What Is truth? asked Pontius Pilate.
According to the Bible, the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judea was in a dilemma. He could find no cause for convicting and executing Jesus. He simply ditched the truth and caved in to the demands of High Priest Calaphus and other religious leaders who wanted this troublemaker gone.
If there was a problem with truth two thousand years ago, it has become a nightmare today.
For years, we took for granted that what was said in the media was true. We also trusted governments to tell the truth.
Now, there are entire TV channels and newspapers devoted to misleading propaganda.
The greatest lie generator of our time is Donald Trump. During his first term, The Washington Post logged 30,573 lies, an average of 21 a day. Virtually everything he says is fabricated, and yet millions believe every word. His Truth Social media platform is a sewer of misinformation.
His latest lie is the ‘extreme left’ was responsible for killing Charlie Kirk, triggering a blizzard of hatred from the right – including Elon Musk, who wrote on X: ‘If they won’t leave us in peace then our choice is fight or die’.
The avalanche of hate stopped abruptly when the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, was revealed to be an extreme right-winger, from a white, gun-loving Mormon, Republican family.
Trump has turned George Orwell’s 1984 into reality.
When Orwell wrote his prescient novel in 1948, he imagined that scenario taking place in 1984.
He was 40 years early. In 2025, lies are now ‘truth’.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has added to this burden. Once a photograph wouldn’t lie; now there’s a good chance it is a lie.
Social media channels are awash with fake AI images and stories. ChatGPT and other AI assistants have taken over the lives of many people too. They’re being used as replacements for human friendships. A virtual ‘friend’ may give advice and reinforce distorted views of the world. It answers questions and flatters them. For some, this is the only ‘person’ they can trust, as bizarre as that may seem.
When we wake up to the realisation that so much information we receive is incorrect, our level of trust diminishes.
This generalised lack of trust is fertile ground for wild conspiracy theories to flourish. Once they would have been ridiculed out of existence, but when so much distrust has built up with mainstream media, socials and government, these weird alternative possibilities gain credibility.
Blind trust in government and ‘authorities’ can be sadly misplaced.
Poisoned food
For example, we take it for granted that food sold in supermarkets is safe. Surely the government wouldn’t allow unsafe food to be sold to the public you ask. Yes, it does.
The regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), is a body captured by the pesticides industry and depends on the sales of poisons for its income. It allows dozens of pesticides banned in other countries to be used in Australia.
Professor Kirsten Birkendorff of Southern Cross University (SCU) has just revealed high levels of the long-banned pesticide thiometon and dangerous levels of a still-permitted pesticide, dimethoate, in blueberries in two punnets she bought off the shelf in a supermarket.
Prompted by this embarrassing disclosure, the APVMA announced a review into the use of dimethoate on blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Dimethoate was banned in the EU in 2019, and classified by the US EPA as a ‘possible human carcinogen’.
The only effective way to avoid carcinogens in food, for those living in this region, is to buy fresh clean food at farmers’ markets and stores stocking local organic produce or grow your own. Cancers are rising sharply among young people, and it’s not worth the risk buying food sprayed with dangerous pesticides linked to serious health effects.
For many years we were bombarded with tobacco ads extolling the virtues of this highly dangerous drug that kills half of regular users.
Those old enough will remember the oft-used ad slogan ‘More doctors smoke Camel than any other cigarette’. It was a gigantic lie designed to reassure smokers.
Likewise, drinking a few glasses of red wine was once promoted as a benefit to the heart because it contains the antioxidant resveratrol. Stating the obvious, one doesn’t need to drink red wine to get that health benefit. Finally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has decreed there is no safe level of alcohol use.
Corporations pushing these harmful products have no morality; they will lie blatantly, to maintain corporate profits.
In this fast-changing world, we need to be on constant guard in our attempt to differentiate between truth and lies.
We can no longer automatically accept pronouncements as true, whether in the media, by an authority, or even a friend.
We really need to hone our critical thinking skills and our ability to find accurate information.
Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC, and is now a ceramist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
