By Andrew Edwards
By now, everyone knows the government has transmitted more than its share of misstatements. If the government were a single entity—like a person, let’s say—it would
make a lot of sense to assume everything they’re saying is probably a lie. We encounter
figures like this in public life, so it isn’t hard to imagine.
The challenge is that the government is not one person, nor a small group of persons, nor
even a small group of large organizations. No, the government is instead an enormous
organization with more moving parts than anyone can keep track of. It’s not unlike an army
being deployed in the field. Does the attack unit know what’s going on at the cruise missile
operations room? They may not. And often, that’s okay.
“The deep state is up to something”
We often think a government is like a person: “You lied once (or more) and now we don’t trust anything you say.”
But that’s the wrong comparison. The government has many organizations, many policy
initiatives and many levels of quality and honesty within it. Anyone who wants to say “the
government” (or “the deep state”) is “up to something” probably doesn’t understand the limited power of any part of government; nor the variety of objectives pursued by different branches of government.
Origins of Covid
Let’s review the example of the origin of Covid, in and around the Chinese city of Wuhan,
which so happens to have both a bio-research lab and, like many Chinese cities, what is
called a “wet market” where so-called bush meat (the flesh of wild animals) is sold for human consumption.
The so-called government lie:
Covid crossed the animal-human barrier at the wet market, and had nothing to do with
bio-lab research nearby.
The conspiracy theory:
American officials knew the bio-lab was developing dangerous pathogens; were
complicit in creating and unleashing it. . .
probably as a command and control measure.
Now let’s look at the most recent opinions coming from the FBI, which, it may be of interest to note, is part of “the government”. The FBI now acknowledges that there is a high likelihood the pathogen leaked out of the bio-lab, and that it probably did not come from bush meat.
We could surmise the US had lied at the start and that the lie has now been proven. And
because “the US lied,” then we don’t accept anything they say from here on out on this
subject or any other.
This would lead to a number of important mistakes, and here’s why:
The government does not speak with one voice.
It may have uncovered new evidence and changed its collective opinion.
There is little to no evidence there was any further plan involved.
So when it came time for a different branch of government—the CDC—to recommend that
Americans wear masks, the knee-jerk reaction was that this was part of the big hoax; and that the only reason masks were “mandated” was to turn Americans into mindless sheeple ready for slaughter. Why? Because government lied.
But the CDC was not lying about how it was a good idea to wear a mask (a mask protects
others, by the way, more than the person wearing it).
Too often, we can choose the easiest form of dismissal for news that challenges us. It’s easier to think the government is one giant decision-making entity with some wizard behind it all. But it is far more complex than that, and anyone thinking simplistically about what “the government” wants is likely to be confounded.
Two things can be true at the same time:
one part of the government either lied or was mistaken about where the disease came
from
another part of the government was correct in recommending masks and vaccines.
Because the government does not possess a single consciousness, nor is it consistent, it
cannot be apprehended as a single entity with a single purpose. It is a large, complex system with thousands of players with different agenda.
It does make sense to be skeptical. But it makes no sense to ignore new information—and
less sense to conflate one part of a vast government with another, as if they really could
speak with one voice.
This is the first article in an ongoing series by our guest author, Andrew Edwards. Have something you want to say? Contact us here and we may feature your writing on the site.
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Andrew Edwards is an author, public speaker, technologist, entrepreneur and perennial iconoclast residing in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is a Co-founder and Director Emeritus of the Digital Analytics Association. He is the author of Digital is Destroying Everything (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015, 2018) and Army of Liars (2024). He has written extensively about digital marketing and social media for ClickZ and Substack. In 2023 he founded Verity7, an anti-disinformation training and consulting organization.
