LAZY PARENTING IS BEHIND THE LYING EPIDEMIC

LAZY PARENTING IS BEHIND THE LYING EPIDEMIC

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Lying has been part of the human experience forever. The Bible notes that habitual lying leads to evil and eventually to hell. It is certainly not a path to obedience and elevated spirituality or a successful lifestyle over the long run. Lying will not be totally eliminated but can be controlled by conscientious traditional child rearing. The proper consequences, duration and moral teaching will minimize the frequency and length of these lying episodes.

Lying does not have to be taught. It is natural for a child to say whatever pops into his mind to appease the authority figure. “I did not break the toy, it just fell on its own.” “I did not push her, she tripped.”  Children would say falsehoods even when they realize an adult is watching them. It is part of human behavior but needs to be corrected.

The parent needs to help the child tell the truth. Teaching the habit of telling the truth takes an enormous amount of work. The parent just cannot say “you should tell the truth” but should be ready to teach moral lessons and follow up with appropriate consequences on every occasion. The child uses lying to get something or get out of something.

Lazy parenting is the major reason that lying is out-of-control. Two parent families have dwindled weakening the power of both the father and mother. Parenting usually falls on the shoulders of the mother but not always. When fathers have sole custody, the same phenomenon takes place. A single parent is often attempting to be liked better than the other parent. In split custody the child has the advantage of playing one parent against the other. The eventual loser in this process is the child.

In the traditional, intact family, the mother often had the support of the father to give a second dose of a moral lesson and often a stronger consequence. The two-parent family usually works together to stress the importance of telling the truth. Teachers, pastors and other authority figures also enforce the value of honesty. Most significant authority figures, including the parents, demonstrate telling the truth in public is essential for living a positive life. This is no longer a normal occurrence. Lying has become an art form that is becoming admired instead of condemned.

What came first, our culture admiring public figures lying to us or the breakdown of the family to teach the virtue of telling the truth? The lazy parent does not take the time to teach the ultimate harm of this behavior or powerful negative influences of the degrading of authority in our communities and nation. It does not matter for the correction can only be taught effectively at an early age by the most significant person in the child’s life: the parent. It does not matter where it began but how we, as a society, most effectively teach it.

Incarcerating a person in a prison or mental institution is much too late to start the process of being truthful. A pathological liar is almost impossible to convert. An infant or toddler can be placed on the right track by a simple but labor-intensive process. The parent has to take charge. Anytime the child does not tell the truth there should be an appropriate negative consequence. Anytime the child admits to a wrongdoing he should receive praise for doing the right thing and how proud the parents are. Nevertheless, there should be a mild consequence to remind the youngster that any deception is not acceptable.

The sacrifice of parents’ time and effort in teaching these lessons pays incredible dividends for the child. An honest child is worth his weight in gold. By possessing a moral compass they will guide themselves towards good and away from evil. The compass will help them avoid temptation and become a valuable citizen. Without honorable citizens our constitutional republic will eventually crumble.

Parents are the gatekeepers to telling the truth to their children. There are a million possible excuses for avoiding this long, drawn out process of arriving at truth. Almost any parent has some shame when confronted by another authority figure about their child being dishonest.

However, a child like most adults would do, attempted to deceive in order to avoid confrontation and embarrassment in social situations.  To help the child resist the temptation to become addicted to lying the message that lying in the long run will be more painful than what it was supposed to solve must be clear, repetitive and concise. Ultimately the child will be the victim of his own lies-he will not be able to discern the truth about himself or reality.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

WHY WE CANNOT COMPROMISE OUR RIGHTS TO COME TOGETHER

WHY WE CANNOT COMPROMISE OUR RIGHTS TO COME TOGETHER

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

There is no way we can continue to deny the United States is in a moral, cultural and political civil war of ideas. The battle lines have been clearly drawn by progressives. They want to change our Constitutional Republic into a communist/socialist society.

The progressives believe the government officials should directly control our lives from eating to exercise, health  and anything else . They have openly argued for a radical revamping or eliminating most of our constitution and Bill of Rights. They have tried to practice and demand a living interpretation of our stable, free and prosperous Constitutional Republic.

The progressives are no longer disguising their objectives. Most progressives are in lockstep indicating they want socialist/communist form of government. The “Squad,” Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and the other progressive candidates for the 2020 presidential election have firmly confirmed these ideas.  These progressive leaders are blatantly calling for the abolishment of our second amendment: the right to own firearms.  Presently they are asking to abolish the Electoral College and change the right that a person is innocent until proven guilty to a person is guilty until proven innocent.  They no longer believe in the sanctity of life even as far as post birth abortion. They are against the freedom of religious expression and limiting freedom of speech through political correctness and hate-speech laws. They are promoting blurring the lines between objectivity and accusation, truth and speculation, critical thinking and group-think.

Traditional Americans refuse to accept the progressive changes in limiting the rights and power given to us by our forefathers. These unelected elites insist on their right to control our government. We cannot continue to take gradual steps towards a socialist form of government and think we will be able to preserve our republic. If we continue to dismantle the underpinnings of our Constitutional Republic we will be transformed into a socialist/communist government. We are at a precipice of losing all the citizen rights of the people to control our own freedoms and destiny. We are at a point we are going to have to decide to retain our Constitutional Republic or dive into a full socialistic/communist regime. There is no longer room for one-sided compromise.

Under the eight-year reign of President Obama, the mantra was that we must respect the office of the presidency by not questioning his legitimacy to be our president. Any legally elected president deserves the right to dignity and respect of the office until the next presidential election in four years, which means even when the opposite side wins and yours loses.

This respect for the electoral process has been violated by our permanent elite bureaucrats. The “Deep State” which includes the FBI, IRS, State Department, Justice Department and the courts were “weaponized” to impeach President Trump from the beginning of his tenure. This conspiracy is playing out in the progressive media that has taken the role of activist for promoting socialism not objective reporting.

All levels of law enforcement are not being allowed to enforce our laws. The local, state and federal law enforcers are being emasculated. Citizens are demeaning the police by throwing water on them and even killing them. Government officials are placing unreasonable demands on them while not backing them when they do their assigned duty. Most frightening is the socialists/communist followers have already indoctrinated our public school, university and graduate students to believe a top down government is better than a capitalist constitutional republic. This indoctrination has to be reversed by teaching civics, history and having open debates on issues.

Traditional Americans are citizens who believe that our Constitutional Republic form of government is a sacred agreement that has directed us to be a nation of exceptionality.  American citizens must stand up to send an undeniable message that our institutions must support the duly elected president’s administration. The impeachment fiasco shows why a president must reign in the bureaucracy and clean house.

We have to drain the swamp of all government officials who do not do the work of the people, in the same manner that all foreigners who become US citizens must pledge allegiance to the United States constitution. All legally elected representatives have to take an oath of office swearing on the Bible to uphold the Constitution of the land. Any official who refuses to do this should be banned from serving in any official position.

Cleaning house of corruption and subversive actions should be done by enforcing existing laws that will remove those lying under oath or countermanding existing federal laws. We must stop reelecting self-serving corrupt and criminal officials.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

THE CONSTANT ACCUSATION OF RACISM IS ERODING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

THE CONSTANT ACCUSATION OF RACISM IS ERODING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realism

According to the “progressive media” anytime you criticize a person of color or anyone who is in the progressive’s good standing you will automatically be tabbed a “racist” or another pejorative. The same protocol is exercised with any other privileged group that has been designated as having protected status.  LGBTQ, feminists, illegal immigrants, minorities, criminals: when saying anything about these protected classes the speaker will be labeled as a homophobe, misogynist, racist, racist, racist to get the person to purposefully crawl into a hole in abject shame.

Just because a person disagrees with another of a particular protected/privileged class does not establish them as a racist. The downfall of this political strategy of name calling to humiliate a person is the strong personalities who are willing to fight back. The overuse of these terms makes them meaningless. Patriots quickly learned that political correctness was a tactic to put fear into the political arena, which would result in short circuiting freedom of speech. This results in self-censorship of opposing viewpoints.  It has achieved its objective for too long.

Donald Trump demonstrated his courage and strength in the 2016 election that was needed to rally the silent majority. Although he is an imperfect human like all of us, he has proven to be a patriot who can stand up to the vicious personal attacks. He continues to march forward to correct many of the past progressive policies that have attempted to stealthily establish socialism.

Anytime he makes a statement about anything, President Trump has been called a “racist” by anyone and everyone in the progressive media. Instead of being intimidated he has doubled down on his criticism of the person or groups making these accusations. “The Squad’s” and recently deceased, Elijah Cumming’s attacks on the border officials was countered by the president’s focusing on the hypocritical failure of progressive’s financial support of the ICE agency.

The greater the use of untrue slurs on the opposition, the less the effectiveness in tainting the reputation of a politician or individual. If everyone who disagrees with an opponent calls him a bigot, the accuser as well as the term’s power is diminished.  This is especially accurate when the accuser is not being accurate.

The emergence of President Trump’s strength not to back down from his political viewpoints has inspired others to do the same.  This has started a tsunami of government representatives and commentators beginning to stand up and fight back. Although they realize they will be attacked with hand grenades of epitaphs they continue to be inspired to stand up to counter outright lies.

The conservatives have learned that speaking up is more beneficial than putting their tails between their legs and wimping out. At least it is fostering open debate and at best is enabling progressives to revise and change their views of employing political correctness.

The PC establishment throwing of the race bomb too frequently is alienating voters.  There are too many examples where groups of progressives have repeated distortions or blatant lies to solidify a false narrative to discredit a politician. Beto O’Rourke, former candidate for president 2020, said about President Trump “he said after Charlottesville, white nationalists and Neo-Nazis and Klansmen are very fine people.” This is blatantly false.

In fact President Trump did say, “there are very fine people on both sides.” He was obviously talking about keeping Robert E. Lee’s statue in Charlottesville or not. The next day he made this crystal clear. “I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general. Whether you like it or not he was a gentleman and great general.”

There was no discussion of whether President Trump was talking about southerners who believed in the Confederate side in the Civil War many of which were not “white supremacists.” The media establishment chose once again to brand Trump as a racist for noting there are good people on both sides of the issue. One side saying tear down legitimate historical figures for their non-progressive ideas and the other wants to recognize them for their contributions in the actual historical context of the time.

Saying people are racist, homophobes, or misogynists, has morphed into “white supremacists, “ or whatever is the latest derogatory term. This childish progressive tactic of “political correctness” to increase citizen self-censorship is becoming too common and vicious to ignore.

It takes courage to continue to have freedom of speech. Citizens must speak up to exercise and maintain their First Amendment rights.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

VICTIMIZATION IS CORRODING THE COMMON GOOD

VICTIMIZATION IS CORRODING THE COMMON GOOD

By Domenick Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

America has prided itself on being a “melting pot” where diverse ethnic groups assimilated into being proud US citizens. We were all taught the rules of being an American at home and at school.  If you apply yourself by working hard at your chosen occupation you can move up the socio economic ladder to middle or upper class. If you were diligent at school or work your superiors promoted you to better opportunities in the free market economy.

Currently we are being told we are a “salad bowl” where you do not modify your ethic, racial, or other differences but keep them and exploit them for self-promotion. Students no longer believe they will be primarily rewarded for their accomplishments in their educational and occupational pursuits. Too many feel their uniqueness and personal suffering are caused by circumstances beyond their control, which has handicapped them. The more a person can make a case that they have been a victim caused by their journey of being born into an imperfect situation the more they can demand assistance from the government for their miserably low lot in life. 

The United States has become a nation of too many social justice warriors who believe the government should even the playing field by affirmative action and not by merit. The intention is to rob from those who have earned their economic and educational status and redistribute their assets to people who have not “picked themselves up by their bootstraps.”

There are various affirmative action policies to reward individuals who have wallowed in their unmotivated lifestyles.  Reparations for alleged past grievances are supposed to correct the unfairness. These so-called “victims” are moved up the waiting list for acceptance in higher education, often being put above people who have earned their position. Direct financial stipends and privileges are given to them, which they did not work to obtain. The government is arbitrarily doing this for the purpose of social justice and equality.

Of course the people following the rules of merit feel resentment when they do not receive their just rewards. These functioning people are tossed aside for impractical and unfair reparation practices where others leapfrog over them.

Often the “white-privileged,” who may have suffered ethnic rejection and personal tragedies of their own, have been selected by the elite establishment to be the scapegoats to appease the newly created “protected classes.” It is the powerful, wealthy, often white, corporate executives and government elites who give them a pass for creating this exploitive system. This is a devious method to maintain the reins of power.

Manipulating one group against another to maintain dominance is as old as governance. In the US our Constitutional Republic with its Bill of Rights was formulated to protect our unalienable rights against government abuse. Our founders provided the Bill of Rights for the common good of all citizens and to protect the freedom of the citizens. It was not to divide the people into distinct groups. All citizens have inherent rights and freedoms regardless of their economic, racial, or ethnic backgrounds. This dream of equal opportunity for all did not immediately materialize. Our nation has fought hard to become more perfect with each successive generation. It is still not a perfect union but is the best to be realized in the world.

The focus on diversity is dissolving our cohesiveness and commonality. We are all citizens that should enjoy the same human rights, freedoms and opportunities. Diversity emphasis has enhanced tribalism and political correctness. We are not separate tribes but are equal under the law: American citizens. There should be no P.C. self-censorship of free speech so as not to offend a privileged, protected class. We should have an open and honest discussion to better understand how fortunate, not unfortunate we are to be Americans. Differences exist in every group as well as outside these groups but they can be viewed as assets instead of liabilities.

The individual, not the group is what made out system strong.

When we view ourselves as Americans first and foremost it will be easier to appreciate our nation’s gift to us. The United States is a stable, vigorous economic powerhouse that affords us freedom and opportunity for a great future.

We should highlight what we have and work to improve it. Certainly in the United States no one has to be a victim of anyone or anything. With perseverance and determination an individual can turn his life around to be a success that inspires others.

America is the land of dreams and opportunity: not of victimhood. Blaming others in the US, the Land of Opportunity, is absurd. The only person to cause another to be a victim is the person himself.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.