When a Leader Says He’ll Lower Prices by 1,500% And the Media Just Says “That’s Impossible”
Imagine a politician standing in front of a crowd, declaring with confidence: “I will lower prices by 1,500%.” Then, in news room, a reporter leans into the mic and says, “Wait, you can’t reduce prices by more than 100%. That’s math.”
The story ends there.
It’s a familiar headline. A fact-check. A correction. A tiny box of arithmetic on the side of the article. And just like that, the moment passes.
But the real story isn’t in the math. It’s in the silence.
Because what the journalists, commentators, and podcasters don’t say, what they refuse to ask, is the most important question of all:
Why would anyone make a claim like that?
Yes, lowering prices by 1,500% is mathematically impossible. You can’t reduce something to less than zero. You can’t pay someone $1,500 to take your $100 item. It’s like saying, “I’ll make the sun set in the east.” It’s not just wrong, it’s nonsensical.
But if you only call it wrong, you’ve missed the point entirely. You’ve diagnosed the symptom, the broken math, and ignored the disease: the erosion of reality itself.
This isn’t just a gaffe. It’s a signal. A flare. A performance.
And the media’s response, the fact-checking, the polite correction, is like diagnosing a forest fire by noting, “Trees shouldn’t burn.” It’s true. It’s correct. But it’s useless.
Because the fire isn’t in the trees. It’s in the air.
The Two Disturbing Possibilities
Let’s be honest: there are only two ways to interpret a claim like “1,500% lower prices.”
Option 1: The leader actually believes it.
If that’s true, then we’re dealing with someone profoundly disconnected from basic economics, and from reality. This is alarming. Especially when that same person brands himself a “stable genius.” Is the branding a lie? Or is the claim? Either way, we’re in trouble.
Option 2: The leader knows it’s impossible.
And he says it anyway.
This is where things get dangerous.
Because if he knows it’s false, then this isn’t a mistake. It’s a strategy. A weapon. A kind of epistemic sabotage.
He’s not trying to convince you. He’s not trying to explain. He’s trying to break your trust in truth itself.
And that’s the real target.
The Real Target: Your Trust in Reality
Think about what happens when someone says something so absurd that it can’t be true, and then says it again, and again, and again.
At first, you laugh. Then you question. Then you wonder: What if I’m wrong? What if I don’t understand? What if I’m the one who’s broken?
That’s the trick.
It’s not about the price. It’s about the doubt.
When impossible claims flood public discourse, when “1,500%” becomes a slogan, not a mistake, the effect is not confusion. It’s collapse.
Because the human mind can’t process infinite contradictions. So we start to shut down.
We stop trusting our senses.
We stop trusting our memories.
We stop trusting our friends, our family, even our own instincts.
We begin to expect deceit.
We armor ourselves against kindness.
We live in a state of low-grade anxiety, always waiting for the next lie.
And that’s exactly what the system wants.
The Architecture of Chaos
This isn’t random. It’s a system. A design. A deliberate operating system.
Let’s call it: Gaslighting at Scale.
Step 1: Make the absurd routine.
Say things that can’t be true. Repeat them often.
Don’t care if they’re false. Care only that they’re heard.
Step 2: Erode shared truth.
If no one agrees on what’s real, then no one can act on it.
No one can organize. No one can trust. No one can resist.
Step 3: Position yourself as the only “certainty.”
You’re the only one who claims to see the truth. The only one who knows what’s really happening. The only one who can “fix” it.
And then, the final move, Reality TV Governance.
Politics becomes a season-long drama. Promises don’t need to be kept. They just need to be entertaining.
The goal isn’t policy. It’s ratings.
The goal isn’t accountability. It’s attention.
And we public become viewers. We become fans. We become passive participants in a show we don’t understand, but we’re too tired to turn off.
The Cynical Calculus
So who benefits?
Not the people.
Not the institutions.
Not democracy.
But those who thrive in chaos.
Because when reality is malleable, when truth is negotiable, power becomes absolute.
The cynics know this.
They know that confusion paralyzes.
They know that a disoriented public is a controllable one.
They don’t need to convince you.
They just need to make you doubt everything.
And then, when you’re too exhausted to care, they step in.
They say, “Only I can fix this.”
They say, “Only I can restore order.”
They say, “Only I can be trusted.”
And you believe them, not because they’re right.
But because you’ve lost the ability to trust anything else.
The Journalists’ Blind Spot
This is where the media fails.
They focus on the fact, “Is this true?” but ignore the why. “Why is this being said? What does it do to us?”
They report the lie.
They fact-check the math.
They call it out.
But they don’t ask:
Who benefits from a society that no longer believes its own eyes?
Who’s the director of this twisted narrative?
Why does it matter if the price drop is 1,500% or if the point is to make us doubt everything?
Because the truth isn’t just about numbers.
It’s about trust.
It’s about sanity.
It’s about the world we live in.
And when we stop believing in truth, when we start doubting our own perceptions, we don’t just lose facts.
We lose ourselves.
The Epiphany
So here it is, the moment you might have it:
That absurd claim about prices wasn’t about economics.
It wasn’t even about politics.
It was about control.
It was about making you question your own mind.
About teaching you to distrust your own judgment.
About turning truth into a game, where the only rule is: Believe nothing. Trust no one.
And if that’s the case, if the goal isn’t to persuade, but to break, then the real danger isn’t the lie.
It’s the silence that follows.
Because when the media says, “That’s impossible,” and moves on, they’ve already lost.
They’ve handed the stage to the performance artists.
They’ve let the chaos win.
And the world becomes a show, where the only thing real is the doubt.
So the next time you hear a claim that defies logic, a promise that can’t be kept, don’t just say, “That’s not possible.”
Ask:
Who benefits if I believe it?
Who benefits if I don’t?
And what does it mean when the impossible becomes routine?
Because the real crisis isn’t the lie.
It’s the silence that lets it live.
And the truth, the one that matters, is already slipping away.