The Cost of Paternal and Maternal Instincts That Manage Societal Truths: Radicalization Liberal and Conservative Distorted Mental Models

When truth in the media is filtered to protect feelings or agendas, trust dies. Once people realize information is managed for their “own good,” they stop believing not just the message but the entire system behind it.

What begins as small narrative steering in headlines or media language scales into a mass crisis of belief. Populations stop believing institutions, experts, and even facts themselves. The vacuum this creates becomes the fuel for radicalization: people seek alternative explanations, fall into echo chambers, and begin defining truth by opposition rather than verification.

Media coverage of violent crimes shows how it starts:

• Charlotte Light-Rail Murder (2025): “Man facing federal charge after stabbing, killing woman in random attack on Charlotte light rail.” No mention of race, though the suspect, Decarlos Brown, was Black and the victim, Iryna Zarutska, was a white Ukrainian refugee.¹ Later coverage called it “random” and “graphic,” still avoiding any racial framing.²

• Las Vegas Homicide (2025): “Police investigate homicide in northwest Las Vegas.” The article opened by identifying the victim as a Black male.³

When one group consistently sees reality adjusted for optics, it concludes that truth is being managed. Over time, this dissonance compounds until the population no longer trusts even legitimate information. That is how nations fracture, not through lies alone but through patterned omission that signals control.

The only counter-strategy is radical transparency. We must show reality exactly as it is, without emotional filtering, without selective framing, and without fear of who it offends or hurts. Societies survive truth; they collapse from concealment.

It is those with paternal and maternal instincts in power—in media and government—who are most to blame. Their desire to protect the public from discomfort has infantilized entire nations, replacing trust with dependency and truth with narrative control.

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¹ “Man facing federal charge after stabbing, killing woman in random attack on Charlotte light rail.” ABC 7 New York, 5 Sept. 2025, abc7ny.com.

² “Light-rail stabbing: Graphic video shows moments before and after woman killed in Charlotte.” WBTV News, 5 Sept. 2025, wbtv.com.

³ “Police investigate homicide in northwest Las Vegas.” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 14 Oct. 2025, reviewjournal.com.