HOLD THE HORSES! STOP THE PRESSES! HALT, WHO GOES THERE?!

Now that I have your attention, let me ask you to please, please, please stop blindly sharing memes and posts that have not been fact-checked to any degree.

It goes for everyone – conservatives, liberals, libertarians, communists, and all others.

Enough with this extremist ideology that only people you agree with are good upstanding citizens and everyone who doesn’t agree with you is the devil in disguise.

With The Donald seemingly intent on destroying his enemies at all costs (and likely his own country in the process), with a federal election almost a certainty to be called within a week in Canada, and with an international community on the verge of utter collapse, it’s time to take stock of what’s real and what’s propaganda.

It’s time to question ourselves and ask, do I believe this unchecked “fact” because it reinforces what I want to be true and makes me feel good?

Am I only sharing this because I view people who don’t agree with me as the enemy?

We must be better. We must do better.

I don’t care if you are conservative or liberal, we have to be willing to hear out both sides of an argument to make an informed decision.

We must demand that any upcoming election sticks to the facts, the policies, the debates, and ignores the conjecture, falsehoods, and misleading narratives based on barely true propaganda rather than absolute honesty.

As I commented on my friend Juan Barbosa’s Facebook post the other day, I’m getting sick and tired of all this garbage being shared on social media that hasn’t been fact-checked, is sometimes outright lying, and is nothing more than blatant attack ad commentary designed to fool and mislead the most unintelligent among us.

So, with that in mind, let’s fact check some of the nonsense out there in the cyber community of closeknit bubbles that lack any diversity of thought.

ED’s NOTE: We’re only choosing a few of the most blatant items, as there is so much trash out there that it would take a book to go through it all.

We’ll start with a focus on the constant right-wing attack ads and misinformation about new Liberal leader Mark Carney, as they tend to be the most misleading.

It’s actually embarrassing at this point and it is making many moderates shift left again – especially since the person many of us despised is now out of office.

Accusation: Carney was the reason that England’s economy tanked while he was governor of the Bank of England.

Fact: England’s ridiculous decision to leave the European caused the financial issues in the nation. Carney warned the government against Brexit and foresaw the negative impact on the economy. The government, and in turn the morons who voted for Brexit, are to blame. Had they listened to their Canadian friend, things would have been much different. Also, from the Independent in the UK: Carney was the first governor of the Bank of England chosen from outside Britain when he took up his post in 2013, lasting until 2020. Even though he had a strained relationship with Boris Johnson over Brexit he was still appointed as an adviser by the former prime minister when he finished at the Bank of England.

Accusation: Mark Carney is close friends with Ghislaine Maxwell and was on Jeffrey Epstein’s Island according to images that emerged on the internet. One even has Carney and Tom Hanks together on the island.

Fact: Most the images showing Carney and Maxwell side-by-side were completely fabricated and created by Grok AI. One photo, available on Shutterstock shows a 2013 outdoor festival in England where Carney is chatting with a gentleman and his wife is beside a woman who resembles Maxwell (though some sites say it’s her). There is no proof anywhere that other than having mutual friends at an open-air festival in the UK that Carney and Maxwell had any form of friendship.

Accusation: Mark Carney’s team used AI enhancements to show a bigger crowd at a Liberal rally than really showed up.

Fact: This was proven as false through multiple first-person video footage from different angles and different sources showing that indeed the large crowd was there in support of Carney.

Accusation: Mark Carney is a World Economic Forum plant to help the elites run the world and develop a new world order. So was Justin Trudeau and many other people on all sides of the political spectrum.

Fact: Nothing has been proven about any of the WEF conspiracy theories that get tossed around and mixed up together and used to convince those wanting to believe their problems are someone else’s fault. Look, I’m not saying there aren’t wealthy people doing things to keep themselves wealthy or help each other get wealthier, I’m just saying in Carney’s case there is no verifiable evidence to support that particular claim.

There are always more and more coming out but we’ll stop at that one.

The left side of the political spectrum isn’t innocent either. Here are some of the things that have come out about Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

Accusation: Pierre Poilievre promotes a crypto trading platform.

Fact: This is proven false. He doesn’t do that. There are things about his actual platform to focus on, no need to make up lies and take away from the important parts of a campaign.

Accusation: A vote for Poilievre is a vote for Trump/Putin.

Fact: Poilievre has given no indication at all that he is anything but against Trump’s ideas about our nation.

I was surprised to find less fact-checked items about Poilievre, which may show that the left is going to be using more policy-based arguments and less personal attacks.

For you staunch right-wingers out there, this isn’t because Poilievre is without reproach, it’s because the bad things are fact-checked and accurate.

I continue to be particularly concerned with the Conservative Party leader’s refusal to get his security clearance. There is no legitimate reason, and I don’t buy the nonsense of “not being able to criticize the government.”

There are proven ways around that concern.

In researching this column, I have also become very concerned with the lack of any substance coming from the Conservative Party.

Other than some quality housing goals they have been touting for a few years, there is nothing new – unless you include the tired attack ads switching from anti-Trudeau to anti-Carney.

I want to see all political parties get back to presenting facts and policies and ideas to the voting public.

Let people decide for themselves what matters most and who they feel best represents their personal needs and values.

We the people can help that along by not blindly sharing nonsense that hasn’t been fact-checked and is obviously feeding into your own biases.

Get out of your bubbles and come to the moderate side where facts and good ideas are revered.

Click the banner to contact us about advertising and sponsorship opportunities!