They Make You See What They Want You to See

They came down hard on President Claudia Sheinbaum. And let’s say it loud and clear: welcome to the era of post-truth.

It’s worth recalling a scene from The Apprentice, the film that tells part of Donald Trump’s early political journey. In it, Trump sits with a ghostwriter helping him with what’s likely The Art of the Deal. At a key moment, Trump confesses:

"I have the truth. You have the truth. Everyone has their own truth."

And that sums up exactly where we are today: we’re not surrounded by half-truths or simple lies. What we’re facing are fabricated truths — surgically designed to manipulate emotion.

This isn’t new. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, said it centuries ago: “Everything is perception.” And now more than ever, we live in a world of perceptions that can be bent with just a few clicks.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said too much. She decided to post a video urging Mexican nationals in the U.S. to protest a new remittance tax. But her message happened to coincide — coincidentally or not — with recent riots in Los Angeles, following several illegal raids by ICE agents.

Then someone — very smart and very malicious — pulled a fast one: they used AI to edit her video, cut sections, and gave it an entirely new meaning. In the manipulated version, it looks like Claudia is directly inciting Latinos to rebel. And even though it’s clearly edited, people don’t notice the details — just the emotional punch.

The result? The U.S. government is now accusing her of inciting unrest. Just like that, with one edited clip, she got her official welcome to the post-truth era. Sometimes post-truth works in your favor. This time, it turned against her.

This is not new. I remember when Hillary Clinton returned from Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) after a diplomatic visit. A clip of her went viral where she said, “China is a democracy.”

The problem? The video was fake.

Someone had cut the words before and after, leaving just that one line. The editing was so clean, it looked real. Even I thought: “How could she say that?” Then I understood — it had been altered so that instead of talking about Taiwan, it seemed like she meant the People’s Republic of China. But who notices? Two, maybe three people. And the rest? They swallow the lie whole.

The worst part is: when you try to correct it, no one listens. Truth doesn’t spread like lies do. And the people behind these bot farms and disinformation campaigns know that well. Today, lies travel faster than truth. Algorithms push outrage, not reasoning.

What we’re watching now isn’t a screaming match between Trump and Elon Musk. They’re not pulling each other’s hair. What’s happening is a silent power struggle — a battle over who gets to control the narrative. Musk has economic muscle. Trump has political machinery. And when one beats the other, they’ll unite — as always — against China, Mexico, California, or whichever enemy is next on the list.

Musk wants to start his own political party. Fine. Let him burn his money. But don’t forget: nobody voted for Elon Musk. The votes went to Trump. Musk was an economic enabler, a patron of the narrative, a cog in the Trump machine. The real power lies with Trump. And if he wants, he can pull SpaceX contracts in a snap.

Musk’s biggest move was buying Twitter — now called X. With that, he controls the narrative. He decides what’s heard and what’s silenced. I’ve seen it myself: when I criticize Musk or Trump on X, my posts go nowhere. But those who praise them are boosted, retweeted, made viral. That’s today’s reality.

Even if Musk owns the toy, the ones running and fueling that machine are Trump’s followers. And Trump, let’s not forget, has his own social network: Truth Social. They know power lies in shaping perception — “their truth.” In a world where truth no longer matters, whoever owns the narrative owns the world.

And that’s exactly what they’re doing: blurring our sense of reality until we can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.

Today, apps can turn any video into editable text. You treat it like a Word doc — delete phrases, rearrange, then regenerate the video. Same voice. Same face. Different message. Nearly impossible to detect.

We’re stepping into a world where what you see, hear, or read no longer means anything on its own. The world we’re leaving to our children is dangerously confusing. The line between fiction and reality is gone.

Remember this: In the post-truth era, it’s no longer about persuading… it’s about confusing.

And that — that’s being used on everyone. On Claudia Sheinbaum today. On others yesterday. On many more tomorrow.

The only thing left to do is sharpen our critical thinking. Doubt. Analyze. Cross-check. Every single thing. “Seeing is believing” no longer applies.