It seems to me that an important part of contemporary politics is concerned with satisfying public demand for favourite fairy tales. The politically correct majority are like children who take a fancy to a tale, insisting that mom or pop repeat the story over and over again.
For decades, we have been hearing the same old story in Germany, several times a year: Every time, when there is a hike in the price of gas, claims are voiced by powerful political groups and media outlets suggesting that oil companies or gas stations (which is never quite clear in the erratic commotion) are engaging in price fixing.
No one, of course, cares to take a look at the structure of the oil market (which drives the price swings, to which the oil distributors do have to respond roughly in sync with each other), no one offers praise when the prices get lowered substantially, no one seems to wonder how the favourite Aunt Sally of anti-capitalist populism ("big oil") can get away with manipulations, when the state, which is much more powerful than these companies actually has entire bureaucracies in place with the (alleged) purpose of stopping irregularities of that kind.
No one cares to look at the arbitrary price fixing by the German state which adds to the oil companies' product price at the petrol pump another 150% ( hence a total price of $8 per gallon at the time of writing).
Today the government announced, it is going to violate a basic legal principle by putting the burden of proof that no price fixing is taking place on the shoulders of the oil companies.
Of course, no one complains about such abuse. No one complains that a bully several thousand times stronger than his victim, passes a law that forces the victim to prove that there is no need for the bully to slap it in the face.
No one complains that the new law is presented apodictically in the media, as necessitated by objective truth, when in fact, there are hundreds of facts and sound theories that present serious counterarguments, to say the least.
People don't care for the facts, nor for a consistent line of reasoning. They just love a nice tale of paternal heroism. Please, daddy, tell us that story one more time.
