Days of Change

Day 1228 – The Truth is a Virus

Back in 1990, before people were “on the internet” on a regular basis, there was a movie called “Pump Up the Volume” starring Christian Slater. He played a teenager who was transplanted from his hometown and finds solace in turning his HAM radio into a pirate FM station.

He is one of those lone voices who manages to break through. First, as “Happy Harry” he talks about what it’s like to be a young adult in the 1990s. Then he talks about what it’s like to be a teenager in his new town. Then he talks about what the local high school is doing to make sure they keep their reputation and funding. All the while, he becomes a hero to the disaffected students. Almost 2 decades before “gong viral” meant everyone passed around a cat video on YouTube, Harry declared that the truth is a virus.

That’s how people like Andrew Breitbart knew his side could win. The Left has been trying to keep one single narrative through the government, the media and the popular culture. It’s been happening since at least the 1990s, when political correctness told us that some speech was “dangerous” and must be stamped out in all venues. Bill Maher started his career being “Politically Incorrect” then discovered that ideas were getting him in trouble, but saying dirty words about conservatives made him look edgy but kept him safe an employed. There are very few places left where an alternative can be heard, but just 5 or 10 percent is enough to get the truth out.

Liberals still cry about the few venues where the voices of free expression and conservatism have a home, like talk radio and Fox News. They ignore most movies and almost every television show and the majority of newspapers that tell their story. Fox News isn’t ubiquitous, it earned it’s high ratings by being what more people want to watch. Still, CNN is in more homes and MSNBC is in almost as many. Talk radio is a niche format that was created by conservatives who couldn’t be heard anywhere else. Now, liberals want to take all the money out of talk radio. Sure, stations will go out of business and people will lose their jobs, but who will notice with all the jobs the administration has lost already?

I’ve had it with the Obama opponents who argue about being real liberals. You may think that way, but the rest of that ideological tribe is fully on board the Obama bus. Republicans used to be liberals, too. Conservatives are now the ones supporting free speech and the truth will be going viral this year.

As Harry said in “Pump Up the Volume,” talk hard.