All People Matter

Facts, Evidence, And Data Will Always Be The Antidote To Corporate Media Propaganda

This will be something of an open letter to my Substack subscribers and followers, but also to all who should wander across my Substack.

I am forever gaining new appreciation for how a Substack is in many respects a living thing, a creation which is constantly evolving. With that in mind, I believe an occasional self-assessment is in order, primarily to ensure that I am still being true to my purpose and motivation for doing this work.

I will beg your indulgence, therefore, as I engage in some of that self-assessment openly.

Fight Corporate Media Propaganda With Facts, Evidence, And Data

As my regular readers are aware, my tagline for

All Facts Matter

is “Fight corporate media propaganda with facts, evidence, and data.”

There is little doubt that corporate media routinely lies to people—for all their pontification and pearl-clutching over “misinformation” and “disinformation”, they are non pareil the leading distributor of both. As readers will recall, I have discussed at length such corporate media lies as

• COVID is a major health threat (it wasn’t).

• The mRNA COVID inoculations are both safe and effective (they aren’t).

• Face mask mandates work against COVID (they don’t).

• President Donald Trump is an insurrectionist (he isn’t).

• The US Economy is robust and healthy (it isn’t).

• US labor markets are robust and healthy (they aren’t).

These are hardly the only corporate media lies. With each new day, corporate media outlets put out new falsehoods. There is not space enough in a single Substack article to fully describe the mendacity of the corporate media.

Yet beneath all of these lies and falsehoods there is a subtle but perverse message—the proposition that “narrative” can be synonymous with “facts”. Interwoven into nearly every corporate media missive are subtle but misleading phrases such as “without evidence” and “false claims”. Such statements are not the obejctive statements of fact the anodyne wording implies, but are opinions and conclusions—and no one should ever conflate opinion with fact.

As a consequence of such word choices, the narrative arc of most corporate media “reporting”, and their clear motivation within their reporting, is not to inform their audience on the state of affairs in the world, but to indoctrinate that audience into a particular worldview.

I reject this premise.

I do not deny that I use narrative to present factual information in a hopefully coherent fashion. That is the role of narrative—to assemble facts and data points into a cohesive whole that will make sense to the reader.

Yet I do not manipulate facts to fit a narrative. Rather, I bend narrative to fit the facts. In every story, the facts are what matter most of all. My readers deserve to have the facts, and in every article I strive to present the facts.

To this end I will at a minimum link to every article and resource I cite. Where I am referencing scholarly or legal research, I will generally include a footnote with the particular source. When I reference media articles, be they corporate or alternative media, I will archive them first, to ensure that the reader always can view the same materials I do when researching a topic.

Facts Matter Because People Matter

My worldview is very much informed by my faith—it is my faith that is the impetus for

Peter's Proverbs

, which is where I discuss my thoughts on Christian living. While that is a separate Substack from All Facts Matter, it is also related, and together they serve the same larger mission: inform, perhaps educate, and possibly inspire all people with a message of hope.

All people matter. No matter one’s politics, or worldview, or religious beliefs, I believe every person is a unique and special Child of God, created in God’s own image. If you are Democrat or Republican, you are still a Child of God. If you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or Atheist, you are still a Child of God. If you are a progressive or a conservative, an authoritarian or a libertarian, you are a Child of God. And you matter.

Because people matter I desire that all people everywhere prosper and succeed. As an American I believe it is the responsibility of the American government to address the needs of Americans first, and only then be a benefactor to the wider world. I support America First movement, but I also wholeheartedly endorse the view expressed in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy:

our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Because all people matter I recognize that the individual is the atomic unit of every community and every society. Ideologies which emphasize instead group identification over individual identiy are by definition bigotry and prejudice, and should be called out as such. Such ideologies promote the same segregationist sins Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., described so eloquently in his “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”.

Like the racial segregation he denounced and gave his life opposing, such ideologies replace the “I-thou” relationship dynamic we should have with each other with an “I-it” dynamic, and fundamentally reduce all people to the status of objects.

Such ideologies by their very nature dehumanize and degrade people. All such ideologies are wrong; they are evil.

Corporate media has been at the forefront of promoting these ideologies. A substantial amount of corporate media propaganda seeks to advance the proposition that DEI is moral, even righteous, and inevitable—and it is none of these things.

By confronting corporate media propaganda with facts, evidence, and data I challenge these ideologies. By calling attention to the factual realities of the world, I seek to present a narrative which reminds everyone that each of us is unique, and each of us is uniquely affected by world events. If there is one overarching bias in my writing it is that I will always celebrate the individual above all else.

This Is A Calling

While it may seem unorthodox and unusual, I do view this as a calling.

I do not mean to suggest I am morally superior than anyone else, or in any way more righteous. I am neither. I am a human being, flawed and imperfect, as is everyone else.

Even so, this is the work to which I am drawn. This is the contribution to humanity I strive to make.

For this reason, I do not put any of my articles behind a paywall. I want my work to be read by one and all. If my work has any value at all, I want that value to reach as many people as possible.

As neither of my Substacks receive any support from advertising or any form of corporate sponsorship, I am entirely dependent upon reader subscriptions and donations to keep my work going.

To all those who have already subscribed on a paying basis and who have already donated, my deepest appreciation. I give thanks every day for your support.

I do humbly ask that everyone who is able please give whatever support you can. Every donation and every paying subscription helps further this mission, making it possible to reach more people and hopefully touch more lives for the better.

To all who read this and choose to subscribe or donate, my deepest appreciation. Thank you very much for your support!

To everyone, with a new President in the White House who is bringing many changes both to America and around the world, know that I will continue to bring you well-researched and well-reasoned analysis of the state of affairs in the world.

I encourage everyone to ask questions, challenge my reasoning, and especially provide feedback. If I ever get something wrong, I hope and pray that one of my readers will let me know.

Facts, evidence, and data will always be the antidote to corporate media propaganda. My pledge to you is that I will always bring facts, evidence, and data to bear in each and every article for this Substack.

To borrow from the science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, we pilot always into an unknown future, and facts are our only clues. Look for the facts, and know that

All Facts Matter

will always be one place where you will find the facts!

Thank you all.