One of the criticisms you often hear about polls is that they’re agenda-driven and therefore unreliable. Very often, that’s true, but it’s usually difficult to prove it.  Pollsters understand that if they want to have any credibility whatsoever, they need to project an image of neutrality. They know they can’t buckle under political or social pressures and retract or modify their own findings, at least not in public. If they did that, then they’d be exposed as activists, instead of pollsters. And no one would take them seriously ever again. That’s why it’s very notable when, just the other day, the Pew Research Center heavily revised a report it released just last week. Under pressure from Left-wing activists, Pew completely changed major sections of their report, including the meaning of their polling results in some cases. In case you’re not familiar with them, Pew is one of a handful of reputable, major polling organizations. You’ve almost certainly seen their data cited on cable news or social media at some point. They have a reputation for being a serious nonprofit, focused on communicating accurate information to the public. But in this case, Pew caved. And it’s important to understand why they caved, because it shows how a lot of this country’s most serious problems — the ones that cost a lot of people their lives every year — are going completely unaddressed because they’re considered impolite to talk about. First, I will review Pew’s original report. Then, I’m going to show you the revised report, which Pew issued after activists shouted them down on social media. Pew’s original, unedited report found that, “Most Black Americans Believe Racial Conspiracy Theories About U.S. Institutions.” That was the original headline. Here was the second paragraph of the original report: “Most Black adults say the prison (74%), political (67%) and economic (65%) systems in the U.S., among others, are designed to hold Black people back.” The report continues: “About two-thirds (67%) of Black Americans say racial conspiracy theories in business, in the form of targeted marketing of luxury products to Black people in order to bankrupt them, are true and happening today. … 82% of Black adults say they have heard the following racial conspiracy theory about the prison system: Black people are more likely than White people to be incarcerated because prisons want to make money on the backs of Black people. Many Black adults (74%) say this racial conspiracy theory is true and happening in the U.S. today.” Additionally, the report found, “76% of Black adults say the racial conspiracy theory that Black public officials are singled out and discredited in a way that doesn’t happen to White public officials is true and happening today.” The report adds that, “55% of Black adults say racial conspiracy theories in the form of secret and nonconsensual medical experiments like the Tuskegee study are true and happening to Black people today.” The report goes on, but already, these findings are extremely troubling. If the data’s even remotely accurate, it would mean that an overwhelming majority of black Americans are paranoid to an almost comical degree. The idea that businesses sell luxury products to black people in order to bankrupt them — as opposed to, oh I don’t know, making money — is so incoherent and frankly insane that you’d hope, at most, 1% of the population would believe it. But Pew found that 67% of black Americans believe it. These are staggering numbers. Sure, you might accurately say that businesses sell luxury products and don’t care whether their customers are bankrupted by purchasing them. That’s business. But the idea that the point of selling the products is to bankrupt a certain relatively small percentage of the customer base is just completely asinine. WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show Meanwhile, eight in ten black Americans apparently believe that the prison system is expressly designed for the purpose of incarcerating black people for profit. The report also finds that 55% of black Americans think the government encourages single motherhood in order to make black men obsolete, and that 75% of black Americans think they need to work harder than other races to get a good job. There’s also the finding that a majority of black adults think the media is engaged in a racist plot to hold them back.  I could go on and on, but you get the point. Every single finding from Pew suggests — if the findings are accurate — that millions of people in this community think they have very little agency or control over their own lives. They believe that every institution in the country is deliberately designed to sabotage them. Not even just that the institutions do end up sabotaging them — but that they were all explicitly designed for that purpose. The implications of these findings are pretty clear. All these years after the Civil Rights movement, paranoia and self-pity have given rise to fantastically false theories about how society works. Decades after the entire federal government and most of the private sector has deliberately restructured itself to hire and promote more black Americans — often by lowering standards — the result is that millions still think the entire system is stacked against them. The people who gave these answers in the poll have fully internalized the Left’s narrative of racial grievance to a crippling degree. If, as a country, we wanted to improve living standards in black communities, we’d read this report and realize that what we’re doing isn’t working. Telling black people that the police are deliberately murdering them, and that America is systematically racist and so on, has led to a feeling of mass helplessness so pronounced that it has turned into full blown delusion. This is the kind of thing you’d think the so-called “disinformation experts” would be concerned about.  People who think they have no control over their own lives — and that far more powerful forces are out to get them — have no incentive to improve themselves or their communities. They stagnate. And that’s exactly what’s happened to black communities all over the country since the Civil Rights era, from Baltimore to Detroit to Selma and Oakland. Of course, no one in power actually wants to improve black communities. Activists certainly don’t care. They thrive on victimhood. So predictably, Pew’s report was met with outrage on social media. Pew was called “shockingly offensive” by random social justice groups like “JustLeadershipUSA.” So within just a couple of days, Pew backed down. They pulled down their original report entirely. I was only able to access it using an Internet archiving service. And Pew replaced the report with a new version which — to their great shame — accepts as fact the very beliefs that they correctly described as false and conspiratorial just a few days ago. Here’s Pew’s new, revised headline and second paragraph. See if you can spot the difference from what I previously read: “Most Black Americans Believe U.S. Institutions Were Designed To Hold Black People Back … A new analysis suggests that many Black Americans believe the racial bias in U.S. institutions is not merely a matter of passive negligence; it is the result of intentional design.” So what’s happened here, already, is that Pew has gone from labeling these beliefs as “conspiracies,” to full-on accepting them as fact. There is “racial bias” in U.S. institutions, Pew declares. The only question is whether “passive negligence” or “intentional design” is the explanation. In their revised report, Pew also introduces this brand-new paragraph: “Black Americans’ mistrust of U.S. institutions is informed by history, from slavery to the implementation of Jim Crow laws in the South, to the rise of mass incarceration and more.” So instead of labeling these insane views as conspiratorial and inaccurate, Pew now says they’re “informed by history.” And Pew doesn’t stop there. Remember that earlier paragraph about how an overwhelming number of black Americans think that luxury brands only sell them goods in order to bankrupt them? Well, that paragraph changed too. Here’s the new version: “67% of Black Americans say businesses today target marketing of luxury products to Black people in order to put them into debt.” Changes like this are especially striking because they alter the meaning of Pew’s original results. The original report said that black people feared they were being bankrupted on purpose. The new report says they’re being “put into debt” on purpose. Which is it? And why should anyone take another word from Pew seriously, if they’re willing to slap haphazard edits like this together in response to political pressure from some activists on social media? And all of this is to disguise a real problem that Pew’s original report had exposed. There is indeed a massive problem with racial conspiracy theories in this country. I’m talking about actual conspiracy theories, in the sense of baseless claims about shadowy forces conspiring against certain groups. I’ll go through some of them now. It was just a few years ago that the vaunted author of the “1619 Project” at the New York Times endorsed a claim that fireworks are a government plot to disrupt black communities. This theory was first advanced by a different writer on social media, who said that fireworks are, “part of a coordinated attack on Black and Brown communities by government forces; an attack meant to disorient and destabilize the #BlackLivesMatter movement” through sleep deprivation and “desensitization” so that “when they start using their real artillery on us we won’t know the difference.” After that thread was posted, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the “1619 Project” writer, directed her followers to read it. Again — this is a woman who invents history about racial grievances for the New York Times, telling her followers to learn about how fireworks are a secret anti-black conspiracy. There was also this episode from just a few weeks ago, when Tony Fauci was testifying at Congress. Maryland congressman Kweisi Mfume spread this lie about the Tuskegee experiment. Watch: The Tuskegee experiment that denied black men of syphilis treatment was horrible. But this claim by @RepKweisiMfume that they were "deliberately" injected with syphilis is a conspiracy theory. Ironically, he claimed this seconds after calling Covid lab leak a conspiracy theory. pic.twitter.com/IgOb7VBTeS — Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 3, 2024 Other than Michael Shellenberger, I don’t think anyone even bothered to correct this. All of the fact-checkers went silent. But the truth is that blacks weren’t “deliberately” injected with syphilis during the Tuskegee experiments. Some black people didn’t receive the proper treatment, and that was horrific. But the idea that the government injected people with syphilis on purpose has no factual basis whatsoever. And yet, a sitting U.S. congressman has no problem making that claim out loud, and no one will correct him on it. Conspiracies like this are common. These are not one-off instances. And it’s been like this for a long time. In 2005, a telephone study of black Americans found that, “53 percent agreed that there is a cure for AIDS, but it is being withheld from the poor.” And this is not some distant conspiracy theory. A lot of people still believe it. Just two years ago, the Washington Free Beacon found that U.S. congressman Tim Ryan, “made a promise … to investigate whether the U.S. government created the HIV-AIDS virus with the intention of murdering the nation’s black population.” That sounds a lot like the kind of insanity that Pew unearthed. But Pew had to muzzle itself. And in that respect, Pew isn’t alone. Many scientific journals have done the same. No one ever talks about this, but just a couple of years ago, the journal “Neurology” — maybe the leading journal in neuroscience in the entire world — published a field report from a physician named William Campbell. The report was called “Lucky and the root doctor.” It was about Campbell’s time serving mostly black patients in the deep South who had immigrated here from West Africa. These patients, Campbell wrote, often brought superstitions to this country that made it difficult to treat them. Campbell specifically describes one patient, a 60-year-old black man named Reggie, who had a serious medical condition that required long-term care. A gun that Reggie had been holding blew up in his face many years earlier, and now he had developed a neuromuscular disorder. But Reggie ultimately refused treatment. He said he would instead go to see a “Root doctor.” Here’s how Reggie explained the concept: “Root doctors do spells, man. They’re not witches, but they’re like witches. If you get it in for somebody, and if you got the money, you can get roots put on ’em and bad things, real bad things, will start happening. I knew a woman once, she had roots put on her husband. Next day, man, the next day, he stepped out in front of a truck. I saw a man one time vomit frogs from having roots put on him. Hundreds and hundreds of tiny frogs. He just kept on vomiting and kept on vomiting. It was terrible. I been sick so long, and you ain’t been able to make me well, so I figure somebody’s had roots put on me. The only way I can get better is to get them roots off.” Campbell never saw Reggie again after that. He documented this first-hand account in order to educate other physicians in the deep south about challenges they might face when treating black patients. But within days, Neurology pulled the article entirely. You can’t find it anywhere on the Internet anymore. Instead, you’ll find this note from the journal: “The journal retracts the article, ‘Lucky and the Root Doctor.’ … We sincerely apologize for our error. This story, a recollection by a doctor of a former patient, contains racist characterizations. This has prompted a re-evaluation of our peer review process for humanities articles, and we are re-doubling our efforts to make sure such material is never published again. We deeply regret this error and offer our sincerest apologies to those who have been offended. We promise to do better in the future.” In other words, you are not allowed to discuss conspiracies and superstitions in black communities for any reason. Even in the context of a niche medical journal, which is read only by doctors and where the only purpose is saving lives, it’s not allowed. And it’s certainly not allowed in a polling outfit like Pew. You’re just not supposed to talk about the fact that a majority of Black Americans think variations of the Tuskegee experiments are still happening today, or that luxury businesses exist for the purpose of bankrupting them. Meanwhile, black communities can continue to self-destruct in a bottomless pit of self-pity. That’s the idea. It’s what the Left wants to happen. We shouldn’t accept it. These are not only conspiracy theories in the purest sense of the term. They’re also the most pervasive, most damaging, and most absurdly false, of all conspiracy theories. So, for once “conspiracy theory” is used in an accurate way, and then immediately we see a correction and an apology for being honest and truthful. What just happened at Pew is one of the more Orwellian episodes we’ve seen in recent months. But it’s also just the latest in a long line of efforts to convince approved victim groups in this country that they have no agency whatsoever. At the same time, you know these efforts are fragile and tenuous precisely because you can’t talk about them. If we actually want black communities to move forward, and take ownership of the problems they’re facing, that needs to change.

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With it being summer and the first presidential debate only eight days away, President Biden has been and will soon go into hibernation with trips to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Camp David in Maryland, leaving only Monday and Tuesday for White House press briefings. However, the press corps made it count with hardballs and softballs on what the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre called “cheap fakes” videos and some whacks from the left on Biden’s new executive order for illegal immigrants. The Associated Press had Will Weissert play Biden tool on Monday with this question about the latest string of videos showing a decline in Biden’s mental faculties: “[T]here seems to be a sort of rash of videos that have been edited to make the President appear especially frail or mentally confused. I’m wondering if the — the White House is especially worried about the fact that this appears to be a pattern that we’re seeing more — more often?”     Sure enough, this set the table for Jean-Pierre to uncork this new term of “cheap fakes” (click “expand”): Yeah, we — and I think you all have called this the “cheap fakes” video and that’s exactly what they are. They are cheap fakes video. They are done in bad faith.  And — and some of your news organization have — have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing — the right-wing critics of the President have a credibility problem because of — the fact checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation and so, we see this, and this is something coming from — from your — your part of the world, calling them cheap fakes and misinformation and I’ll quote The Washington Post, where they wrote — they wrote about this, and they said, “How Republicans used misleading videos to attack Biden in a 24-hour period.” And to their credit, we have a conservative — Washington Examiner did call them out as well, calling out the New York Post. Ironically, several — several recent cheap fakes actually attack the President for thanking troops — for thanking troops. That is what they’re attacking the President for. Both in Normandy this happened and again in Italy and I think that it tells you everything that we need to know about how — how desperate — how desperate Republicans are here and instead of talking about the President’s performance in office — and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he’s been able to do for the American people across the country — we’re seeing these deep fakes, these manipulated videos and it is, again, done in bad faith. Daily Mail’s Geoff Earle later on was more inquisitive, wondering then what Italian Prime Minister Meloni and former President Obama were doing in separate videos having to grab hold of and guide Biden in a different direction. Jean-Pierre stammered through an answer about how the Obama regime “put out a statement” defending Biden’s mental state, so Newsmax’s James Rosen took it upon himself to wonder about Meloni.     Jean-Pierre again ducked, leading Rosen to wonder if this meant the discussion was “much ado about nothing, and he is totally normal”. Hilariously, the press secretary didn’t answer and instead robotically reiterated her talking points about “cheap fakes”. “So, the — the majorities of American voters who are telling pollsters repeatedly for years now that they have serious concerns about this President’s cognitive fitness are being misled by cheap fake videos? Is that what you’re telling us,” Rosen wondered to no avail. Once again, he asked three times whether this all means Biden’s “fine”, but Jean-Pierre never gave a definitive answer. In contrast, Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence grilled Jean-Pierre on the struggling Biden economy while Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann sought confirmation on whether the President would pardon son Hunter (click “expand”): LAWRENCE: I want to ask you about the American Dream. So, overall, the average sale price of a home is up 29 percent under President Biden. We have record-low inventory, according to the National Association of Realtors and the cost of a mortgage is up because interest rates are up to fight inflation. So, is the American Dream out of reach for a lot of Americans now? JEAN-PIERRE: So, Ed, I appreciate the question, and I — I hear what you’re saying and, look, the President understands that Americans are struggling right now to pay for their rent, to — to buy a home, and we get that. That’s why the President took action some time ago in hi — early in his administration and the things that it did was reduce mortgage insurance premiums by 900 bucks per year for hundreds of thousands of first-time home — home — homebuyers, expand rental assistance to 100,000 additional household, cut the red tape and expand financial — financing to build tens of thousands of affordable housing and because of that, we see a record 1.7 million housing units are being built nationwide, and that is the most ever and more apartments are being built each year under — under this President since — since — than any oth — other administration since 1980s and so, that matters, but the President also understands that there’s more work to be done, but he has taken action. He’s created a task force to deal with this issue, because he understands how much — how much Americans are struggling just to buy a home, just to pay rent.  (....) LAWRENCE: So, you’re sort of saying eventually prices will come down and — and what’s the timeframe? JEAN-PIERRE: No, what I’m saying is the President has taken action, and we have seen 1.7 million housing units are being built — affordable housing mu — units are being built. There’s more work to do. The President also is calling on Congress to pass his housing plan, which was called by experts “the most consequential housing plan in more than 50 years.” So, he’s taking more action. We’ve seen how the three things that I laid out in answering your question has actually helped: taking away red tape, continuing to expand rental assistance, making sure that thousands of Americans are able to have these insurance premiums and 900 bucks per year — these mortgage insurance premiums — which is all important in how they’re trying to — you’re right, trying to get that American Dream. Buying a home is indeed very much part of that American Dream and the par — the President understands that.  (....) WEGMANN: There was some confusion on this previously, and the President seemed to address this in passing as he was walking away from that joint press conference...So, I just wanted to clarify. President Biden has ruled out any type of commutation or reduced sentence for his son, Hunter Biden, correct? JEAN-PIERRE: Yes, he has. Come Tuesday and the questions weren’t probing on the Biden executive order and tough questions correctly calling out the rank partisan nature. Instead, the queries were grievances it didn’t go far enough. ABC’s Selina Wang bemoaned:  [C]an you just walk us through how the administration decided the contours of this? For instance, it is 10 years, but if someone’s been married for — it’s — you have to be in the country for at least 10 years. But, if you been here for just slightly less than that, they would not eventually be eligible, right? Jean-Pierre confirmed this was the case and argued the administration believes those “who would be eligible for this, we are — we are predicting have been here for about 23 years. 23 years.”     Wang remained fixated on standing up for illegal aliens and seemed to wonder there was a cap: “Just — but what do you say to those families, you know, who have a member who’s been here for, like, nine years and 11 months? And so, they’ll never be able to have a chance?” Jean-Pierre gave up by saying in part that this discussion was why “the way to actually deal with this is to have a comprehensive immigration legislation — is for Congress to do their jobs and to move forward.” Wang’s ABC colleague Karen Travers had her own softball: “[H]as the President met with any families that would be impacted that could benefit from what he’s going to announce today. Has he been moved personally by any stories that then led him to take action?” Later, Anita Powell of taxpayer-funded Voice of America (VOA) lamented this expansion of legal status for illegal immigrants married to Americans would be difficult to bring to fruition because, well, paperwork is xenophobic or something (click “expand”): POWELL: [I]n many states in the United States, such as my home state of Texas — JEAN-PIERRE: Oh, the marriage — yeah, right. Okay. POWELL: — you have to present a stack of documents. For example, a driving license, a certified copy of a birth certificate, passport or military identification card and Social Security cards in order to get a marriage license. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. POWELL: This — I just wonder if this puts some of these applicants in this Kafkaesque situation where they haven’t applied for this, they may have an informal marriage or a common law marriage and that — and would that make them ineligible for this executive order? Do you accept things like, for example, the declaration of informal marriage form from states? JEAN-PIERRE: So, I appreciate this is a process question. I appreciate the question. You’re going to have to go to — uh — DHS to get specifics on that. I — I — I — I won’t get into details of this, but that is something that the Department of House — POWELL: Are you concerned that, you know, asking for what amounts to paperwork — legal paperwork for people who undocumented and have a lack of paperwork in many critical ways might — might put them in a binding position. JEAN-PIERRE: — look, I — here — I think the bottom line here is — is — is something to remember that there are American families — there are people who have been here for 23 years who is — who are married to American citizens and who have contributed into these communities...[T]his is an important announcement...Congress needs to act to actually have a comprehensive answer here to deal with the system. You would not be asking me this specific question if Congress did not — would do their job — right — if they would actually take action and do their job. To see the relevant briefing transcripts, click here (for June 17, including more questions about topics such as the border and Israel) and here (for June 18).