SAINTS PRESERVE US

Gimme Some Truth

How long does an era last? This post-Obama one seems like eons. Endless oxymoronic days crammed with “fake news” and “alternative facts.” Both terms can be true or false, bad or good, depending on your point of view. Hell, they can even be mixed and matched like ideological bakery doughnuts. Whatever suits. So, it’s little wonder then that Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”

The dictionary publisher’s metric is based on online lookups (very different from online hookups) and prevalence of usage in contemporary culture, pop, corporate or otherwise. The primary definition of authentic in my Canadian Oxford is, “of undisputed origin: genuine; trustworthy, reliable.” Sort of a shame that people must remind themselves of the meaning of such a common and useful word, but, on the other hand, very encouraging too. Still…

As Keith Richards once said about cool (I’m paraphrasing): If you have to work at it, you’re not. Sort of like one of those third-rate countries with “Democratic” in its name: Voter beware! So, I bristle when an advertiser, politician or celebrity is compelled to tell me they’re authentic. I’m skeptical about restaurants who promise authentic cuisine because chances are I’ve never sampled the actual domestic cuisine in situ. Authentic shouldn’t be so fraught, but it’s so often misused and misapplied.

We need all the qualities the word embodies and all the synonyms it implies more than ever. Tomorrow is “Game on!” for the US presidential election cycle. But certified and genuine authenticity has already had a few mortifying weeks of late. I was amused to learn that the president of Harvard University was resubmitting her doctoral thesis with, erm, “clarifications.” Speaking of plagiarism, I’m interested in the outcome of the federal lawsuit The New York Times has filed against Microsoft and Open AI for stealing its copyrighted content only to regurgitate it incorrectly. Once venerable Sports Illustrated has copped to online copy generated by chatbots presented under fake bylines complete with thumbnail “correspondent” portraits.

A recent poll conducted on behalf of The Economist found that one in five Bowiesque Americans, young people aged 18-29, believe the Holocaust to be a myth. Now, human society is the healthiest and wealthiest its ever been. Ever. And we’re collectively smarter too. For instance, we figured out that the Periodic Table contains more than four elements. We know Earth is an orb, a ball, a globe if you will and not a flat disc (well, most of us). We know these simple facts to be true (most of us). And yet, the president of the University of Pennsylvania explained to a congressional hearing that the rampant antisemitism on her campus, including calls to finish the job Hitler started, was “context-dependent.” It all smells and sounds like authentic bullshit. And a big shout out to Himmler before the homecoming game!

Happy New Year. Christ. I’m predicting “dread” as Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2024. I’m not mistruthing here.              

Dispatches from the Crooked 9 is celebrating ten years as your most unreliable, unbalanced and inaccurate alternative source of everything. My companion site www.megeoff.com has been refreshed, revamped, revitalized and otherwise reinvigorated. Watch and listen to some of the songs I co-wrote with The Muster Point Project or buy 5 KG, the complete EP. Of course, you can still purchase my latest book Of Course You Did in your preferred format from your preferred e-retailer.