Editor's Note: One section of this column references sexual content that readers may find offensive.
The Bible is filled with accounts of powerful people being brought low by those whom they deemed to be of lower status. In Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians, he states that this is all part of God's plan: "Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God" (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
As it was then, so it is now.
The weakness, ignorance, venality, deceit and selfishness of America's "elites" is on display every day. Those who hold the highest positions in society -- the famous, the wealthy, heads of companies, spiritual gurus, authors, educators and esteemed administrative leaders, powerful government officials, well-known media personalities and the world's highest-paid entertainers -- are revealing themselves to be utterly unworthy of their social status.
The most recently released content from the "Epstein files" has proven to be a cesspit of disgusting revelations about some of the world's upper crust. Emails purport to show that Bill Gates contracted a sexually transmitted disease from one of his affairs, and planned to secretly administer medication to his then-wife, Melinda. Another email, apparently from evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers, describes the sexual benefits of transitioning children in the most vulgar of terms. Spirituality author Deepak Chopra sent an email to Epstein in which he wrote, "God is a construct. Cute girls are real." The worst part of all this is that despite these people's depraved proclivities, they still believe they deserve to be running the world and ruling over the rest of us.
Hollywood is just as bad. It's awards season, and that means we're subjected to celebrities' spectacularly ill-informed opinions about politics and economics. Last week's Grammy Awards show was no exception. Nearly everyone in attendance was wearing anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement badges, and singer Billie Eilish proclaimed that, "No one is illegal on stolen land!" Others are already challenging her hypocrisy by asking her to return her $15 million home to the Tongva tribe, native to southern California. Personally, I wouldn't begrudge Eilish her wealth or her real estate if she would just stop lecturing the country, as if she were some paragon of moral rectitude. Her interview with Rolling Stone last year revealed a troubled young woman who is, by her own admission, rarely happy and often depressed. Eilish admitted to needing to inflict pain on herself, and then bragged to the interviewer about how she pleasures herself using a mirror and "should have a Ph.D. in masturbation." (Did anyone really need to know that?) Celebrities like Eilish take a perverse joy in rejecting traditional notions of personal virtue -- on sexual matters in particular -- and then holding up their left-wing political viewpoints as an alternate form of morality and treating everyone who disagrees with them as degenerates.
Our educational leaders are also failing in their roles. We remember the disastrous hearings before Congress in 2023 when the presidents of some of the country's most prestigious universities (Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania) could not bring themselves to condemn the violent antisemitic behavior that was taking place on their campuses.
Congressional hearings seem to be a flashpoint for the elites to reveal their unsuitability for any kind of leadership. Medical professionals aren't faring much better than entertainers or educators. A few weeks ago, Dr. Nisha Verma was testifying before Congress, and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley asked her a simple question: Can men get pregnant? The answer, of course, is "no." But Verma couldn't — wouldn't — answer the question. She doesn't want to say "no," even though she knows that the answer is "no," because it conflicts with her ideology. And this woman is an obstetrician.
And then there's the media. Where to start? On Wednesday, Meghan McCain (author, podcast host and daughter of the late Sen. John McCain) posted a simple question on X: "Is every conspiracy theory real?"
Well, Meghan, maybe not every conspiracy theory. But at this point, yeah, most of them are real. Because most of them weren't conspiracy theories to begin with. What they were were facts — or at least legitimate questions — that deserved to be taken seriously and investigated by the nation's press, with the public informed along the way.
Instead, the media has gone out of its way, time and time again, to protect a narrative (typically one pitched by the Democratic Party), to cover up bad actors, to conspire with the government to censor the truth, to hide facts from the American public, and to make excuses for horrible behavior or pooh-pooh it as insignificant when the truth finally comes out.
How many examples do we need to provide?
No, President Donald Trump never colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election, and yes, that story was completely fabricated by Hillary Clinton's campaign, with the assistance and knowledge of the FBI and former President Barack Obama. Yes, Obama's administration illegally spied on Trump's campaign. Yes, the FBI knew that Hunter Biden's laptop was real. No, COVID-19 didn't start in a wet market; yes, the United States government was funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; no, the mRNA injections were never truly "vaccines," nor did they prevent contraction or transmission of the disease, and yes, they did pose a serious health threat, and thousands of Americans have suffered injuries or even died as a result of having taken the shots. Yes, there was election fraud in 2020 (with more evidence being revealed daily), and yes, there were federal agents and antifa activists in the crowds at the Capitol protests on Jan. 6, 2021.
You'd think they'd be shamed into reforming. But the media manipulation continues to this day. Yes, the Biden administration had open borders; yes, millions of unvetted aliens have crossed the border illegally; yes, many have committed crimes like murder, rape and drunken driving accidents that have killed Americans; yes, Venezuelan gangs have been in control of entire apartment complexes (remember Martha Raddatz telling Vice President JD Vance that this was "limited to a handful of apartment complexes"?)
When citizen journalists like Nick Shirley expose rampant fraud in government expenditures and grants to false businesses claimed by Somalis in Minneapolis, the mainstream media's reaction is to downplay the fraud, cover up for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's administration, and attack Shirley.
The list goes on and on. America's elites are an embarrassment. They do not deserve our respect, and many of them do not deserve their positions.
To find out more about Laura Hollis and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Editor’s Note: Hollywood, academia, and liberal elites are out of touch with the average American.
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