Trust Issues:

I was epistemically abused by the New York Times

I was epistemically abused by the New York Times, and now I don’t know what to believe.

When I was growing up, everybody told me to trust the New York Times, that the Times was my paper of record, and the paper of record always protects its readers.

The home is meant to be a safe space for a child, a place where a child can always go to his paper of record for truth and honest journalism.

But not my home. The paper of record in my home was psychologically abusive, it told me the truth about a lot of things, so many things, so many things that… that I thought I was safe.

Now, I know. It only did those things because it was grooming me. It was building trust with me, taking advantage of my youthful naivete.

I was ignorant of the world; afterall, I was only a child.

When the lies started coming, I couldn’t see it coming.

They weren’t lies, at first. More like half-truths, quarter-truths. Things that were true enough as long as you didn’t try to smell them too closely. Things you didn’t want to smell too closely.

I’ll admit, by the time I started realizing that my paper of record might have been abusive, it was already too late. The damage was done.

Most of my knowledge came from the Times, that’s where I got most of my news. Everyone agreed it was the best paper, so why wouldn’t I trust it?

It wasn’t until the Times refused to host any debates about the 1619 Project that I finally started to understand what was going on. Honest people don’t run.

From there, the abuse all kind of becomes a blur. There was Trump’s first presidency, COVID, Weekend at Biden’s – when you have trouble trusting your paper of record, it can be very difficult to know which “recorded events” really happened or not.

Like this week.

This week, apparently, there was a famine in Gaza. I wish there was some way for me to know, but I have trust issues. A lot of people tell me there is a famine in Gaza, but so does the New York Times, and I know the New York Times is a liar.

And I don’t trust liars.

They printed a picture of a starving child; they later apologized and acknowledged it was a fake.

So, ok, the New York Times is a liar and printed a bad picture, but there could still be a famine going on, right?

Of course, I just can’t know – I just keep thinking to myself, if there really was a famine, surely the paper of record could get a picture of a starving child to run, surely, if there’s a famine, they wouldn’t need to use a fake photo.

So why did they?

I don’t know!

And then, I just kind of go down this spiral of doubt because I can’t tell what is true anymore.

I know that I need help, I know that – but I don’t know where to go.

I tried reading other papers, but that didn’t really work either.

I guess I’m looking for a support group for people who have been psychologically abused by their papers of record. I know they have them for other things, so I figure maybe that could help. The New York Times is a big operation, so I know I can’t be the only one out there who was abused by them. Maybe we could get a class action lawsuit going or something. At least, maybe we’ll all be able to find some closure.

~

Spread Love, Spread Light,

Am Yisrael Chai