The America that progressives have given us is stranger than fiction

Sometimes I think I’m watching a Fellini movie, one of those really strange ones where I witness something so bizarre that I think I’m hallucinating — except it turns out to be real. 

So, was I hallucinating when I heard there were more than two genders, more than boys and girls, men and women, male and female — and that men could get pregnant?

You tell me. At a congressional hearing, when asked, “Can biological men become pregnant and give birth?” a doctor from Planned Parenthood said, “Men can have pregnancies. … Somebody with a uterus may have the capability of becoming pregnant, whether they’re a woman or a man.”

While you’re scratching your head over that, let’s move down to our southern border, the one Vice President Kamala Harris assures us is “secure.” But on television I see thousands of illegal immigrants walking into the United States every day — more than 2 million a year, according to official records.

Maybe Harris is right and my eyes are wrong. Maybe I’m hallucinating and not really seeing what I think I’m seeing.

What about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — you know, the chaotic mess that President Biden called a “success”?

Wasn’t that the withdrawal that was marred by a terrorist attack that killed more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members? And didn’t we leave behind tens of billions of dollars in military equipment that fell into the hands of the Taliban?

Good thing it was a “success,” right? Or maybe I’m just imagining all the bad stuff.  Hallucinations will do that. 

Here’s more good news: “The pandemic is over.” I know that because President Biden — the same president who said the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a success — has told us it’s over. 

But if it’s really “over” why are between 400 and 500 Americans still dying every day of COVID-19? Somebody must be hallucinating because the president of the United States says “the pandemic is over.”

But wait. If it’s really over, why is the Biden administration “forgiving” up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for certain borrowers to make sure they are “not placed in a worse position financially because of the pandemic” — you know, the one that’s “over”?

I’m not sure if I’m simply confused or if I’m still hallucinating — because I thought crime in our big cities was a real problem. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a progressive district attorney anywhere in the United States who thinks crime is a big deal, or at least will say so publicly. Or, as The Atlantic magazine put it, “Refusing to admit the gravity of the [crime] problem won’t make it go away.”

Even Federico Fellini might think he was watching one of his own strange movies if he were alive and witnessing what passes for reality in the United States, circa 2022. And why wouldn’t he? After all, we’re told that the bloody U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is a “success.” We’re assured that even though the coronavirus is killing hundreds of Americans every day, “the pandemic is over.” We know that millions of illegal immigrants enter the United States in a single year but we’re supposed to believe that the border is “secure.” Statistics tell us crime is on the rise but progressives believe it isn’t. And, of course, men can get pregnant.

Yes, up is down, east is west, day is night, and mostly, lies are truth. Fellini may have been a master at mixing fantasy with reality, but what’s going on today in the United States, I suspect, would be too bizarre, even for him.   

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He was a correspondent with HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” for 22 years and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News and as an analyst for Fox News. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him on Twitter @BernardGoldberg.