Sorry, What?

I understand the theory the Independent may be using to allow differing opinions to be expressed in their opinion section. I do not agree with the approach of allowing people to express their opinions that aren’t based on truth or facts and instead based on biased propaganda and conspiracy theories. A person’s honest opinion, whether it be on one side of the conversation or the other is fine if it’s based on reality and truth, but to spew falsehoods and partisan rhetoric is not only annoying but a waste of what this forum should be used for.

I am not immune to the opinions as in “Build Back Better?” and I usually pass on reading them. There’s no secret as to what side of the fence the writer choses to stand. Let me just rebuke a couple of the usual Thorns in my side.

“President Biden promised to “build back better.” How are his plans working? Included: No southern border, drugs are flowing over the southern border, our country is being massively invaded by illegals” — Sorry, what? In February, U.S. Customs and Border Protection “encountered 100,441 persons attempting entry along the Southwest border,” according to the monthly statistics it released March 10 — but it also expelled 72,113 people. Despite making an exception for unaccompanied children, Biden has continued former President Donald Trump’s Title 42 policy, which allows CBP officers to expel migrants without allowing them to make an asylum claim in the name of public health. You would think conservatives would be cheering him on.

Accusing immigrants of bringing disease into the country has a long, sordid and dangerous history. As the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum noted, “A recurrent theme in Nazi antisemitic propaganda was that Jews spread diseases.” It also happens to be totally inaccurate. “There’s testing happening,” Robert Fenton, the acting Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, told Congress in a recent hearing. “What we’re seeing is less than 6 percent positive right now, coming across the border.” That, as the New York Times reported, is “a lower positivity rate than currently in Texas (9 percent).”

“American citizens are being slam dunked by increasing taxes” — Again, Sorry, what? President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan seeks to raise about $1.5 trillion via higher taxes on the top 1% of taxpayers. United States households saw a $13.5-trillion increase in wealth during the pandemic, due in part to the government borrowing, spending and lending trillions of dollars to keep the economy afloat and the stock market driving most wealth gain — a boon that has been lopsidedly distributed to the top percent of Americans.

Bottom line is if one is to submit a letter to the Independent for posting in the opinion forum, it would be nice if it were drafted with facts and truth instead of falsehoods and complaints just for the sake of complaining.