Trust Nothing, Verify Everything

As the father of two adult sons who are starting to make their way in the world, I am regularly buoyed by their diplomacy, logic and reasoning.

Many will credit those qualities to their mother as their father is considered somewhat 'more combative' than diplomat.

As the logic and reasoning, I am sure that comes from having ideas discussed and debated at home, rather than pushed into their minds.

As parents, we've always sought to foster questioning of orthodoxy or other opinions. When done with the genuine intent on advancing one's knowledge it's an incredible developmental tool.

In our family, it was particularly important given some of my public stances as a politician and how they were portrayed by the media. The reporting was often inaccurate which naturally impacts public perception.

Through the good and bad attached to public life, they both gained a resilience that is rare in this day and age. They have also experienced first hand how news and events are manipulated for public consumption.

That's why we say 'trust nothing, verify everything'.

This has never been more important than it is today.

We are fed a diet of lies by government and media who seem determined to silence anything they deem unhelpful.

We covered New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern's desire for a global propaganda service last week. The misinformation about the Ukraine Russia war is mind bogglingly obvious to anyone prepared to look. So too was the spin around the COVID crisis and the vaccination push.

In respect to the COVID response, it's now been revealed that the NSW government had a team of public manipulation experts creating messages to maximise compliance.

It didn't matter if those messages were true or had factual underpinnings.

The only requirement was they nudged the populace in the direction government wanted them to go.

Unfortunately most people don't seem to care they are being constantly manipulated by government. Some seem to enjoy the lack of personal decision making.

That's exactly what those who seek more power over us are hoping.

The ability to question what is presented to us, and to make a rational personal judgement on the response to those questions, is the most important skill we can develop right now.

It won't make your personal decisions right all the time, but it will make you better informed and more capable of overcoming your mistakes.

Those who seek control hate questions. That's why they want to limit freedom of speech. It's why they condemn anything they don't like as 'misinformation' and respond to inconvenient truths with personal abuse.

As the adage goes, you only come under fire when you are close to the target.

Based on the amount of ammunition the militant Left are firing, they must realise their base is under severe threat.