A nip is in the air, frost or snow is on the ground, trees stand decorated in living rooms, and eggnog is in the refrigerator.

Yes, it is that time of year again. Time to reveal the Fourth Annual Hoax-of-the-Year Awards! So grab a cup of your favorite cheer, take a seat by the fire…and read on.

Last year’s winner was The Great Reset Is a Hoax Hoax, the first winner in which a supposed hoax was itself a hoax, and indeed all too real.

Without further ado, here are the contenders for this year:

As usual, there are a number of continuing hoaxes that deserve mention, such as The Any Number of Illegal Immigrants Make the Country Better and Richer Hoax. However, this hoax, stupefying as it is, may be on its last legs. Even some Democrats seem to be sobering up in this regard.

Several other hoaxes have taken further hits in 2023, including The Most of Those Working in the FBI And DOJ Are Good People Hoax, and The Teachers Are All Selfless, Underpaid Angels Who Love Our Kids Hoax.

Conversely, one hoax that continues to gain traction, at least among academics, is The Competence, Punctuality and Discipline Are All Aspects of White Supremacy Hoax. In fact, many colleges are dispensing with entrance standards altogether. It should be noted that The Marijuana Is Good for You Hoax is also still in good stead, though for how much longer no one knows. And, incredibly, against all odds, The Men Can Get Pregnant Too Hoax appears to be holding its ground…if not gaining more adherents. A closely related ruse, The One Sex Can Become the Other Just by Saying So Hoax, is similarly alive and well. This is a foundational hoax, breathtaking in scope and import, truly preposterous. Time will tell if this jape is extended to Species, Genus, Family, Order, Class, Phylum, and Kingdom, thereby rendering taxonomic hierarchy utterly moot.   

One hoax, not specific to 2023, deserves special mention: The World Is Rapidly Warming Because Of Gasoline-Powered Lawnmowers and Bovine Belches Hoax. This hoax has been around so long, it came hard on the heels of the 1970s The World Is Rapidly Cooling and We Are All Soon to Be Frozen Hoax. Remarkably, this hoax has been in existence longer than those who promulgate it told us the planet would last, even in the face of evidence that refutes their own “logic.” Therefore, I hereby recognize its longevity by granting it a Lifetime Achievement Award. (I reached out to Al Gore and Greta Thunberg, but, sadly, neither were available to receive the award.)

This takes us to The White Supremacists Are Everywhere Hoax. Look, there’s one now! Oops, sorry, that was just Joy Behar. Another progressive proclamation is the root of The Islamophobia Is Rampant Hoax. This is simply not true. “Israelophobia” and anti-Semitism on the other hand, are nearly everywhere and yet still growing. And The Islam Is A religion of Peace Hoax still exists. One would have thought this hoax would have lost some of its luster post October 7, but many folks still tenaciously cling to it, like a baby to a pacifier.  

Both The Israel Is Just Like Hamas and/or Nazi Germany Hoax and The Palestinians Are Just Like Everybody Else and Actually Despise Hamas Hoax have been given much airtime by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and NBC. This does not make either of them any truer, however. Quite the contrary.

Then we have one of my personal favorites, The Experts Are Always Right Hoax. This is yet another hoax that should have been on its last legs already but is one whose adherents-- mostly experts-- refuse to relinquish.

A handful of hoaxes were born this year, including, but not limited to: The Joe Biden Is Just A “Loving Father” Hoax, The 18,000 Cows Blew Up in One Explosion In Texas Hoax, The Chinese Spy Balloon Was Simply Blown Off Course and Was Only Collecting Meteorological Data Anyway Hoax, and The Chinese Spy Balloon, Even If It Was Deliberately Flying Over Our Sensitive Military Sites, Only Gleaned Information Of “Limited Additive Value” Hoax. (The latter was perpetrated on the American people immediately upon their loss of faith in the aforementioned “The Chinese Spy Balloon Was Simply Blown Off Course and Was Only Collecting Meteorological Data Anyway Hoax.”)  

Of particularly recent vintage is The Inflation Isn’t So Bad Anymore Hoax. This new hoax, still wet behind the ears and aggressively promulgated by the mainstream media, may have some merit…unless you eat food-- or heat, cool, or insure your home, for example.

In this time of great deceit, with a veritable treasure trove of lies/hoaxes from which to choose, selecting a winner was extremely challenging. There are many worthy contestants. The Competence, Punctuality and Discipline Are All Aspects of White Supremacy Hoax, The One Sex Can Become the Other Just by Saying So Hoax, and The World Is Rapidly Warming Because Of Gasoline-Powered Lawnmowers and Bovine Belches Hoax all had great merit. All would dramatically change the world for the worse if allowed to continue and would together render it almost unrecognizable.

A part of me wanted to pick a fresher hoax, one uniquely associated with 2023. While this isn’t entirely true of the hoax I chose, it does seem like 2023 finally brought it to the forefront. So here it is, the Hoax-of-the-Year for 2023: The Any Number of Illegal Immigrants Make the Country Better and Richer Hoax. This is clearly not true of invasive species, and it is no less true of humans in general. Legal immigrants who wish to assimilate and work to make the country better are generally a blessing, a net positive. The indolent, the drug and human traffickers, the violent criminals, and those simply looking for a handout, are not. And no claims otherwise by “experts” or politicians can change that fact.

Happy holidays. Here’s looking to 2024.

Image: Marco Verch, Professional Photographer, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0