Truth. What is the truth?
These days, it depends on who you ask. It used to be that there were things that were true and things that were false. That no longer seems to be the case.
And it is quite confusing.
I am so glad I am not a young person these days. The misinformation flying on social media, YouTube and even some 24-hour news channels is so thick you can’t swat it away with a jumbo version of the Constitution.
We are drowning in falsehoods. We are being swamped by things that are presented as true that just simply aren’t true. It should make us all worry about the future.
I have people email me from time to time and ask why I don’t write “the truth” on certain subjects. The reality is, they want their version of what they think the truth is to be printed. In most cases, what they think is true simply isn’t.
Look at the most recent presidential election. The misinformation still flying around over that honestly makes my stomach hurt. How people can believe things that demonstrably are not true is amazing and sad.
It is like people who believe in bigfoot and UFOs and ghosts and the Chupacabra. Those people are often laughed at and marginalized. Those things can’t be real, people say. There is no proof.
There is no proof of many things people believe these days, especially regarding the last election. But that doesn’t stop some from braying about it at the top of their lungs. The attack on the U.S. Capitol in January has been twisted so many ways it is getting harder for many to find the truth.
But we know what the truth is, right?
Sadly, if the truth doesn’t fit into our worldview these days, we just dismiss it. We hide like children behind false information. It is a blanket that keeps cold reality from getting to us. If we believe it, and we go to sources that spout the misinformation we believe to reinforce it, then it must be true.
Forget about reality. We will make our own reality.
But this thinking is not only ripping us apart politically, it is ripping us apart as a country. If we can’t accept what is true and what is not as a collective, we are in trouble.
Now, there will always be some things that people will believe to be true while others will not. That has long been known. Religion is an example. Beliefs in what is true when it comes to religion are all over the place.
But when we can’t accept election results, even after months of investigations, recounts and court cases, that is a real problem. I understand not liking that your candidate lost, but lost he or she did. Hilary Clinton lost in 2016 much to the sadness of her voters. Donald Trump lost the last election. That is just the truth, no matter what we want to believe.
We need to accept the truth and we need to move on as a country. I learned long ago that things don’t always go my way, or the way I want them to. When they don’t, it is not some big conspiracy. The truth is I did not get my way.
Reality can be tough. But it is the truth.
