It’s a sort of truth itself that
repeating something often enough
gives it the illusion of truth.

Advertisers know this.

How many of us can go a day
without applying deodorant
or moisturizer?
Who told you the smell of sweat
was something to be feared?
Or wrinkles?

Advertising is mostly harmless,
but not so much preachers and politicians.

Who made you believe that you were going to hell
just for being you?

Who told you democracy had failed, when, in fact,
it worked as it was intended?

So you wasted money on those vitamins
that were supposed to make your hair shiny,
but didn’t.

Advertising is mostly harmless,
but not so much preachers and politicians.

Who told families that the polio vaccine
was a plot by western countries
to sterilize their young men?

How many children will suffer
for that lie?
How many healthcare workers have to die?

Who tells you that this candidate or that
is a socialist
without telling you what socialism really is?

Hey, if your government doesn’t even tax corporations,
much less seize control of them for the people,
yeah, even that for the people shit is a lie,
this isn’t a socialist country.

Who makes you fear refugees
who are only looking for a safe place
to live and love and work?

You may have bought that latest kitchen gadget
that takes up space on the counter.
Advertising may make you waste dollars,

but preachers and politicians,
both the true believers and the liars,
will use their words to make you believe
that bondage is freedom,
that your neighbor is your enemy,
that earth doesn’t belong to us all,

and their words, repeated often enough,
can cost you your freedom or your life.