My family tends to lean toward Ron Paul’s politics. I thought we all learned not to trust the media when it became clear that Dick Cheney made money off the Iraq War.

None of them are 9/11 truthers. Some, however, did question Obama’s citizenship and ability to be President.

Of those that either supported Trump or at least had the wherewithal to see that things aren’t all as they seem in DC and global politics when you look a little closer, I have not seen a single person consider that, gee, maybe both sides of the media are capable of lying in a conflict related to Israel and Hamas.

They refuse to consider the serendipitous timing of us sending $$$$ to Iran and suddenly Hamas attacks a music festival.

They refuse to think that maybe the IDF lies because to consider that is, weirdly, like claiming the Holocaust wasn’t real from their perspective. Which is odd, since we know in this country the FBI and CIA very much have and continue to lie in seemingly every breath they take. I really thought Israel refusing to take two hostages back would’ve shocked some of them into reality, but nope. Radio silence.

This is not to say that I don’t think Hamas is lying about things. I’m sure they are, since they are essentially ISIS 2.0 now. I have to admit I don’t know enough about Palestine and Palestinians whatsoever to be able to make concrete judgements there, but if Israel is truly only giving people 60 seconds to 5 minutes to flee after calling to tell them they’re about to be bombed, I don’t know how that isn’t a war crime. Nothing forgives what happened at that music festival, but nothing forgives killing innocents through carpet-bombing, imo. (I must admit now that I know the UN forced the creation of Israel I have serious reservations about the country’s formation as a whole. I get why Palestinians would be upset that they’re being forced to give up their land considering what’s happening with illegal immigrants here. But I also don’t know enough about it to say more than that.)

When it comes down to it, though, my main gripe is this: these supposedly “awakened” people have fallen directly back into the, “my media of choice would never lie to ~me!!~” mentality and it’s making me incredibly frustrated. Tensions on the college campuses around me continue to boil and fester because all of these people have decided everything the news is saying is 100% legit. “Everyone hates the Jews” and “Everyone wants to genocide Palestinians” have become the mantras of both sides in the span of a couple of weeks.

Apparently we learned nothing from the lies of the Iraq War.