Additions to the List of False Narratives

Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal

At 2026 we are forming a community to talk about facts and reality. We will focus on evidence that refutes politically correct but often unfounded orthodoxy. It’s seems appropriate, then, to launch this newsletter with a Letter to the Editor I published in the Wall Street Journal. It appeared in the digital edition on June 28, and the print edition on June 29, 2022. Here’s the unedited version of the letter:

Andy Kessler’s entertaining and informative editorial “Bees Are Fish and Other Fake Narratives (Wall Street Journal, Inside View, 6-19-22) ends with “A bee is a fish, a puddle is a river, protests cure pandemics, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. Beware of manipulative narratives.”

I’d like to add a few more items to Mr. Kessler’s list of falsehoods. The reality is often the opposite of these pleasant-sounding slogans and euphemisms.

Let’s start with politics, a place where false narratives are especially prevalent. Destroying the culture and advances of civilization is progressive. People who oppose some or all of the values of liberalism are liberal. But those who want to stop the failed policies of the status quo are conservative.

Economic fallacies are all too common. Rent control leading to low-income housing shortages is affordable housing. Healthcare shortages and rationing is Medicare for All. Government officials’ greed for power and other people’s money is corporate greed. Paying most of the nation’s tax bill while others pay none is known as pay their fair share. Raising taxes on all who earn an income is tax the rich.

Then there are the cultural fibs at odds with the truth. A prime example in institutions across America is diversity, equity and inclusion. Exclusion is inclusion. Restrictions in political ideology are diversity. The same outcome—a rare and unnatural event on this planet—when forcibly attempted by dictatorial fiat is called equity. Additionally, the least racism in history is systemic racism; woke racism is anti-racism; and exploiting blacks to promote Marxism is Black Lives Matter.

These fake narratives are just the tip of the iceberg. I have no doubt readers can find many more. Lies are alive and well in our culture today. The best antidote for lies is to tell the truth—that which is backed by the preponderance of evidence and facts. Deception flourishes in the darkness while the truth about reality blossoms in the light.

Elizabeth Smoots

Published Letter to the Editor with Audio Recording

Editorial I Commented on with Audio Recording