For weeks I have been watching the slow dismantling of my America, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. I have also sensed the confusion and frustration of my friends and neighbors.
I am sad. Not depressed, but a kind of sadness that seems almost universal. What is happening to us, I wondered. And then I had an AHA!
I recognized that I was reacting to the betrayal of Truth. The constant barrage of lies, untruths and ‘alternative facts.’
I am a course leader for Chesapeake Forum, an Academy for Lifelong Learning. I created and lead a course called Life Reimagined, where we have the opportunity to become more self-aware in order to lead a more purposeful life.
Last week in class, we talked about valuing and even needing honesty and trustworthiness as well as clarity and certainty. We spoke of the importance of relatedness and community. We recognized many of our feelings and emotions and recognized our frustration and wanting ‘To do something.’
After class I looked through my research and notes. And what I found was very appropriate for today’s state of confusion and uncertainty. I found that people are likely to suffer in an environment dominated by lies and alternative facts. They might experience cognitive dissonance – a psychological conflict between their belief in honesty and the dishonest reality around them. The daily denial of their values can cause chronic stress, anxiety and frustration.
Being forced to accept or ignore dishonesty may lead to what is referred to as moral injury. Moral injury can occur when someone feels they’ve betrayed their core principles, potentially resulting in guilt, shame, and emotional turmoil. I am certainly feeling an erosion of trust from the constant exposure to lies and “mistruths” or rationalizations.
Then there is mental exhaustion-something I often feel after listening to TV and reading even the most non-partisan print news. The mental gymnastics required to be exposed to this news, to deny or go along with an obvious misrepresentation of the truth can undermine one’s trust in others – the media, institutions (think Supremes) and maybe even their own judgment. Some may even feel isolated if their personal environment is full of what one perceives as lies. Over time, this can lead to sleeplessness and depression.
When someone cannot authentically express a core value like honesty, she may feel as though she is betraying herself. This disconnect from one’s identity can foster low self-esteem and even existential despair. We hear our friends and neighbors say they are afraid to speak out or put up a lawn sign for fear of retribution.
To thrive is such a situation, we may need to find like-minded communities, engage in activism, or develop personal outlets where our own value of honesty can be expressed. Suppressing it too long could cause significant emotional and psychological harm.
Last week we heard from Congressman Jamie Raskin who stepped in for our no-show Representative Andy Harris at a Town Hall in Cambridge. He encouraged us to fight against the encroachment of dysfunction overtaking this administration and suppressing our freedoms
Organizations like Indivisible and People Power United are here to help us come together in community to share our frustration and angst by powerfully expressing our values and demanding what we need as well as what we want. We can write to Congress, we can march, we can rally and we can speak truth to power. As I say in Life Reimagined…It’s not too late and we’re not too old.
(Doris) Dodie Theune
St Michaels
Reed Fawell 3 says
Ha, Ha, Ha –
From the get go, I was increasingly waiting for the Ha, Ha, Ha moment as the text became ever more familiar, negative, and predictable – and then suddenly the very predictable obsessive kicker came:
“Last week we heard from Congressman Jamie Raskin who stepped in for our no-show Representative Andy Harris at a Town Hall in Cambridge. He encouraged us to fight against the encroachment of dysfunction overtaking this administration and suppressing our freedoms.”
Reed Fawell 3 says
“Organizations like Indivisible and People Power United are here to help us come together in community to share our frustration and angst by powerfully expressing our values and demanding what we need as well as what we want. We can write to Congress, we can march, we can rally and we can speak truth to power. As I say in Life Reimagined…It’s not too late and we’re not too old.”
I encourage all readers to go to the websites of Indivisible, and People Power United, to see what they are up to. This article and the Chesapeake Forum course are obviously designed to groom its readers and participants for these groups and activities.
Deirdre LaMotte says
I must ask this: are you really suggesting that Trump’s aggressive totalitarian “edicts” are
democratic? I mean the rule of law and our constitution. Do you not believe in due process?
The reason I ask is your flippant and sarcastic answers to worries over the worst constitutional crises
in our history. I believe worse than the Civil War because it is the President who is a danger to our nation.
Or are you just giddy at “owning the Libs”, or whatever sorry excuse simple people have?
Lance A Simon says
Agreed! Thanks so much for speaking out on this critical issue of the day.
Elizabeth Manley says
Dodie’s letter was spot on. My ancestors rallied against an autocratic King to help create this country. I am proud that my family took that chance for what they believed in. Since then, family members of every generation did what they could to fight and support the Democratic Republic that was formed. I too am somewhat afraid of the current government. I did try to warn people against this man running out government. Being from New York and having had some experience with this man I tried to warn people. He’s a school yard bully that must be stopped. Where are the backbones of our Congress that should be holding the line and protecting us from mad men? The downfall of America is happening before our eyes. Read an compare “The Fall of the Roman Empire” and “Animal Farm.
Thank you Dobie for pointing out what we all feel and suggesting organizations that might help. Better yet rise up and down something before it’s too late.I don’t want to be embarrassed to say “I am an American.”
Dodie Theune says
Dear Elizabeth: I appreciate your remarks. And I look to our Congress and Judicial system to finally counter many of the disturbing Executive Orders.
Dodie
Darrell parsons says
I’ve been experiencing this same sadness. I think for the same reason. And I feel this as a collective, pervasive sense throughout our community. I don’t think it is a partisan sadness/exhaustion. Even those who profess to support our current President must notice that things aren’t adding up. Sadly, they have trusted a man who betrays all of us at every turn.
Dodie Theune says
Thank you Darrell. My friends and family and I are determined not to allow this regime to steal our joy! I should have included tips for maintaining joy and equanimity during these trying times
Dodie
Kent Robertson says
I am sorry that you are having this experience that has left you feeling sad, Ms Theune. I have had the exact same emotions for the last 4 years. Much of the problem lies with the bias of the media on both sides of the political spectrum. It is almost impossible to find news sources that do not use sensationalism, half-truths, and outright lies.
I disagree that retreating into a world of like-minded people is the solution. Better, I think to find open-minded people on both sides with whom you can discuss the news without fear of demeaning, reprisal, or outright bullying. When you seek out only those who believe what you believe, you are seeking affirmation, not information. In the polarized political world of today, we are told that if “they” don’t think like “we” do, “they” are to be scorned, shunned, feared, despised…
Better to have open, honest discussion, try to share our differences, and find common ground upon which to build consensus and develop solutions.
I’m a conservative. I’m also open-minded and want to find workable solutions to the seemingly overwhelming problems that plague our communities, States, Country, and the world. I am not alone. There are many moderate liberals and conservatives who feel the same. Find us and cultivate relationships that will foster good will instead of polarization.
I wish you peace, neighbor.
Dodie Theune says
Thank you Kent. I look forward to having an opportunity to cultivate new relationships with our conservative neighbors and friends.
Matt LaMotte says
Someone much more knowledgeable than me once commented that “Every time Trump opens his mouth, he lies.” And I guess he figured that out because now all he does is pretend not to know about whatever it is he’s asked about. As another pundit famously stated, “Hire a clown and you get the whole circus!”
Dodie Theune says
President Trump’s lack of respect for the truth is disturbing in so many ways.
My hope is that we don’t become immune to it.
Dodie
Charles Barranco says
Well said Dodie!
I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel as I see courts suspending the executive orders day after day. There is sanity. The judges are not backing down!
Dodie Theune says
There is always hope but we must be diligent and speak up.
Dodie
Jacque says
Thanks Dorie for sharing your rational thoughts!
dodie theune says
Best regards.
Dodie
Forest Hansen says
How eloquently Dodie expresses the feelings of so many of us. We fear for lives of our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, who inherit not just a country but a world damaged by self-seeking, illegality, and— yes — and immorality. Thank you, Dodie, for your forthright and courteous words.
Dodie Theune says
Thank you Forest. Attending your philosophy classes has been an inspiration to me.
Dodie
Steven Smith says
Today, 3.30.25, at 1:00 pm I will stand on the Washington St. curb to honor the Veterans of the War in Vietnam as they move from the County Courthouse to the VFW.
In 1970 I was a College Sophomore, secure, with a 2-S deferment and a draft number of 183. My Indiana County never drafted any person with a number higher than 50.
At that time our leaders were telling us that by going to Vietnam we were saving the world from Communism. Today, we have a President who wants Putin to be his buddy. Things can become confusing at age 75 if you were lucky enough to see people in power come and go.
Now as the Internet, AI, Substack, Facebook, X, and the rest try to explain different versions of what others would have us believe is “the truth,” ideology can seem less important, people close to us, more important, people who sacrificed for a cause they still believe in most important. These are the people I honor today.
Reed Fawell 3 says
A fine, honorable and universal way to find value and meaning in the real world around us. Thank you, Steven Smith, for sharing it.
Dodie Theune says
Thank you Steven Smith. I agree with you about seeking common ground. I have tried and to no avail. But I am encouraged by your sentiments and will look forward to a better future where we can all express ourselves without fear of retribution. I live in St Michaels. I invite you to join me for coffee any day!
Dodie Theune says
Thank you for your reply. I was raising five exuberant children during the Viet Nam conflict. Even so, I attended funerals, worried about my family in harms way and watched the rallies on TV. It was a sobering time for many of my generation. I, for one, learned to think critically and found a voice I didn’t realize I had. I realized that together, we could speak truth to power.
Reed Fawell 3 says
After this lecture on “the betrayal of Truth. The constant barrage of lies, untruths and ‘alternative facts,” and how to counter such suffering with “valuing and even needing honesty and trustworthiness as well as clarity and certainty” and the need “To do something,”… after “Being forced to accept or ignore dishonesty (that) may lead to what is referred to as moral injury, the writer suggests joining “Organizations like Indivisible and People Power United (that) are here to help us come together in community to share our frustration and angst by powerfully expressing our values and demanding what we need as well as what we want.”
Please go to the website of People Power United at https://www.peoplepowerunited.org/
Here we find this: ” In this community, we will never stay silent in the face of hate or bigotry. We stand up and speak out against racism, xenophobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, misogyny, sexism, ageism, ableism, sizeism, elitism, transphobia, misogynoir, and every form of discrimination that seeks to divide and harm.”
Or go to https://indivisible.org/ And there you will find:
“We fight on Together. Our democracy is under threat. But we will not yield to fascism. We will stand together and we’ll fight back in defense of our rights, our communities, and our values. Join us, …”
Further research into these organizations shows an affinity for direct political action such as” “In January 2024, People Power United was one of several dozen groups that endorsed the March on Washington for Gaza, an anti-Israel demonstration organized by the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and other groups.” And also organizing direct action against Tesla resulting in the firebombing of Tesla dealerships and automobiles.
In my view the virtue signaling, and awareness building, lecturing and teaching descrive here is nothing more that base propaganda intended to brainwash its subjects with mindless leftist Woke ideology, and as such this divel is the precise opposite of what it pretends to be while its promoters charging money for what is a false education directly in opposition to Western civilization and a liberal education.
Reed Fawell 3 says
Let me put more meat on the bones of my 10:22 am March 31 comment written in above. It claims that this article is pure propaganda that seeks power and advantage over the reader / student by deception that poses as education, caring, and wisdom, while it manipulates the dark side emotions in the reader/student so as to cloud his or her ability to discern the truth of reality. How does this work? It cleverly creates out of whole cloth an enemy or enemies who threaten the reader/ student while that enemy “slowly dismantles my America.”
Thus, the article primes and grooms its reader / students to find very specific enemies in follow on indoctrination materials found on the national websites of highly partisan and divisive political action groups who quite literally aggregate and fire up True Believers in mass to take to the streets with protests and violence.
Hence, “In this community, we will never stay silent in the face of hate or bigotry. We stand up and speak out against racism, xenophobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, misogyny, sexism, ageism, ableism, sizeism, elitism, transphobia, misogynoir, and every form of discrimination that seeks to divide and harm.” And “We fight on Together. Our democracy is under threat. But we will not yield to fascism. We will stand together and we’ll fight back in defense of our rights, our communities, and our values. Join us!”
Today, far too often, these targeted “enemies” turn out to be a majority of the American people, neighbors and fellow citizens of the demagogues and their “useful idiots”, the reader /students. Where do all this enemies start? Today with most all Republicans. And surely with all 70+ million American’s who voted for Donald Trump.
To briefly elaborate:
Note, for example, how this article is designed to entice the reader / student into being one who is superior too, yet suffers at the hands of the evil “Others”, a victim forced to suffer under a “betrayal of Truth” and “The constant barrage of lies, untruths and ‘alternative facts” that dominates the reader/students space and inflicts cognitive dissonance on its victims – creating a psychological conflict between the reader/student’s belief in honesty and the dishonest reality around them. This daily denial of their values can cause chronic stress, anxiety and frustration. This approach feeds the reader/students dark side to creates false and highly negative illusions of reality, and that works very effectively to create even more stress, anxiety, fear, impotence and confusion. This plays into the demagogue hands, drawing his or her victim into the thrall of the teacher / ideologue. See Eric Hoffer’s landmark book True Believer.
Deirdre LaMotte says
If you want a better country then don’t vote for f**king dictators because that is what we have now.
Woke crap? When people are deported without due process, “executive orders” signed all day every day that are all illegal, and will be struck down, claiming a 3rd term is a possibility, revenge
at enemies that make Putin proud and the grifting……as a friend said recently:” I am 100% fine with
a trans woman using my bathroom. It is the Republican men in my uterus that are the problem”.
Woke is not the issue. It is the way to rile the people, like anything “Hillary”.
WTH is wrong with people? A lunatic and his billionaire wanna be trillionaires are doing the
“Hungry” on our nation. Hungry, which they love, would rank below Mississippi should it be a state.
This is coming, wake up.
Read the great Anne Applebaum’s latest. It is sobering. These people are tanking our economy,
our 401k and portfolios…and the tariff are just beginning.
April 5 around the nation. Get out and be a voice for what our ancestors fought for 250 years ago.