Lying to Max: Untruths from Grandparents to Cellphones

My favorite grandparent was Max Brody. Having immigrated from Lithuania at age 10, he lived in Brooklyn and was dearly loved by everybody. Including me. He died young, though, around 55. It was in 1948. I was 8 years old. My mother told me he’d had stomach cancer, and even though the end was near — he was down to about 85 pounds — he was never told he was terminally ill or had cancer; he was always told he’d get better.

The reason for the lies, my mother told me, was because of his sensitive nature. He wouldn’t have been able to handle the truth.

“He’d listen to the news on the radio,” Mom told me, “and if the announcer said 40 people had died in an earthquake in Chile, he’d burst into tears and cry and carry on.”

Truth is, the media reports mostly bad news. And it hurts. Ever watch somebody read a newspaper? “Oh no,” they will say. “Look at what just happened.” It affects people. Badly.

When I was growing up, we confined our news-watching time to the networks on TV at 6 p.m. Except for maybe one story at the end where they would say, “And now for some good news,” the rest was bad. But it was just an hour. So, the resulting depression wore off and we got over it.

The astonishing thing that those who follow the news today don’t realize is that from the time they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night they get bad news every 10 minutes. On their cellphones.

Since I started writing this, bulletins coming to my cellphone have told me about a tornado in Alabama, another shooting in Tennessee, a Russian S-22 fighter hit by a missile and the pilot recovered alive, rivers in Iowa dangerously polluted, two police officers sacked for “discriminatory and offensive” messages to colleagues in London, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “banning sex books through…” and I have to click to read more.

Also “Texas cheerleaders shot after getting into wrong car in third similar inci…” I think incident comes next.

Besides bad news, your cellphone also brings lies. Tons of them. Crowds follow those online who tell fabricated whoppers as facts. And everybody wants to be followed.

Did you know that the actor Jamie Foxx suffered a heart attack three weeks ago and had to be taken to a hospital by ambulance? It was because he got the vaccine. Yes it was. (Truth: No it wasn’t.) Another reason to hang former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States Dr. Anthony Fauci.

I was tempted to add a post. It would have said “recent studies show you can have a heart attack just by thinking about a vaccine. The truth is coming out.” But I never posted it. Why? Probably fear of death threats.

And what this is doing to us is okay? Protected by the First Amendment? And assault rifles protected by the Second?

ABOUT LYING

Recently, a company called BonusFinder.com did a survey to study lying in America. They found out that women are more likely to lie than men.

They looked at where the survey showed the most lying. Rhode Island, Maine, West Virginia and Kansas had the most liars. North Dakota, Montana, Hawaii, South Dakota and Idaho, the fewest.

Of course, since those contacted may be lying, this survey might mean absolutely nothing.