Engaging Life with Courage and Intelligence
Welcome to Veritonia — a totally fictional modern nation where truth is flexible, confidence beats correctness, and memes count as peer-reviewed research. This short cinematic satire explores how facts get “professionally improved,” arguments replace thinking, and news guarantees certainty — not accuracy. But some people still dare to ask the most dangerous question: “Is this…
How do smart people fall for confidence tricks like grandparent, lottery, and romance scams? How do smart people buy into Ponzi schemes and crypto-ATM cons? How do smart people believe totally unfounded theories about vaccinations, ethnic conspiracies, the Denver Airport is the Illuminati’s headquarters, a pizza shop in Washington, DC, is the center of a…
The central premise of this website is based on the belief that political, economic, and religious extremism forces those on the boundaries of reality to circle their wagons, irrationally defend their extremism, and create painful mental states for themselves. Many of these folks are “tag-along” extremists. While “true” extremists proudly display their extreme beliefs, “tag-alongs”…
The Two Main Types of Liars Type 1 liars require no further explanation. They are hucksters, entertainers, politicians, or salespeople who everyone expects to exaggerate and embellish. They are like entertaining carnival acts. In fact, many celebrate the whoppers told by these type 1 liars. They create alternate realities that allow others to enjoy a…
I continue to be puzzled by America’s collective failure to uphold the values embedded in our Constitution. Virtually all Americans once believed in the rule of law, the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, and other foundational assumptions. This post introduces the fundamental question: “Why and how are we destroying ourselves?” and…
Why do many Americans so easily accept blatant lies as gospel? Although we all make assumptions about what is true, truth is neither obvious nor immutable. Sifting through the various facts and claims of truth can be exhausting, so most of us prioritize our pursuits of truth. We tend to put more energy into pursuing…
In any relationship, whether between two or 300,000,000 people, if there is no shared understanding of truth…then the relationship has a problem. If a husband believes that all his children should be kept in cages between the ages of three and six, and the wife fervently disagrees, then the couple will have a significant problem….
White Christians who resist social evolution typically focus on the Old Testament to define how societies should be organized. Historically, they used the Old Testament to defend slavery, capital punishment (an eye for an eye), male dominance, and other religious ideas recorded as long as 12,000 years ago. Despite eons of discrimination, most women followed…
In this short cinematic story, a young American couple shares how emotionally charged online content slowly shaped their fears, beliefs, and worldview—without them even realizing it. Through their experience, the video explores how disinformation uses identity, nostalgia, and emotional triggers to manipulate audiences. Not just politically—emotionally. This isn’t about blaming or shaming.It’s about awareness. This…
As our President finds new ways to divide and diminish our nation, it is essential to think about how his MAGA crowd does this. In fact, we are confronted daily by a barrage of disinformation and propaganda. Unfortunately, most Americans fall for the reality distortions or remain quiescent. A new video has been added to…