{"id":111020,"date":"2025-07-07T12:35:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=111020"},"modified":"2025-07-07T12:35:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:35:39","slug":"on-fake-news-mendacity-social-media-and-the-modern-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/07\/on-fake-news-mendacity-social-media-and-the-modern-circus.html","title":{"rendered":"On Fake News, Mendacity, Social Media, and the Modern Circus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JFK<\/a>
President John F. Kennedy \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rant immediately below was posted to Facebook on 23 April 2025. \u00a0I omit the name of its author out of charity but also because I don\u2019t know him and have no wish to embarrass him. \u00a0However, it\u2019s definitely now in the public domain:<\/p>\n

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YUUP ! \u2014\u2014 \"\ufffd\"<\/span> It took 50 years, but the truth is finally out. The Warren Commission lied. The government covered it up. JFK\u2019s assassination was not the act of a lone gunman \u2014 it was a full-blown military intelligence coup. SCREW YOU, LBJ. I always smelled a Rat, and you were the Big one. JFK had signed The Tonkin Act, effecting pulling all troops out of Southeast Asia-(Vietnam). Lady Byrd Johnson owned control and interest in Kellog\/ Brown & Root, later merge KBR, INC, Halliburton, Inc. who made most of the munitions the United States Military used to fight the Vietnam War. Just one small piece of the puzzle. Part \u2013 The Military Industrial Complex. The day after JFK was assassinated, President Lyndon Baines Johnson rescinded the Tonkin Act, giving President Lyndon Baines Johnson authority to increase involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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Declassified documents released January 30, 2025, expose what many of us have long suspected: JFK was murdered by the very system he tried to dismantle. He challenged the Federal Reserve, the CIA, and the shadow elite. He signed Executive Order 11110 to return to sound money. Within months, he was dead. And what followed was decades of lies, cover-ups, and silencing of truth.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The files reveal CIA death squads (Operation Execute), a \u201cJFK hit memo\u201d from the Federal Reserve, and names like E. Howard Hunt, David Atlee Phillips, and even George H.W. Bush linked to that dark day in Dallas. Even more chilling \u2014 JFK knew they were coming for him. A newly surfaced audio tape confirms it. \u201cThey\u2019ll come for me soon\u2026 But if I fall, let history know I tried to warn them.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Remind you of anyone???<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The parallels to President Donald J. Trump are right in front of us. Two men, decades apart, both targeted by the same Deep State machine. Both tried to return power to the people. Both exposed the lies of the industrial and financial slavery system. And both paid \u2014 or are paying \u2014 the price for defying the system.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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JFK\u2019s death was the day America lost its innocence. But January 30, 2025, was the day the veil was finally lifted.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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History isn\u2019t just repeating \u2014 it\u2019s screaming at us. The question is: are we listening now???<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\ufffd\"<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2014 [Author\u2019s Name Redacted]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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2025 MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On 2 July 2025, my friend and Interpreter Foundation colleague Steve Densley posted this response to Facebook and, with his kind permission, I reproduce it here. \u00a0I think that it offers wise and tempering counsel:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I\u2019ve seen this post pop up on my feed numerous times today. (It has been shared 74K times since it was first posted in April.) When you see posts making big claims like this one, it\u2019s important to pause and analyze before we accept or share them. Here are some tips:<\/div>\n
1. Check the Evidence<\/div>\n
\u2022 Does the post provide verifiable facts or just dramatic statements? There is no evidence to back up any of the claims made in this post. We are just expected to take this guy\u2019s word for what the newly disclosed documents say. When there are no links to official documents, reputable news outlets, or expert analysis, you should be skeptical.<\/div>\n
\u2022 There are some claims you can check for yourself. For example, he claims \u201cThe day after JFK was assassinated, President Lyndon Baines Johnson rescinded the Tonkin Act.\u201d Try Googling \u201cTonkin Act.\u201d You\u2019ll find that it was passed on August 7, 1964. Since JFK died in November of 1963, it was impossible for LBJ to rescind the Act on the day after JFK died since the Act did not yet exist.<\/div>\n
2. Evaluate the Source<\/div>\n
\u2022 Who wrote the post? Is he a recognized expert? His Facebook profile indicates he retired from Kraft as a packer. Reliable information usually comes from people with proven expertise in the subject.<\/div>\n
3. Watch for Emotional Manipulation<\/div>\n
\u2022 Does the text use strong emotional language (\u201cSCREW YOU, LBJ\u201d)? Conspiracy theories often rely on emotion rather than facts to persuade.<\/div>\n
4. Look for Logical Fallacies<\/div>\n
\u2022 Are there leaps in logic (\u201cJFK signed X, so Y happened, therefore Z is true\u201d)? Ask: does the conclusion follow from the evidence, or are there gaps and assumptions?<\/div>\n
5. Seek Corroboration<\/div>\n
\u2022 Is the story backed up by multiple, independent, and reputable sources? If only fringe sites or social media posts support a claim, it\u2019s probably not reliable. This particular claim is huge, and depends on the facts that appear in recently declassified documents. It seems highly likely that if the documents confirmed a conspiracy, multiple, reputable, sources would have published on this already and not just some retired Kraft packer. Here\u2019s one example of a reputable source that reports on the analysis of these documents: https:\/\/www.ap.org\/\u2026\/newly-released-jfk-assassination\u2026\/<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
6. Consider Alternative Explanations<\/div>\n
\u2022 Are other, less sensational explanations ignored or dismissed? Conspiracy theories often present a single, dramatic narrative and reject all other, often simpler, explanations.<\/div>\n
7. Fact-Check<\/div>\n
\u2022 Use fact-checking sites like Snopes or Politifact to see what evidence exists for or against the claim. For example, see here: https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/\u2026\/no-jfk-did-not-plan-end\u2026\/<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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We live in a time of deep distrust of institutions and of each other. The stability of our society in countless ways depends on mutual trust. Please don\u2019t further undermine that trust by spreading unverified, sensational, claims such as this.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\"A<\/a>
Since he\u2019s anonymous, I can\u2019t absolutely guarantee that this is an actual photograph of the clown in question. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You may have encountered the English noun tell<\/em>, which refers to an unconscious, habitual give-away gesture or action that is thought to betray a deception. \u00a0For example, someone may tend to look at the ground when lying, or a gambler may scratch his nose or ear when bluffing.<\/p>\n

For the past ten or fifteen years, I\u2019ve somehow attracted the obsessive notice of a wildly mendacious anonymous critic out there who goes by a moniker resembling \u201cEverybody\u2019s WC,\u201d but to whom I sometimes refer as my \u201cMini-Stalker.\u201d \u00a0(Among his most recent tale tales are these two gems: \u00a0[1] My work on Six Days in August<\/em> and on our currently-in-production series of short videos under the title of Becoming Brigham<\/em> is motivated by a homoerotic fixation on the late Brigham Young (d. 1877). \u00a0[2] That fixation was also manifest in the fawning and painfully clingy attentions that I paid on the set of Six Days in August<\/em> to the actor who played<\/em> Brigham. \u00a0According to my anonymous Mini-Stalker\u2019s purported anonymous sources, my transparently gay behavior on set caught the embarrassed gaze of the entire film crew, even though, to the best of my recollection, I was never once present on the set of the film. \u00a0Either he\u2019s lying, or his \u201csources,\u201d sensing his voraciously over-eager appetite for such nonsense, are lying to him<\/em>. \u00a0I\u2019m inclined to the former<\/em> explanation. \u00a0It\u2019s simpler.)<\/p>\n

But back to \u201ctells.\u201d \u00a0One of my Mini-Stalker\u2019s tells is that when (as he often does) he writes \u201cFolks, you just can\u2019t make stuff like this up,\u201d it\u2019s an almost infallible indication that he has, in fact, just made something up.<\/p>\n

Posted from Calgary, Alberta, Canada<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The rant immediately below was posted to Facebook on 23 April 2025. \u00a0I omit the name of its author out of charity but also because I don\u2019t know him and have no wish to embarrass him. \u00a0However, it\u2019s definitely now in the public domain: YUUP ! \u2014\u2014 It took 50 years, but the truth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":34932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8007,23228,11696,10972,38933,38936],"class_list":["post-111020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assassination","tag-conspiracy","tag-fake-news","tag-kennedy","tag-lyndon-johnson","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Fake News, Mendacity, Social Media, and the Modern Circus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  The rant immediately below was posted to Facebook on 23 April 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