It’s strange how, as so many of us have noted, society seems to be divided into at least a couple of quite distinct and watertight realities. One is that fed to us by the mainstream media, and the other by alternative sources of one kind or another, seemingly with few connections between them.
So, for example, my green (and by no means overfunded) relative toys half-seriously with the idea of upgrading his Tesla to the latest model, seemingly oblivious to the collapse in electric vehicle sales, and therefore the massive depreciation of his old vehicle, even when partly offset by the massive discounts dealers are having to offer on new electric cars.
Yesterday in church people prayed for peace in the Israel/Gaza conflict, obviously with reference to the ceasefire and hostage return. But there seems little appreciation of the difficulties of real peace with a Palestinian population deeply indoctrinated in the Islamist belief that the Judgement can only come once Muslims have destroyed every Jew. It’s hard to know how our public prayers could be better, but it seems to me that pleading with God somehow to untie an impossible Giordian knot is more the ticket than just praying that the Israelis and Palestinians would see the obvious sense of kissing and making up.
Similarly, my suspicions about the immediate finding of hundred of thousands of mass-graves, allegedly perpetrated by Bashar al-Assad, after the terrorist/CIA replacement of his regime in Syria were confirmed in a video I saw today. Not only did the investigative journalist find that these claims were not backed by any concrete evidence other than drone views of fields, but the press has been entirely remiss in reporting on documented mass-graves into which ISIS, Al Qaeda and other “rebel” terrorist groups threw Syrian soldiers, local opponents, Shias, Christians and others, sometimes without killing them first.
And finally in today’s litany an old university friend picked up a brief mention of mine about “COVID deception” in a newsletter, and wondered what I meant. The question is not whether he was inclined to agree or disagree with me, but that in 2025 large numbers of the population still seem to have been shielded from the fact that there are numerous areas in which the term “deception” might be valid.
Yet there are some signs that “the dividing wall,” not between Jew and gentile as in Paul’s letters, but between “awakened” and “normies,” is being breached, and I don’t think there’s any doubt that the re-election of Donald Trump has a lot to do with it. For example, someone also prayed in church yesterday (we have a time of open prayer in our services) what my wife called a very “diplomatic” prayer about Trump’s forthcoming administration. He said that Trump had done much good in his last incumbency (and what Brit would have admitted that a year or two ago?), but that he comes across to some people in a negative way (which is the plain truth, but a far cry from the usual mantra hitherto that he is an immoral liar and possibly the antichrist).
To my mind it was an excellent prayer in recognising the polarisation of opinion within even a single church: members of my Bible study group routinely name Trump when casting around for examples of pure evil, even as I consider him (as I’ve said here before) to be closer to King Jehu, appointed by God as a contentious leader for contentious times. Yet all of us could say “Amen” to that prayer.
So far, Trump’s stated intentions have had much to do with sweeping away deception. Appointing free speech hero Elon Musk to reform the US equivalent of the Civil Service, appointing Tulsi Gabbard to sweep away the secretive cobwebs of the security services; appointing cancelled COVID sceptic Jay Battacharya to head up the NIH and, more generally, seeking to untangle the USA from interfering in conflicts across the world are all indicators that we may be entering a time when we turn out not to be in a “post-truth” era after all. Just imagine if, even in this country, one day we could speak the truth on difficult issues without fear of arrest or social exclusion! Imagine the press or politicians being required to prove Tommy Robinson is a racist, or J. K. Rowling Far-Right, or Andrew Bridgen anti-science, rather than their being believed simply for claiming it.
Perhaps my greatest hesitation in enthusing for such a golden age is the fear that maybe the worthy aim of a US President putting US interests first (whilst encouraging other nations in their similar efforts to make their own great) might lead to the prioritisation of national interest over truth. Possibly, for example, the present Deep State has legitimate reasons for believing that supporting Muslim fanatics in overthrowing Assad in Syria, and consequently suppressing the truth about their bigoted suppression of their people, serves American interests better than the alternative.
And what if realpolitik were to suggest that America’s Middle East interests would be better served by making war on Israel, rather than being its ally, even if that means further suppressing the truth about Arab imperialism and antisemitism?
Currently, I’m more optimistic about the character of Donald Trump, and his chosen administration together with its policies, than that. Even the number of Christians who viewed him as the antichrist is rapidly shrinking since the evils of his opponents – including several attempts to assassinate him and their near-miraculous failure – has become more manifest.
Perhaps my caution is partly because, in the last few years, so many signs of the end-times resurgence of evil have been evident. If in his mercy (but further delaying the return of Christ) God draws us back from that brink, it’s hard to imagine just how traumatic the real rise of antichrist would be!