The crisis of authenticity
By Robert Knight
FBI Director Christopher Wray endured a barrage of questions from House Republicans this past week. They amply documented how the FBI has ignored shocking evidence of the Biden family's influence peddling.
Here's a summary of Mr. Wray's responses: "I know nothing. Besides, the FBI is above reproach."
A main challenge we face right now is the crisis of authenticity – what's real, what isn't and whom we can trust.
With the rise of a massive, corrupt government, censorial media, social media and artificial intelligence, this has become obvious. We no longer have faith in many institutions and must root out truth where we can find it.
Selectively choosing facts that yield what we want is a constant temptation. As imperfect beings, we're all prone to subjectivity, limited by our five senses, beliefs and mental toolboxes.
"A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest," Paul Simon wryly observed in his 1970 song "The Boxer."
We all have opinions, but we can't design our own yardsticks or there would be chaos. The same goes for morality. Despite our society's cultivated taste for relativism, moral truth cannot be ignored without severe consequences.
As the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, men are all too willing to "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Further, "although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
"Professing to be wise, they became fools."
Nearly 2,000 years later, George Orwell said, "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
The existence of truth is self-evident, as the Declaration of Independence declares. Two plus two will always equal four, even if some lunatic insists, for ideological reasons, that it is five.
Until recently, spouting the fiction that men can become women and vice versa would get you committed or at least laughed out of the room. Steering children toward sexual confusion was – and is – child abuse. Letting men compete in women's athletics was – and is – unfair.
Because liberals have co-opted nearly every value-imparting institution, few people have been daring enough to be the boy in "The Emperor's New Clothes" who points out the ruler's nakedness, which everyone can see but is afraid to mention.
One of those bold people is Riley Gaines, the University of Kentucky swimmer who was 2022 Southeastern Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Fresh from a congressional hearing, she's on a national tour. At churches and other venues, she warns about the dangers posed by transgender madness not only to women's sports but to our survival as a self-governing republic.
Appearing recently at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, she related how she was physically attacked by a mob in April at San Francisco State University.
In the name of tolerance, this mob punched and shoved her. She was locked in a classroom for three hours before authorities told her it was safe to leave.
Ms. Gaines said to applause that she is not about to be silenced by the mob, and that her strength comes from her faith in Jesus Christ.
As for San Francisco, yes, it's the epicenter of sexual madness, totalitarian impulses and Democratic one-party rule. But this kind of thing happens anytime someone questions the ruling elites.
Facebook and Instagram continue to censor "misinformation," which is anything they don't like. Google-owned YouTube routinely takes down videos questioning leftist orthodoxy on climate change, COVID-19 shots, LGBTQ issues and concerns over election integrity.
I speak from experience. YouTube removed a video interview I did with blogger Laurence Jarvik that featured my 2022 book, "Crooked: What Really Happened in the 2020 Election and How to Stop Vote Fraud." There is no "misinformation" here, just healthy skepticism based on facts.
Former President Donald Trump won 18 of 19 bellwether counties and all bellwether states. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife put $400 million into a successful effort to "assist" election offices in battleground states like Wisconsin. Democrats harvested unrequested ballots sent to households based on out-of-date registration lists.
I could go on, but here's a commonsense question: Did 81 million Americans really vote for a visibly declining recluse and his running mate, a cackling, unpleasant affirmative action nominee disliked even by most Democrats? Just asking.
But that's just it. You can't even ask. Our leftist overseers hate honest dialogue. In response to Elon Musk's reopening Twitter to uncensored conservative opinions, Mr. Zuckerberg launched his own version tied to Instagram, Threads.
"Threads immediately started censoring posts. On Day One!" wrote Brownstone Institute President Jeffrey Tucker in The Epoch Times. "Realizing the scam, many people, including this writer, immediately deleted their Instagram accounts so that Zuckerberg could not claim success."
The cause of liberty was aided recently when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Colorado could not force Christian website designer Lorie Smith to service same-sex weddings. And a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to stop telling social media companies whom to censor.
This past week, Ms. Gaines issued a debate challenge to lesbian soccer star Megan Rapinoe, a supposed feminist who advocates biological men competing in women's sports. Ms. Gaines accused Ms. Rapinoe of virtue signaling instead of standing up for women.
Sometimes, the truth is so stark that all it takes is someone to point it out.
This column first appeared in the Washington Times.
Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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