The Fourth
Annual Hoax-of-the-Year Awards!
A nip is in the air, frost or snow is on the ground, trees
stand decorated in living rooms, and eggnog is in the refrigerator. Yes, it is
that time of year again. Time to reveal the Fourth Annual Hoax-of-the-Year
Awards! So grab a cup of your favorite cheer, take a seat by the fire…and
read on.
Last
year’s winner was The Great Reset Is a Hoax Hoax, the first winner in which
a supposed hoax was itself a hoax, and indeed all too real.
Without further ado, here are the contenders for this year:
As usual, there are a number of
continuing hoaxes that deserve mention, such as The Any Number of Illegal
Immigrants Make the Country Better and Richer Hoax. However, this hoax, stupefying
as it is, may be on its last legs. Even some Democrats seem to be sobering up
in this regard.
Several other hoaxes have taken further hits in 2023, including The Most
of Those Working in the FBI And DOJ Are Good People Hoax, and The Teachers Are
All Selfless, Underpaid Angels Who Love Our Kids Hoax.
Conversely, one hoax that continues to gain traction, at least among
academics, is The Competence, Punctuality and Discipline Are All Aspects of
White Supremacy Hoax. In fact, many colleges are dispensing with entrance
standards altogether. It should be noted that The Marijuana Is Good for You
Hoax is also still in good stead, though for how much longer no one knows. And,
incredibly, against all odds, The Men Can Get Pregnant Too Hoax appears to be holding
its ground…if not gaining more adherents. A closely related ruse, The One Sex Can Become the Other Just
by Saying So Hoax, is similarly alive and well. This is a foundational hoax,
breathtaking in scope and import, truly preposterous. Time will tell if this jape
is extended to Species, Genus, Family, Order, Class, Phylum, and Kingdon,
thereby rendering taxonomic hierarchy utterly moot.
One hoax, not specific to 2023,
deserves special mention: The World Is Rapidly Warming Because Of Gasoline-Powered
Lawnmowers and Bovine Belches Hoax. This hoax has been around so long, it came
hard on the heels of the 1970s The World Is Rapidly Cooling and We Are All Soon
to Be Frozen Hoax. Remarkably, this hoax has been in existence longer than
those who promulgate it told us the planet would last, even in the face of evidence
that refutes
their own “logic.” Therefore, I
hereby recognize its longevity by granting it a Lifetime Achievement Award. (I reached
out to Al Gore and Greta Thunberg, but, sadly, neither were available to receive
the award.)
This takes us to The White
Supremacists Are Everywhere Hoax. Look, there’s one now! Oops, sorry, that was
just Joy Behar. Another progressive proclamation is the root of The
Islamophobia Is Rampant Hoax. This is simply not true. “Israelophobia” and
anti-Semitism on the other hand, are nearly everywhere and yet still growing.
And The Islam Is A religion of Peace Hoax still exists. One would have thought
this hoax would have lost some of its luster post Oct. 7, but many folks still
tenaciously cling to it, like a baby to a pacifier.
Both The Israel Is Just Like Hamas and/or
Nazi Germany Hoax and The Palestinians Are Just Like Everybody Else and Actually
Despise Hamas Hoax have been given much airtime by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and
NBC. This does not make either of them any truer, however. Quite the contrary.
Then we have one of my personal
favorites, The Experts Are Always Right Hoax. This is yet another hoax that
should have been on its last legs already but is one whose adherents-- mostly
experts-- refuse to relinquish.
A handful of hoaxes were born this
year, including, but not limited to: The Joe Biden Is Just A “Loving Father”
Hoax, The 18,000
Cows Blew Up in
One Explosion In Texas Hoax, The Chinese Spy Balloon Was Simply Blown Off
Course and Was Only Collecting Meteorological Data Anyway Hoax, and The Chinese
Spy Balloon, Even If It Was Deliberately Flying Over Our Sensitive Military
Sites, Only Gleaned Information Of “Limited Additive Value” Hoax. (The latter
was perpetrated on the American people immediately upon their loss of faith in
the aforementioned “The Chinese Spy Balloon Was Simply Blown Off Course and Was
Only Collecting Meteorological Data Anyway Hoax.”)
Of particularly recent vintage is The
Inflation Isn’t So Bad Anymore Hoax. This new hoax, still wet behind the ears
and aggressively promulgated by the mainstream media, may have some merit…unless
you eat food-- or heat, cool, or insure your home, for example.
In this time of great deceit, with a
veritable treasure trove of lies/hoaxes from which to choose, selecting a
winner was extremely challenging. There are many worthy contestants. The Competence, Punctuality and Discipline Are All Aspects of White
Supremacy Hoax, The One Sex
Can Become the Other Just by Saying So Hoax, and The World Is Rapidly Warming
Because Of Gasoline-Powered Lawnmowers and Bovine Belches Hoax all had great
merit. All would dramatically change the world for the worse if allowed to
continue and would together render it almost unrecognizable.
A part of me wanted to pick a fresher
hoax, one uniquely associated with 2023. While this isn’t entirely true of the
hoax I chose, it does seem like 2023 finally brought it to the forefront. So
here it is, the Hoax-of-the-Year for 2023: The Any Number of Illegal
Immigrants Make the Country Better and Richer Hoax. This is clearly not
true of invasive species, and it is no less true of humans in general. Legal
immigrants who wish to assimilate and work to make the country better are generally
a blessing, a net positive. The indolent, drug and human traffickers, violent
criminals, and those simply looking for a handout, are not. And no claims
otherwise by “experts” or politicians can change that fact.
Happy holidays. Here’s looking to
2024.