in the kaleidoscope of many. No perspective is inherently more valuable or “right” than another.

We must not bury history, suppress ideas, ban books, or restrict academic inquiry. These are not acts of Truth-seeking—they are acts of fear. Instead, we should welcome diverse thought and experience in the shared pursuit of Truth.

Just know that the truth will set you free. The alternative is censored, willful ignorance—and that is not freedom. And remember, it is impossible to plan a journey by looking back and wishing to reclaim your steps. It is difficult if you’re looking down watching every step, but entirely possible if you keep both eyes open, look forward, and seek others’ perspectives.

Let’s accept that our view is ours, and we need others to fully appreciate the Truth that envelops us. Let’s plan our collective journey, appreciating where we have come from, acknowledging where we are, and setting a path to a better future.

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com @simplebender.bsky.social Stand For Truth

Recently Released and You might also enjoy:

LAP AROUND THE SUN: DAILY STEPS FORWARD
JOY IN ALZHEIMER’S: MY MOM’S BRAVE WALK INTO DEMENTIA’S ABYSS

Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…

Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …and re-post…and re-post….

This article was first published in the Bend Bulletin 5/20/25

Posted in Political

It is Election Season: Time to Sharpen Your Occam’s Razor

Posted on by simplebender

It is time to sharpen your personal Occam’s Razor. It is time for you to be able to thinly slice and dissect the information you see and hear and decide reality from fantasy. Your ability to differentiate between these two will determine your level of sensibility versus gullibility. All this as we prepare to cast our ballots.

Assessing the spin when listening to stories and news headlines is increasingly difficult. These are written by highly skilled and well-paid scriptwriters whose role is to take a little truth and to create a tale for the most significant impact. It is a tale with just enough truth to shield the whole story from excessive scrutiny. They play with words to spin the facts to twist your mind. This is why you need to sharpen your Occam’s Razor. This requires us to accept that the one solution to a problem is the one with the smallest possible complexities or has the fewest assumptions. While deciphering the spin of misinformation it is a method which allows you to ask: ‘Does that really make sense?’ and/or ‘If there is underlying truth, what is it and how much?’ Another way to understand is ‘The simplest explanation is usually the best.’

During this election cycle, like the last, there is a plethora of bogus stories being created to try and make a point or generate fanatical reactions. When candidates purposely espouse unverifiable comments, look behind their intent. They aren’t trying to set or defend policy. They are shifting the discussion and casting it in such a light to cause anxiety and social division. They want to avoid the rare moment of candor when admitting it is acceptable to create stories for a campaign or candidate’s benefit. Simply put, they want you to believe it is all right for candidates to tell lies and continue to tell them in an unadulterated attempt to energize support. In our elections, dabbling in fantastical make-believe shouldn’t be acceptable to garnish support. It shows weakness of position and is insulting to the voters. Does it really make sense to claim one political party can control the weather and the other not? Is it really likely one political party would sponsor attempted assassinations and recruit inexperienced snipers? Is it really likely one candidate wants to be dictator for only one day? Do you really believe a vice-presidential candidate is plotting an Article 25 coup after inauguration? Did you really believe foreign corporations will pay tariffs or domestic consumers? Do you really believe any individual candidate can reduce inflation? And, do you really think those military personnel who have died, injured, or were captured are losers and suckers; really?

Sharpen your Occam’s Razor. Guard yourself against the frauds, lies, and spin. Question everything and everyone. Think critically. Ask yourself if something said makes basic common sense or if it is just too fantastical or complicated to be real and true. Is it simply a cooked-up story, a lie with a smidgen of truth, or a repeated lie which now seems true because it has been told so many times? The problem is these concocted fantasies seduce millions. It seems America’s standard of greatness is now based on lies, deception, and disparaging others while pandering to the gullible. There is value in credibility and believability, or at least there used to be.

The one thing salacious, rancorous, weak candidates do not want is a thinking, analytical voter. Candidates want the easily swayed and unsuspecting. They play with their fears and not their common sense. They weaponize fear, anxiety, disinformation, and hate fueled by lies to seduce you and secure your vote. This year, every year, disappoint them. Think for yourself and break away from the clutches of someone else’s twisted reality, which holds you captive. Listen, study, ask critical questions, and don’t be a single-issue voter. Exercise your Occam’s Razor and then vote accordingly, country before party.  #NeverFearTheDream    simplebender.com

A version of this article was first published in the Bend Bulletin 10/18/24