Carnes: Two peas in a lying pod
“Yes, I lied about everything…but not that one thing.”
Two notable people in the news have said as much lately, but only one has ended up in jail so far.
One is now a convicted murderer imprisoned for life while the other is a celebrated TV talking head with a perpetual look of confusion and a dedicated cult of viewers willing to believe anything he says regardless of reality.
Alex Murdaugh will spend every day until he dies in the confines of a prison, repeating the same boring routine day after day after day, no one ever having to listen to his lies ever again, except perhaps a very unfortunate cellmate.
Tucker Carlson will wake up in a multi-million dollar home, get dressed, go to the office, have someone put on his makeup, and then perform his best George Santos routine for senior citizens who will soak up his easily provable lies as truth day after day after day.
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Murdaugh’s lies resulted in the deaths of at least two individuals, while Carlson’s lies have helped lead to the destruction of the once great Republican party, selling verbal snake oil to a gullible public desperate to be told exactly what they wish to hear, again, regardless of the actual truth.
I don’t need to waste column space repeating what you have already read and heard, just suffice it to say the man has proven beyond the shadow of any doubt that he has spent the last few years knowingly peddling lies.
And now that the irrefutable evidence has been exposed in a court of law thanks to the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News, his boss, Rupert Murdoch (which in a creepy way rhymes with Murdaugh), has repeatedly confirmed Carlson has been and continues hawking clearly provable falsehoods, which begs the question: Why is anyone, anyone at all, still listening?
You know what, screw that, if some of you people insist upon continuing to keep blinders on while watching such blatantly obvious propaganda meant exclusively to control your thoughts, I give up.
Go ahead, knock yourselves out (please).
And with the Colorado GOP electing an election-denier to lead them last week, you people get exactly what you deserve – a future filled with little more than continued bitterness and anger towards a system refusing to stay stuck in the past.
Instead, I’m focused on our little valley being home to the greatest alpine ski racer of all time, the one and only Mikaela Shiffrin.
Watching the race last weekend my eyes were filled with tears of joy as she showed the grace and humility of a truly wonderful human being, not just the GOAT of her sport, but encompassing the elegance and charm we should all strive to accomplish with what little time we have on this planet.
And the best part?
Mikaela’s not done yet. She has years of racing ahead of her as she continues to raise the international standards for alpine skiing excellence.
In the meantime we can only hope Carlson will continue to be exposed as the journalistic fraud he admits to being and his cult following will slowly but surely deteriorate. Though not guilty of murder and deserving of prison, we can rest knowing he’ll get the closest thing to it – a lifetime supply of nightly dreams comprised exclusively of rambling speeches full of lies by his favorite Florida hotel owner.
Most of us call them nightmares.
Richard Carnes, of Avon, writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.
