We Can Learn to Distinguish Between
Fact and Fiction, True and False
These are perilous times that are fueled with prolific, pervasive, and poisonous polarizing propaganda. At times it takes the form of blatant lies, such as what is spoken repeatedly by the current President of the United States and his fascist administration. And at other times it is more subtle and occurs through silence, through omission, through giving two sides when there is only one (the genocide in Gaza and the climate crisis as two examples among many others —https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ii9zGFDtc), and through giving us the voices of "experts" who are aligned with the powerful rather than voices of integrity which hold the powerful accountable.
In seeing with evolving and growing clarity the many layers of the withholding of truth and facts from the American people, we are empowered to recognize and discern the wealthy individuals and corporate powers which are embedded in all corporate funded mainstream media — and all of which, on a continuum, have played an enormous role in bringing us into the horrors of this fascist era.
There are those whose attachments to democrats are good and republicans are bad, or vise versa, may struggle with following the threads of truth which lead us down the path of ultimately coming to recognize that nearly the whole of the American political system is there to serve the donor class and not We The People or the planet. This includes Wall Street and the Big Banks, the Military Industrial Complex and Fossil Fuel Industry, Israel and AIPAC, the Pharmaceutical and Insurance Industries, the Prison Industrial Complex and Animal Agricultural Industries, individual sociopathic billionaires whose extreme addictions to power and greed has us all on a suicidal trajectory, and on and on.
When viewed through this lens, it becomes clear that it is not simply one political party or the other, it is not right wing FOX News or corporate funded MS Now/CNN/PBS, etc. that have brought us to the brink. On a continuum, all have wealthy interests and donors funding them and, while some are more noxious and dangerous, all have a shadow side that is inevitable when profit serves as the greater underlying force than a depth of consistent commitment to integrity, truth and facts, and empowering Americans to be an informed populace.
This commitment to a higher good for us all is what wealthy interests in our corporate media and in both major political parties have obstructed again and again and again. This is well documented in the excellent short documentary Smothered by Riches: A History of the Powell Memo — https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2025/06/excellent-smothered-by-riches-history.html. The days of Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley have long been over.
As we explore in-depth where we are today, how else can it be that there continues to be endless resource wars spanning decades, that our government under both major political parties has been funding the apartheid and genocide in Gaza, that there is no healthcare for all while millions of uninsured die or go bankrupt every year, that immigrants and other minority communities are targeted and dehumanized and terrorized, that we refuse to declare a climate emergency and instead continue to drill baby drill us all into oblivion, that millions are living one paycheck away from houselessness while the obscene and immoral redistribution of wealth upwards continues to escalate unabated, that we have now entered into the horrors of this fascist era, etc., etc.?!?
AND this is where discernment of who we can trust for our resources of information and who we can't becomes an imperative. It is absolutely possible to recognize which resources consistently embody "a profound commitment to truth," as Chris Hedges would say, and which do not. We can absolutely learn the distinction between fact and fiction and true and false.
First we have to want to know the truth — no matter what and no matter where it leads. We have to be that brave and that committed to uncovering the long-term impacts on all of us of what bell hooks describes as "imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy."
It is my belief that it is incredibly important for us to understand that empowering ourselves by courageously peeling back layer after layer of our ignorance, illusions, and indoctrination is what holds the potential to save us all. Because it is this fierce commitment to truth that serves as an intervention on all that disempowers and distracts, divides and polarizes, disinforms and feeds our delusions, and fuels the many forms of ancestral and cultural suffering, separation and trauma, and violence which plague our society and world.
A Little of My Back Story
Related to Following Threads of Truth
There have been several times in my lifetime that stand out when the bottom of the world as I knew it fell out from under me. Certainly among them was in 1983 when a close friend told me that my husband at that time was alcoholic. I had been blinded to that reality and that alcoholism and untreated trauma was woven though most of those I knew and, last but not least, me. Her words ultimately served as a profound intervention on my life. I've most recently written about that here: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2026/02/reflections-on-what-sobriety-means-to.html.
Another incredibly life changing time followed in the wake of the profound devastation of 9-11. As I listened to George W Bush declare that we "were attacked for our freedoms," I knew in my deepest being that that was a lie. But I had no idea why our nation was attacked. None. I knew in my bones that I did not know the truth. And the depths of trauma, horror, and heartbreak utterly pushed me into the need to discover what I did not know. I was utterly propelled into seeking the truth no matter how disillusioning, difficult, humbling, painful it was.
That was when I switched from music on the radio to independent broadcasts which over time took me deeper and deeper and deeper. I started buying books and driving on cold winter nights and year round into Portland and beyond to hear authors and investigative journalist and other truth-tellers and wisdom-keepers speak. I began to learn about neoliberalism — https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2025/03/some-thoughts-on-why-it-is-so-important.html — something I had never even heard of before Obama's Presidency. I discovered Amy Goodman and Democracy Now!, Howard Zinn and Arundhati Roy, Chris Hedges and Jeremy Scahill, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley, David Barsamian and Alternative Radio, James Baldwin and Henry Giroux, and on and on.
And I was blown away by how little I knew about the depths of the shadow side of our nation! And as I began to emerge yet once again from the deep fog that I did not know I'd been in, I have been repeatedly both humbled and empowered with the awareness of that there is always more... always another vista to explore beyond the one I that I can see right now. And I am so very grateful!
I have also learned how invaluable it is to recognize that the resilience, persistence, courage, strength, and ongoing intention and commitment to truth and to uncovering more and more of what we have not known asks of us to remember to take very good care of our precious selves. At least this has certainly been my experience. Without doing so, we will be vulnerable to burning out, turning away, disassociating, or becoming stuck in propaganda or apathy or rage. And the result is that we and our culture and beyond will continue to be plagued with addictions, depression and anxiety, separation and dehumanization, and all of the many faces of delusion and violence and unaddressed trauma. (I wrote this piece on embodying what we and our world need to heal: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2025/05/some-thoughts-on-embodying-what-we-and.html.) So, yes, we must remember to take good care of our precious selves and also one another.
It is my perspective that this is a lifelong journey. This search for truth. There is no graduation date where now we know it all. I'm chuckling at myself in this moment as I reflect on the days long ago when I was looking and hoping to have everything known, understood, fixed, and under control. I had so much fear, fear which fed my pervasive control issues and my limitations in how to be with life as it is rather than how I want it to be or believe it should be. I've learned to not should on myself or others. Most of the time. Life is humbling!
What I've come to recognize today is that opinions and polarizing propaganda have long often come to replace within myself and so many of us a conscious awareness of facts and truth. This is a tragic reality, the impact of which ripples outward throughout our culture and beyond. And because of the profoundly precarious place we humans and other life on Earth are in today, it has never been more important to roll up our sleaves and deepen our capacity to courageously embody a profound commitment truth. Without that individual and collective commitment, ignorance will continue to be the most violent element in society and plague our nation and world with unfathomable suffering.
It is my belief that our human task is to engage in doing everything that we can in an ongoing way to alleviate the suffering within ourselves and all of our earthly sisters and brothers. We are all in this together. Everything that we love and cherish is at stake.
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| With Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!. Amy is among the top global independent investigative journalists in the world. |
Connecting With Resources
We Can Trust
It is absolutely possible to inform ourselves. Deeply. We can increasingly empower ourselves with the discernment of who can be trusted and who cannot. It may be easy to point at FOX and other extreme right-wing sources and believe this is where the disinformation and propaganda lies. Yet this is only partially true.
The narratives related to the "extreme left" which denigrate progressives as communist or extreme "anti-capitalists" are also deeply deceptive. These narratives supporting "moderate" neoliberal democrats and promoted by powerful wealthy interests serve to disempower, divide, and stop us from gathering in solidarity across political lines in fighting together on behalf of a higher good for us all — to end endless wars, achieve healthcare for all, completely transform our immigration and incarceration systems, expose the forces which fuel dehumanization based on race or religion or sexual orientation, expose the shadow side of predatory capitalism and end the vast redistribution of wealth upwards, declare and act upon the climate emergency, advocate for democratic socialism and economic policies that work for all, expose the shadow sides of capitalism and neoliberalism and fascism and empower us to follow the money, etc., etc.
There is a much, much bigger picture that is lost in demonizing only one political party or in denigrating the progressive forces within the Democratic Party that seek to expose and remove the Big Money that has infected and taken over this political party for the past 40+ years. It isn't only the Republican Party that has brought us the horrors and trauma and heartbreak that we face today! The Autopsy Report — https://democraticautopsy.org/ — is just one among many sources which illuminate this truth. This is critical, I believe, for us to understand.
I have been so incredibly humbled with coming to recognize how many layers there are to the propaganda that I personally have unknowingly absorbed. This indoctrination into delusion is everywhere and it isn't just in right-wing media, politicians, and religious leaders. What I have learned over time is that any resource that is not independent is compromised in its integrity, trustworthiness, and commitment to truth.
This is why it is so important to learn how to follow the money. And with time and effort we can see the threads in corporate funded media and in republican and democrat politicians who are acting on behalf of their donors rather than the American people, other nations, and the planet.
It is disconcerting, disillusioning, scary, and painful to follow these threads which lead back to Wall Street and the Big Banks, the Military Industrial Complex and the Fossil Fuel Industry, the Pharmaceutical and Insurance Industries, the Prison Industrial Complex and Education Industry, and other wealthy individuals and corporate interests. We may have believed that we're getting all the news that we need to hear to be informed on CNN or MS Now, PBS or NPR, ABC or NBC, etc. However, once we tune into independent resources and listen to and read and watch both, which I've now been doing for years, we can come to clearly see the difference.
Many years ago Noam Chomsky said that "Americans are a profoundly propagandized people." So true. So tragically true. Yet, here is the good news. Moving towards and through disillusionment is the doorway into freeing ourselves from our illusions, our indoctrination, our ignorance. At least this has been my experience over and over again and over many years now. This is a journey of EMPOWERMENT! And Love for ourselves and all of our planetary sisters and brothers everywhere...
Here is what I have learned is important to look for in our resources of information:
- Independent sources which receive no corporate funding
- Demonstrate a consistent pattern of a "profound commitment to truth" (a quote I got from Chris Hedges many years ago)
- "Hold the powerful accountable rather than acting as their mouthpieces" (a quote I first heard many years ago from Amy Goodman)
- Go deep into the facts behind the systems rooted in "imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy" (a quote from bell hooks)
- Exhibit a history and present day consistency of in-depth reporting on critical national and global issues such as the the genocide in Gaza/AIPAC/Zionism, the climate crisis and its connection to fossil fuels and dangerous disinformation, the great harm long perpetrated by a normalized status quo, the shadow side embedded in our political and mainstream media systems, ICE and the longtime brutal failure of American immigration policies, fascism and its present rise in America, neoliberalism and capitalism, the rise of Christian nationalism, and on and on.
- Demonstrate a lack of identification with either major political party and a commitment to illuminating the shadow side of both conservatives and liberals.
- A clear and consistent moral compass.
- Integrity, courage, inspiration, wisdom, and fierce dedication to the truth and a highest good for all humans, nonhumans, and the Earth herself.
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| This book by Omar El Akkad's holds the power to shake the lies we've absorbed out of our bodies, our minds, our hearts and ground us in essential truths and a profound commitment to justice and the well-being of us all. |
Here are a few of the resources which I have found deeply helpful, informative, illuminating, inspiring, and empowering tools to support our awakening from that which keeps us unaware:
A more complete list can also be found on the sidebar of my blog.
I know that many will think that they don't have the time to dive into deep research related to trustworthy resources. Or that it is too painful and overwhelming to peel back the layers and roots of so much suffering, violence, and trauma within ourselves and our world. I feel great compassion for us all. And I understand that we are each doing the best that we can.
This post today is simply what I am called to offer to anyone who may want support in going deeper and potentially benefit from anything shared in this piece. I know that I have certainly needed so much support in coming to see and hold what I am able to hold in my heart, mind, body, and soul today. I am profoundly grateful for all of my many, many teachers who inspire me every day to continue to awaken from my delusions and all of the ways that I have turned away and lived with a defended heart.
This is a lifelong journey for us all, isn't it? This awakening to the awareness that there is always more to uncover, to dive into, to care about, to feel connected with, to understand and learn from, and to become motivated to act upon. And along the way we heal and unburden ourselves of our unhelpful and unwise beliefs, actions, and the ancestral and cultural legacy burdens that we have unknowingly inherited. We transform and grow and evolve and deepen, as best as we can, in our capacity for insight, compassion, caring, and awareness of our interrelatedness with all beings.
And it is this deeply heartfelt consciousness which compels us to act in whatever ways that we can to alleviate the suffering that we and our loved ones may have long carried and that of all of our planetary sisters and brothers. At least this has certainly been my experience.
On this journey I have also found much joy and humor, beauty and wonder, solidarity and community, and inspiration and gratitude right alongside my grief. And I am reminded of Francis Weller's wise words: "The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief, I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I’ll become saccharine and won’t develop much compassion for other people’s suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps make compassion possible.”
Again and again my heart has been broken open. A passionate pursuit of truth can do that. And I am eternally grateful.
Bless us all, no exceptions...
💜
Molly
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