To the Editor:

Well stated. (in response to Letter to the Editor posted March 12 titled How can you still believe in Stefanik's lies, says Potsdam man.

However, I suspect it will unfortunately only be a matter of time before a retort is submitted with a “Whataboutism” response, rather than a serious examination of the actual facts.

Experts on Sociology and Cults and Cultism that I have come across maintain that it is extremely difficult to escape a cult or cultism, and for those who manage to, they require empathy, support, and understanding, most often than not from those that they have previously shunned.

Everyone at one point in time, on some level, has fallen victim or been hoodwinked or scammed in our lives, sometimes it’s a one-off, for others, it can be over the long-term. It’s an incredibly difficult situation for one to be able to personally come to terms with. You feel like an idiot. “How could I have believed this or let this happen to me”, is probably the most common sentiment. It is much easier for one to just simply ignore facts that do not agree with them, known in the studies of Sociology and Cultism as Confirmation Bias, and to just double-down, rather than admit to themselves that they have been taken. In that regard, it’s completely understandable.

I would only add that one would hope that with the recent discovery process court filings in the Dominion Voting Systems suit against Fox News, which clearly demonstrates Fox’s own pundits did not even believe the lies that they were subsequently peddling on-air, will have some sort of an impact. According to Tucker Carlson’s own text messages, their motivation was not even political or ideological. The concern was over Fox and News Corp.’s sliding stock share price during the 2020 election. I suspect, however, that a settlement will ultimately be reached, and that it will never see the inside of a public courtroom. Which would be too bad. I do agree with House Speaker McCarthy’s sentiment that “sunshine is the best disinfectant”.

“Follow the Money”, as “Deepthroat”, aka Mark Felt, once told Woodward during the Watergate Scandal. That’s what it’s all about and ultimately comes down to…the most clicks, and the most ratings. Truth is not even an afterthought, let alone a consideration. That’s what I would really hope folks will ultimately take away from all of this when this fever finally, hopefully, breaks.

In the meantime, I think we need to just be there as best we can for those closest to us in our lives who have fallen victim, been groomed, played, and then bought and sold, and who continue to this day to be taken advantage of.

This entire episode and process has just been very sad to me as a citizen. There is a “Silent Majority” in this country, including within our own Congressional District, around 70%, the last numbers I saw, who are in the middle. I would count myself amongst, who think that the extremes in both parties have overplayed their hands in recent years.

For example, one should be able to consider himself or herself a red-blooded, survival of the fittest, Capitalist American, without being called a Socialist or Communist for also believing that everyone should have an equal shot at healthcare and education, the way pretty much every other developed nation on the planet does. At the same token, one should not be called “anti-woke” or worse for not wanting their child or grandchild to be learning about sexuality or race in elementary school, or to think that it’s a really bad idea and slogan to defund the police.

We need to find our way back to the middle. And it is obligatory upon all of us to find that middle ground, particularly at the voting booth.

Leland Farnsworth
Massena