Dear John,

There’s a lot of talk arising from Barack Obama’s recent 60 Minutes interview about what he called "truth decay." The former president referred to Trump and his movement's incessant lying, including about the election results.

“Our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of a crisis,” Obama said. “It has now become a contest where issues, facts, policies per se don’t matter as much as identity and wanting to beat the other guy…that’s taken priority.”

Obama also added Facebook to the list of culprits and its algorithms' role, which edit what people see to drive ad buying. Incendiary posts, with lies and misinformation, often top the list. And Facebook loves it because they’re making cash money!

That's why we need outlets like People's World, that tells the truth! Support truth over lies by donating to People’s World.

But this is not all.

It wasn't so long ago (maybe ten years?) folks started turning to Comedy Central and similar cable shows for news. Why? People were turned off by how the big media corporations were handling the news.

The commercialization of news programming and the rise of "infotainment" is fueled by the drive for maximum profits. News about people’s lives was replaced by celebrity gossip, while corporate crime went ignored.

Of course, Big Lie anti-communism—a billion-dollar industry aimed at discrediting socialism and its attempts in the USSR, Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba, proceeded all this. Not surprisingly, Trump used anti-communism to mobilize voters, and the GOP is again using it in the Georgia senate run-offs.

That's never been a problem for the People's World. When others were caving to anti-communism, we tell the truth about efforts to build socialism everywhere, including here.

Working-class communities have always been skeptical about the news. I remember my buddy’s mom’s complete rejection of the moon landing back in the day. I told her that was silly.

But oh my goodness, why did I say that? Furious, she threatened to tell my father. (I wish she had, as dad was quite a science buff himself.)

The rise of social media and the monopolization of the news media has added to the distrust. Another part of the picture is the proliferation of news sources, blogs, and citizen journalists, a positive development that often beats the capitalist media to the punch.

The result: a profound crisis of the capitalist state and government. A crisis of confidence and belief. With half the voting population believing Biden stole the vote, the very fabric of government is fraying.

That’s why we need to build independent media, outlets, and truth-tellers like People’s World! And the truth is People's World has no advertising as the primary source of revenue. We need your support to keep going.

So please, dig deep and donate to the People’s World!

Joe Sims

CPUSA co-chair