Fake political correctness, fake leaders, fake news, fake emissions ratings and now fake steel.

With liberalism comes the tendency to lie and exaggerate. It's just a basic characteristic.  Keep in mind that associating oneself with liberal politics does not make one a liar!  Many so called "liberals" in fact live quite conservatively in many aspects of their lives.  They live in monogamous hetrosexual relationships, have no debt, care for their children and do not rely on government for help.  That's the problem with labeling individuals.  But I have no problems pointing out the individual characteristics of liberalism and conservatism.  Each person is free to choose which and how many aspects of each of these they incorporate into their own lives.

With this understanding, I will repeat: it is a liberal trait to lie and exaggerate.  Thus we should not be surprise to hear that the last 50 years of growing societal liberalism have been accompanied by many kinds of lies in many aspects of life.  I have been decrying fake political correctness for many years now in these pages and warning people that the sign of the times is "fake, fake, fake".  I was doing this before anyone ever first mentioned "fake news" and well before Volkswagon got busted for fake emissions testing.

I also predicted that with peak liberalism and the onset of conservatism we would begin to see these lies break down and the skeletons would come tumbling out of the closet. I predicted it would be widespread and many big names would be caught up in it.  This was well before the Cosby Collapse.  In the past few days we have seen another big corporate name fall onto its own sword in the form of Kobe Steel.  The M.O. is strikingly similar to that of V.W. - the data associated with the performance of its product was faked.  In essence, they succumbed to the liberal temptation of lying.

Like VW, Kobe has been doing this for years already.  It is just now that they got caught at it and have had to admit their lies.  The party is now over and its time to pay the piper just as always happens with all liberal activity.  In fact it is safe to say that one of the definitions of liberal activity is that it is inherently unsustainable and therefore terminal in nature.  It cannot go on forever.

The CEO of Kobe is now nationally embarrassed and currently has no excuse for why the company faked the data.  He has had to bow to his nation on national TV so that everyone can see his shame.  Of course the reason why his company did this was to chase Mammon money.  Faking the data means less work, less cost in production and it also means being able to charge a premium for high spec material even if that material didn't meet spec.  Part of the blame should, of course, be placed on anyone who blindly believed the supplier but that behavior is widespread in the trust Ponzi that accompanies the fake money Ponzi.
 
Maybe its just coincidence, but the Reuters photo below is unusually framed.  A contrite Kawasaki-San is framed in the photo to far right...