What the Orange Gobshite Says About Our Fellow Americans
- john raymond
- Sep 9
- 2 min read
The tragedy of our time is not that one man lies. The tragedy is that millions of our fellow citizens—people we love, people with whom we share communities and histories—cling to those lies even when they are obviously false. The orange gobshite, as I will call him without apology, does not persuade by reason, evidence, or moral clarity. He persuades by repetition, humiliation of dissent, and the corrosive allure of belonging to his tribe.
Lies as Loyalty Tests
The man’s words are not statements of fact but loyalty tests. When he says something demonstrably false—whether about elections, enemies, or his own supposed greatness—his followers do not measure it against reality. They measure themselves against him. Do they dare contradict him? Or do they repeat his words as incantations to prove their fidelity? In this way, lies become not defects but virtues. The bigger the lie, the more powerful the act of belief.
This is not a matter of ignorance. It is not that your uncle or your neighbor cannot tell truth from falsehood. It is that they have chosen to subordinate truth to identity. To reject the lie would be to reject the tribe, and so they double down, even when the evidence is plain.
The Cost of Betrayal
For those of us who still hear the clear difference between truth and lies, the cost is acute. We are forced to watch people we care for debase themselves, publicly and repeatedly. We see parents become strangers, siblings become zealots, friends dissolve into caricatures of themselves. The damage is not just political but personal, cutting into the very fabric of American households.
This is what the orange gobshite says about your fellow Americans: that a large portion of them are willing to hand their judgment, their dignity, and their future over to a man who treats them as expendable pawns. He has no respect for them; he revels in their servitude. And still they cheer.
The Implication for Us All
The conclusion is unavoidable: we are not merely fighting an election cycle, a policy dispute, or even a demagogue. We are fighting a sickness of spirit. The gobshite’s greatest accomplishment is not that he has amassed wealth or power, but that he has taught millions to prefer the comfort of lies to the responsibility of truth.
The implication for us is severe. We cannot rescue those who refuse to be rescued. We cannot reason people out of positions they did not reason themselves into. What we can do—what we must do—is hold fast to reality, protect the institutions that safeguard it, and build a community that still honors truth as the foundation of freedom.
Because the real test is not what the gobshite says. It is what our fellow Americans choose to believe.
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