This does not spark joy.

Let’s do an experiment.

Head to your browser, type “Kamala Harris + joy” and see what happens.

I’ll wait. 

Isn’t that just weird? 

Everywhere you look, headlines are proclaiming “joy” in connection with the Harris-Walz campaign. 

It’s as if every news outlet received the same directive: “Kamala Harris equals joy,” and they all locked step and ran with it.

Up until a few weeks ago, Harris was anything but a poster child for political success. She struggled to gain traction, even in her own party, and was generally just widely disliked.

Nothing about her or her record has changed, so what gives?

Her sudden rise certainly hasn’t been the result of any extraordinary talent, ability, or accomplishment. Instead, it feels more like a reward for loyalty to the party’s elite—a pat on the back for playing the game the right way.

For anyone who chooses to take a closer look at her record, the idea of Harris as a bringer of “joy” becomes even harder to swallow.

Like, for instance, her time as California’s Attorney General, where she kept inmates, many of them minorities, incarcerated beyond their release dates, so that the state could continue to use them as cheap labor.

That’s like… super bad. Deplorable, actually. It’s certainly not the kind of leadership that inspires joy.

Yet, the media would have us believe that she’s the new face of American happiness.

Of course, we’ve seen this kind of thing before.

Remember Project Mockingbird? The CIA operation during the Cold War that fed journalists government-approved narratives to manipulate public opinion. The idea was to create an illusion of consensus, where every media outlet echoed the same story.

It worked. 

In our Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies, we cover Project Mockingbird and other ways the media has been used to shape what we think—usually without us even realizing it.

This “joy” narrative feels like another chapter from the same playbook—a carefully crafted illusion meant to sway how we perceive reality.

The whole thing is silly anyway.

True joy is found in living honest, meaningful lives. In spending quality time with our families, helping others, and finding purpose in our everyday actions. Joy is rooted in the relationships we build, the good we do, and the values we hold—not in anything any politician or pundit says or does. 

Kamala Harris’s rise to power isn’t because she’s out there creating joy or even because she’s making great policy (or any policy). It’s because she’s been unnaturally elevated into political positions she hasn’t earned.

Theories abound as to why this has happened, but I’m confident time will tell.

This is exactly the kind of thing we teach about in The Tuttle Twins and the Medals of Merit. The story teaches the value of meritocracy—where success is earned through ability and effort, not handed out because of political connections, socioeconomic so-called “disadvantages” or favor-currying.

The media can push their “joy” narrative all they want, but we know better.

We know that true joy comes from a life well-lived, and from making a difference where it really counts.

If you want to teach your kids to see through the noise and understand what truly matters, our books are here to help.

The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies will give them the tools to question the narratives they’re fed, and The Tuttle Twins and the Medals of Merit will show them the value of genuine achievement.

Thanks for letting us help in the important work you’re doing. 

— Connor