Marorie Taylor Greene cannot handle the truth: She is a leader in the Flat Earthers society

A Few Good Men:  Lieutenant Kaffee: I want the truth❗

Colonel Jessup: You can’t handle the truth❗

Echo essay by Ramon Presson published in the Williamson Herald, a Tennessee newspaper"

t’s one of the most iconic punch/counter punch moments in film history. Three decades now since its release, this courtroom exchange between Cruise and Nicholson’s characters seems to have prophesied and describe our present strained relationship (or perhaps divorce) with truth and facts.

Before today’s conspiracy theories enjoyed the fuel and fertilizer of the internet and social media, the positively absurd was once largely limited to cover stories in the National Enquirer. I remember waiting in grocery store checkout lines and seeing actual Enquirer headlines such as “Redneck Aliens Take Over Trailer Park” 👿👺and “Half Man, Half Dog Baffles Doctors.”  MTG (Marjorie Taylor Greene😕) and OMG❗

Instead of “truth is stranger than fiction” we’ve arrived at “fiction is my truth.” And there is no better fiction writer at the keyboard today than Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (MTG) who recently doubled down on her post-Helene & Milton claims that “they” are controlling the weather. On Oct 3 she tweeted, “Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” On October 7, Green tweeted “Climate change is the new COVID. Ask your government if the weather is manipulated or controlled. Did you ever give permission to them to do it❓Are you paying for it? Of course you are.” 

Green is implying that “they” are somewhere, somehow manufacturing deadly Category 4 and 5 hurricanes to prove a point and advance an agenda, and you’re naïve if you don’t believe that.

This is from the woman who claims that 9/11 was an inside job and that there is no evidence that a plane actually hit the Pentagon. She maintained that the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook, Parkland and Las Vegas were staged. In 2018 MTG made headlines for claiming Jewish space lasers were operating for leftist agendas, specifically insisting that wildfires in California had been started by PG&E, in conjunction with the Rothschilds, using a space laser, in order to clear room for a high-speed rail project.

Conspiracy of the Month Club:  MTG serves up platters of extreme examples, but what’s frightening is that thousands of people believe her. Conspiracy theories certainly got a boost during Covid regarding the virus, vaccines, masks, social distancing, etc. That anyone could say with a straight face that a virus that has killed 7 million people worldwide, 1.1 million in the United States alone, was a “hoax” is beyond my comprehension.

But there are large numbers of Flat Earthers and Holocaust deniers, so I don’t know why other crazy claims surprise me. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the tip of the bizarre and outrageous QAnon iceberg that rose up in 2017 from a large ocean of shared misinformation. The wife of one of my patients believed that lizard people were running the government and that the only people who could recognize them were other lizard people.

Why are we susceptible to falling for conspiracy theories?Our brains have trouble managing ambiguity and uncertainty. We say we love mysteries, but what we really love are solved mysteries. We are wired to try and connect the dots and discern cause and effect.
In the absence of clear information, truth and facts, our imaginations will fill in the gaps to come up with explanations.

When we don’t understand, agree with, or like the explanation for an incident or for someone’s actions, we’ll even make something up.
Sometimes the actual facts and truth are not very interesting, opening the door for a strange alternative explanation to be more engaging and entertaining. It’s true of social media and all marketing: uninteresting things don’t go viral.

Sometimes the actual facts and truth are disturbing and can leave us feeling partly responsible for the damage and/or necessary change. Denial, minimizing, and blame shifting are always easier than accepting even partial responsibility for the problem and thus a role in the improvement. As a couples therapist, I’ve seen this play out right in front of me for 30-plus years.

What we make up (or believe from elsewhere) will fit our personal ideology, politics and/or theology. We are very seldom willing at any given moment to challenge our biases and cherished beliefs.
We like to believe we have insider information, exclusive and valuable intel that most others don’t have but that everybody needs. Said the aforementioned wife to her family, “Can you see I’m trying to help you?”

There are Gaslighters among us who would have us doubt what we’ve witnessed. They are like Chico Marx who said, “Well, who you gonna believe —me or your own eyes?” When challenged, they will not only repeat the falsehood, but double down on it. It’s good to remember what Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”😁

I see something in the public forum that I see in too many marriages—the inability, or at least the unwillingness, to say either of these two things: "I don’t know - or/ But, I was wrong."

Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) and the Flat Earth Society

How refreshing it would be if politicians, business leaders and spouses could bring themselves to say those two things. Yea, I know; that’s crazy talk right there.

Ramon Presson, PhD, is a licensed marriage & family therapist in Franklin, (www.ramonpressontherapy.com) the author of multiple books, and a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He can be reached at ramonpresson@gmail.com

Trump cruelty called out by a Tennessee parent in an opinion letter

Echo opinion letter published in the Williamson Herald, a Tennessee newspaper: 

"The former president recently called Vice President Kamala Harris “retarded” while attempting to convince top Republican donors to pour more money into his campaign at his New York penthouse...😠😡😧❗..."

Donald Trump's latest tirade into IDIOCACY 😧💢was the straw that broke my camel’s back! 

Let me preface this by telling you that in the early 1970s, my wife and I were a part of a USO Tour throughout Southeast Asia. When we weren’t performing for the troops, we played music for orphans all over that part of the world. My wife was six, seven and eight months pregnant with our first child. The experience in the orphanages caused us to re-think our future family plans.

Two and a half years after the arrival of our son, we were all at the Nashville Airport greeting our first daughter (and sister), a biracial child from Viet Nam. Almost six years to the date of her arrival, a second daughter came to us via the Tennessee Department of Human Services. She was abandoned by her mother at 4 and spent another four years in foster care.

She was born with spina bifida, a birth defect of the neuro tube that caused her to be physically and mentally challenged, not to mention, never growing beyond 4’1” tall. She has successfully been living independently in her own apartment for over 20 years. She regularly books and takes the Franklin Trolley three days a week to where she volunteers at a local thrift store. She manages her own medications and cooks her own meals.

She is neither “Stupid” nor “Retarded”, although she was occasionally called that, along with “midget,” by some uninformed teenagers when she was in high school. 

Our daughter is a loving and caring human being who is wise and sensitive enough not to use derogatory language when talking about someone else! Her IQ is around 45-50.

The former president recently called Vice President Kamala Harris “retarded” while attempting to convince top Republican donors to pour more money into his campaign at his New York penthouse, according to The New York Times. Former education secretary Betsy DeVos, who was present, should have called him out for using such offensive language. She didn’t.💢😡 I personally took great offence at his use of the ugly word.

Mr. “former President,” our daughter will never own a New York City penthouse, and even if she did, she is smart enough to never think of running for president….and you should be too…but maybe you’re not as smart as she is! Please reconsider. We are so better than this!

From Gene Cotton in Franklin, Tennessee

Tennessee can do better than right wing Senator Marsha Blackburn

Echo to the editor of the Williamson Herald newspaper, in Tennessee.

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn is an airhead - but that's just my Maine Writer opinion.

Senator Marsha Blackburn in a Republican right wing Senator who claims to represent Tennessee: Disgusted by Blackburn’s column.

To say I (i.e., the letter writer) was disgusted by Marsha Blackburn’s commentary about Critical Race Theory written in [a recent] email (and published on her website) from the Herald is an extreme understatement. 

Blackburn writes on her website: 

What Senator Blackburn Is Doing To Stop Critical Race Theory

Although I respect that she has a right to speak her mind, it is, nevertheless, deeply disturbing to be reminded that our state is represented in the U.S. Senate by someone who is so willing to fan the flames that keep our country divided by writing a piece of propaganda like this.

Senator Blackburn has also pushed for legislation to prohibit federal funding for the “1619 Project". 

Please allow me to clear the air on a few basic points, using facts instead of falsehoods. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has not been taught in our state’s or county’s public schools. Further, “the left” is not making an effort at “brainwashing” our kids or “shaming” white children in our state/country’s schools. And CRT does not actively encourage discrimination, nor does it “segregate people into two main categories: oppressors or victims.”

CRT “at its core” (to borrow Mrs. Blackburn’s words) IS about understanding inequality and racism in our country and encouraging debate about how we should address it. It IS based on the idea that racism is a part of our everyday lives as it is embedded into our legal systems and policies. And as such, people who do not intend to be racist may make choices that fuel racism.

It is about outcomes, not only individuals’ own beliefs. And it calls for these outcomes to be studied and rectified. Clearly, there is much room for debate about how outcomes can be rectified, but we should welcome such debate, not stymie it. 

We need to broaden our children’s world view, not narrow it Mrs. Blackburn points out the voice of one parent (of many, I’m sure). But there are also many parents who believe — as my wife and I do — that our kids are very capable of critically considering many ideas. We believe it is important that they are exposed to these kinds of ideas and that they should be encouraged to consider the implications of our history, both the good and the bad, including how it has informed both our historical and current laws and policies. This is why we are so concerned by the law recently passed in TN (SB 0623) and by propaganda like Mrs. Blackburn is spreading.

I agree, parents need to show up at school board meetings. But we need to show up to make sure that our kids are allowed to learn about institutionalized racism. We need to make sure our board members understand that we know this teaching does not imply that white kids are demonized. Rather, we believe it is important that our kids are allowed to consider ideas in a broader context. Our kids are very capable of critically considering these kinds of ideas, and they need to be given the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,  Tony Caudill in Franklin Tennessee 

Senator Marsha Blackburn is an Idiot fan club! Just click "like"!

Taaaa-daaaa! I was delighted to find a social media page titled "Marsha Blackburn is an Idiot". Check it out!

Bennett cartoon published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press 

So, my series about Blackburn's incompetence is not an original idea! I'm glad to be like minded with 300 plus people who support the Marsha Blackburn is an Idiot social media page with "like".

This blog is my own first in a series of echoes titled "Blackburn is an Idiot", or "BIAI".  In my opinion, Blackburn's wrong-minded supporters are zealots who practice snake worshipping, believe the earth was created in seven days, aka, "creationists" and that evolution never happened (reference Scopes Monkey Trial*).  These weird constituents are the right wing Tennessee idiots who elected BIAI. Unfortunately, she has delivered for them.  In other words, "Stupid Is As Stupid Does", or #SIASD is the BIAI slogan.

Following is an opinion echo, published in the Williamson Herald, in Franklin, Tennessee.  A ray of BIAI hope beams from this opinion. At least, some Tennesseans are not among Blackburn's weird BIAI cult. 

Letter to the Editor: Disgusted by Blackburn

It is deeply disturbing to be reminded that our state of Tennessee is represented in the U.S. Senate by someone so willing to fan the political flames that keep our country divided by writing propaganda.

 
Please allow me to fact check BIAI, to correct the falsehoods she spews in her op-ed articles. 

In fact, contrary to her uninformed position, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has not been taught in Tennessee's public schools. Furthermore, what BIAI claims as “the left”, are not making an effort at “brainwashing” kids or “shaming” white children in our state/country’s schools. 

Moreover, CRT does not actively encourage discrimination, nor does it “segregate people into two main categories: oppressors or victims.”

Check out the best selling book "How to be an Anti Racist" by Ibram M. Kendi.

CRT “at its core” (to borrow Mrs. Blackburn’s words) IS about understanding inequality and racism in America and encouraging debate about how it should be addressed. It IS based on the idea that racism is a part of our everyday lives as it is embedded into our legal systems and policies. And, as such, people who do not intend to be racist may, inadvertently, make choices that fuel racism.

It is about outcomes, not only individuals’ own beliefs. And, it calls for these outcomes to be studied and rectified. Clearly, there is much room for debate about how outcomes can be rectified, but we should welcome such debate, not stymie it. We need to broaden our children’s world view, not narrow it.

Mrs. Blackburn points out the voice she hears from only one parent (but, of many other idiots, I’m sure). Yet there are also many parents who believe — as my wife and I do — that our kids are very capable of critically considering many ideas. We believe it is important that they are exposed to these kinds of ideas and that they should be encouraged to consider the implications of our history, both the good and the bad, including how it has informed both our historical and current laws and policies. This is why we are so concerned by the law recently passed, in Tennessee (SB 0623: Tennessee passes bill to withhold funding for schools teaching about systemic racism)
and by propaganda like Mrs. Blackburn (aka #BIAI) is spreading.

Parents need to show up at school board meetings to protest this discriminatory bill. But we need to show up to make sure that our kids are allowed to learn about institutionalized racism. 

We need to make sure our school board members understand that we know this teaching does not imply that white kids are demonized. Rather, we believe it is important that our kids are allowed to consider ideas in a broader context. Our kids are very capable of critically considering these kinds of ideas, and they need to be given the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,

Tony Caudill,  in Franklin, Tennessee

*A misdemeanor, punishable by fine in Tennessee, to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible....

It's time to formally launch the #BIAI fan club! 

https://www.facebook.com/MarshaBlackburnIsAnIdiot