Saturday, July 23, 2022

Evidence Gathering

   The latest hearing and presentation of evidence against ex-president Donald Trump was broadcast in prime time by almost all the major TV networks.
   The sole exception was Fox.
   Instead, the evening Fox commentators spent their time snapping at the current president, Joe Biden, and other topics favored by right-wingers.
   So why was the biggest and most important news story so far this century being ignored? Because it was critical of the ultra-right network's favorite political leader.
   One would think that's all the more reason to carry the story and to fight back against the accusers. But what if the accusers are correct?
  Ignoring truth doesn't make it go away. It only makes the practitioners more ignorant.
   In its best sense, the word "ignorant" simply means "not knowing." In itself, that's not an evil practice, but deliberately refusing to acknowledge the existence of information that conflicts with your opinion, or condemning those who offer such information soon becomes an exercise in silliness.
   Or worse.
   History is filled with examples of leaders who condemn those who disagree as heretics, and therefore evil. But what if the established belief is mistaken, or at worst, is itself evil?
   In the Roman era, the tribesmen who invaded seldom trimmed their facial hair, so they were called barbarians, after the Latin word for beard, which was barba. To this day, professional beard trimmers are called barbers.
   In the mid-20th Century, those who did not subscribe to the beliefs of ruling politicians in Germany were rounded up and put to death. Similar tragedies have happened in other nations around the world, when persuasive orators have incited violence against those who disagree.
   Currently in America, we are seeing the consequences of what happens when an orator does not get his way. The so-called true believers resort to violence as a way to force others to accept ideas that their leader failed to persuade the larger population to accept on Election Day.
   But many of those who invaded the Capitol of the U.S. government are now being prosecuted and jailed for their attempt to cancel the results of the prior election.
   The leaders and planners of that insurrection are also being investigated by civil and criminal authorities as well as by other governmental agencies, and targets of these probes go all the way up to the former president himself, Donald Trump.
   The evidence is increasingly firm, as probers acknowledge the enormity of the task -- to gather evidence and proof that the president himself participated in and committed criminal and civil offenses, going all the up to treason.
   That's why the probe is going so slowly and carefully.
   So why are the Fox people ignoring the most important story in American history?

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