Your Pants Are On Fire!

Long ago, my husband’s elderly uncle came to us beaming with pride. He handed us an envelope with the words, “It’s a million dollars! I want you to have it.” We accepted the envelope with effusive thanks, although we knew he had fallen for the come-on “YOU HAVE WON A MILLION DOLLARS!” on the front of the envelope. Later, the country’s consumer protection agency forced the company to stop tricking gullible clients with deceptive lures. Federal law once forced news programs to report without bias, presenting both sides fairly. (Reagan removed the requirement.) We’ve realized how very precious federal consumer protection is as news and business grow more ruthlessly corrupt, and formerly truthful institutions bend a knee to a tyrant who has no compunction about being unfair. We need our government to work for us.

Have you ever watched one of those movies—real or animated–in which the viewer is suddenly transported to a dark crimson nightmare world where there is no safety? People are shot. Airliners collide. Disasters occur without warning or remedy. Hate and deception and bloody murder abound, so the end of the film when everyday life returns to normal is a relief. Only today the relief is the part that isn’t real.

We began our descent into the twilight when “news programs” we relied on to explain complex issues began to spin honest stories to redesign facts to please funders. And then, as the national power shifted to people who weren’t concerned with the Constitution or serving the masses, the newscasters tied to the powers began shamelessly lying. Day turned to crimson night. It wasn’t merely political hype any longer. It was blanket manipulation. As the lies spread and truth was trimmed, permission to lie spread, too. Consumer protection was gutted because the point was to damage democracy beyond repair. Immigrants and minorities were/are used like toilet paper to absorb the excess filth.

Today, we have more and more ways to struggle to protect ourselves, more and more passwords, more and more proofs of identity, but the swell of deception has become a tsunami that washes in from both domestic and foreign shores. Our phones ring proclaiming familiar sources that turn out to be fronts for scammers—fronts that change daily. Even Apple products succumb to scammers who pretend to be official watchdogs, appearing online with official-looking logos, ready to clean damaging viruses that never happened.

Online sources don’t shy away from blatant lies. For example, just this week I watched a professional Facebook video about a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Since I know people who are sadly impacted, I wondered what natural remedies might mitigate the horror. Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis and Dr. Sanjay Gupta reassured the viewer that they had discovered a simple counter measure that changed their lives. Since I had read Bruce Willis has been terribly ill, I became skeptical, so I checked Dr. Gupta’s own website. The video was a scam, peopled by images of celebrities we know and love reborn as AI. It was all a lie. AI can don identities more easily than the heroes on a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie. People who can ill afford false hope or more bills are being victimized. Celebrities whose images and reputations should be guarded as valuable commodities are being ripped off. Where is consumer protection now? Where must AI stop?

I used to like to watch podcasts by reputable doctors giving advice on myriad issues. Although some are valuable, I’ve grown wary. For one thing, I don’t have that many weekday hours to devote to sitting idle or discretionary cash to purchase transcripts. Once I submit my email address to register, even for charitable or political donations, emails multiply like flies. I now have nearly 10,000 to dump, unsubscribing bit by painful bit. Many super product come-ons begin with a charming “short” explanatory video without exit points that inevitably ends—maybe an hour or even two later—in a miraculous discovery comprised of proprietary pills that must be expensive because the ingredients are so rare and cure that which had been incurable. Oprah appears often. Did she ever appear in truth? She lost weight, was it ever from pink salt? Some podcasts are very valuable, but who has the time or expertise to investigate each one carefully enough to sort the good from the bad? Who cares if people are drinking bleach?

Our government is no longer a sheltering friend. Lies are not merely tolerated but encouraged to generate more power, more profit. We never expected our protection to be flawless, but creating fake people we think we trust is sinking too low. People need help sorting out the real from the scams, the beneficial from the deadly. We need to speak up to help.