• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

In America, Reality No Longer Applies

Stephen J. Lyons by Stephen J. Lyons
10/26/21
in Featured, Opinion
President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden discusses defending the Affordable Care Act and his health care plans in an information convention in Wilmington, November 16, 2020. Photo: Stratos Brilakis / Shutterstock

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

There is so much in this world I will never understand. For example, how do those shiny rims on certain SUVs spin the opposite direction of the car’s forward motion?

But the most nagging quandary is: why are so many of my fellow Americans refuse reality? A recent CNN poll sent me to the liquor cabinet… again. Seventy percent of Republicans polled said that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected, and 30 percent of everyone, including Democrats and independents believe the same Big Canard. This despite dozens upon dozens of lawsuits and recounts to the contrary. Even a Trump-packed conservative Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly against the lie and in favor of upholding Biden’s obvious landslide victory.

Plenty of blame goes to the former president, and now fulltime Mar-a-Lago greeter and doorman Donald Trump, for muddying the waters before and after the 2020 election by claiming that the only way he could lose would be through cheating. As if all the people in charge of each state’s election conspired to tamper with ballots to ensure a Biden victory by seven million votes.

The January 6 insurrection at the Capitol to stop the validation of the 2020 election, and do real harm to police officers and those legislators willing to defend and carry out a peaceful transition of power, further perpetuated the Deep State conspiracy theories that ran rampant on social media and in the rural compounds of our well-regulated militias.

Conservative media outlets and Trump allies in Congress kept that fantasy alive, and today are paying for it with billion-dollar lawsuits, settlements and on-air apologies.

Should be the end of the story, right?

Not at all. Not in America, where believing in facts is optional. Six months later, seven out of every ten Republican voters refuse to accept that reality.

COVID-19 Vaccine

On to the next sphere of collective stupidity: the fear of the COVID-19 vaccine. Last month a Monmouth University poll found that one in five Americans said they will not get the injection. The numbers break down along predictable political lines: 43 percent of Republicans say no to the vaccine, compared with 5 percent of Democrats, and 22 percent of independents in agreement.

Despite almost 600,000 deaths in the US and 33 million cases, despite the fact that the coronavirus variants currently devastating India are already present here in the States, millions of our fellow citizens do not see the need for protecting themselves or others. Again, the same anti-government-Deep State theories abound. For example, if Bill Gates is involved in financing one of the vaccines then it no doubt contains a microchip (in liquid form I guess and, my, isn’t that clever?) that tracks our every movement.

Let me pause here and break the news to the paranoid posse that the most effective tracking device has already been unleashed. It fits in the palm of your hand. It’s called a cell phone. They know where you are, where you’ve been, and probably where you’re going.

Is history still taught in our schools? I ask because throughout this country’s recent past vaccines have been a force for good in improving the quality of life for Americans. Yet, the resistance continues to grow among the anti-vaxxers, not only to the COVID vaccines, but to other vaccines such as those that protect us from the flu and shingles. No, the flu shot will not give you the flu. Or autism. And, dear reader, trust me, you do not want to experience shingles.

(By the way, a leading anti-vaxxer is none other than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which proves that intelligent, critical thinking can sometimes skip generations, and that quackery is not limited to some guy belching word salad on a street corner.)

History is a great teacher if one bothers to read it. This nation came together to rally for (wait for it) “the common good” when it rolled out the March of Dimes and other charities in the 1950s to provide polio vaccinations to all children regardless of income level. The polio scourge was finally wiped out. Thank you Jonas Salk and, yes, a tip of the hat to the federal government. Vaccines have for the most part ended measles, mumps, and whooping cough.

But there is still yeoman’s work to be done on developing a vaccine for stupidity. One would think that with all of our available modern medical technology that somewhere in a sterile laboratory the white-coated scientists were working furiously to inoculate the millions of Americans who believe, for instance, that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was behind a voter fraud scheme that cost President Trump a second term in office.

Until we have an effective cure I recommend the following preventative measures: Social distance from the tin-foil cartel wherever they congregate. If you cannot get far enough away from them, utilize a mask, a face shield, and ear plugs. And do not, under any circumstances, cite history, facts, or anything contained in a book. I hope this helps.

Now, can someone explain those spinning rims?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Stephen J. Lyons

Stephen J. Lyons

Author of six books of reportage and essays, most recently “Searching for Home: Misadventures with Misanthropes” (Finishing Line Press)

Related Posts

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.
Opinion

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

by Stephen J. Lyons
April 2, 2025
Smoke from the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, California, from Santa Monica, California, on January 7
National

Los Angeles Fire Deaths at 10 as National Guard Called In

by Staff Writer with AFP
January 10, 2025
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during a meeting in New York on September 25, 2019
World

Zelensky Says ‘Unpredictable’ Trump Could Help End War

by Staff Writer with AFP
January 2, 2025
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.
National

Trump Wishes ‘Merry Christmas’ to ‘Left Lunatics’ in Frenzy of Social Posts

by Staff Writer with AFP
December 27, 2024
US President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes
National

Trump Confirms Plan to Use Military for Mass Deportation

by Staff Writer with AFP
November 18, 2024
US President Donald Trump displays a sign saying 'Trump digs coal' during a rally.
National

Gore Says Climate Progress ‘Won’t Slow Much’ Because of Trump

by Staff Writer with AFP
November 26, 2024
Next Post
Alexey Navalny

Russia to Debate Bill Banning Navalny Supporters From Polls: Lawmaker

Israel violence

Trump Slams Biden 'Weakness' as Israel Violence Swells

Recommended

AI chatbot applications.

Meta Faces Row Over Plan to Use European Data for AI

May 14, 2025
A photo taken with a drone over Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Johnny Miller/Millefoto

White S. Africans Due for US Resettlement to Leave Sunday: Govt

May 12, 2025
Cardinal Robert Prevost, newly elected as Pope Leo XIV is seen on the Saint Peter’s Basilica balcony, at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican on May 8, 2025

New Pope Leo XIV Has Mixed Record on Abuse: Campaigners

May 9, 2025
Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard in Pampore, Pulwama district, south of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on May 7, 2025.

India and Pakistan: A History of Armed Conflict

May 7, 2025
US President Donald Trump speaks as he departs the White House, on May 5, 2020, in Washington, DC en route to Arizona, where he will tour a mask factory and hold a roundtable on Native American issues

Trump Says Ordering ‘100% Tariff’ on All Movies Produced Abroad

May 5, 2025
A massive power outage strikes Spain and Portugal, briefly affecting parts of France as well, on Monday, April 28, 2025.

Spain Starts Probing Causes of Massive Blackout

April 30, 2025

Opinion

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

November 15, 2024
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Can the UN Human Rights Council Protect Rights While Abusers Sit at the Table?

October 28, 2024
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post