Lying about PED use is a fascinating sociological issue. Athletes and celebrities do not actually lie about PED use because they are bad people wanting to hide their cheating. Far from it. They are compelled to lie because the question itself is completely dishonest.
The question is asking them if they comply with the politically correct “narrative” about PEDs. The narrative about PEDs, like all popular, politically correct narratives, is a giant, steaming pile of lies. Every part of it is as utterly dishonest as the current narratives about certain wars, certain sexual deviances, certain environmental issues and certain presidents.
Being asked the question about PED use is to be dragged into the narrative lie. There is no option but to lie in response. To speak against the narrative with the truth is far worse than lying. There is no explaining or justifying PED use with facts and truth. Telling the truth will get you ostracised from society, as we saw happen to talented medical professionals who spoke the truth about a certain medical narrative from a couple of years ago.
Behind closed doors, among other athletes and celebrities, everybody talks openly about PED use. Everybody involved knows that everybody does it. It is the same everywhere in the world. It is so widespread and common as to be as integral to sport and physique development as training and diet. In these circles, people typically do not lie about the fact they use. Doing so would be seen as offensive and suspicious.
Lying about PED use to a mainstream audience, though, is like putting the right emoji flag in your social media profile each month. Its a virtue signal. Everybody knows its BS; but it’s BS you are expected to say to show you have “done the right thing” and sold your soul to be included in western neo-liberal society.
When an athlete or celebrity publicly lies about their PED use to the general public, what option do they have? Tell the truth and be needlessly demonised by a lying, malicious, politicised media machine? What for? Nobody wants the truth. Sports fans want to believe their idols are “clean”, ‘cos the narrative says that’s good. And parents don’t want their kids knowing that movie stars are all snorting coke off hookers bums every day, they check in and out of rehab like it is a gas station, or that they use PEDs, cos the narrative says those things are all moral equivalents.
But mostly, the political monsters behind the war against PEDs want their BS narrative supported. By weaponising a core element of elite level sport and physical development, any publicly influential athlete or celebrity who might cause any sort of political embarrassment can immediately be discredited by the “shocking” discovery of PED use (and the cliched sexual assault allegation from 20 years ago that coincidentally appears at the same time).
The war against PEDs is very obviously not about safety, health, morality, legality or fairness. It’s political. It’s about power and control over celebrities who powerfully influence public opinion. Lying about PED use is how the game is played. So when I see a top level athlete or high profile celebrity lie, I understand completely. They aren’t lying to those of us who know the truth. They are lying to the liars who lied to everybody else. The issue is not the celebrity’s lie; the issue is the sad state of the mainstream media and the political system maintaining another BS narrative.
