Can you handle the truth? Can you tell if something is true or not? I think many of the problems we see in America today spring from people’s acceptance of things that aren’t true. People marched on the Capitol on January 6 because they believed multiple things that weren’t true.
Some of them believed that Donald Trump won the election in a landslide and was cheated out of his win. Some of them believed that America can not survive 4 years of a Democrat in the White House. Some of them believed that Democrats are part of a child sex trafficking, blood drinking cult and that Donald Trump is a messianic figure who God appointed to take them all out. All of them probably believed that either Vice President Pence or the Congress could simply throw out an election they didn’t like.
None of this is supported by evidence. Believe what you want about election fraud, there is no evidence of a landslide win. America has survived every other Democratic administration, why is this one uniquely dangerous? I won’t even respect the QAnon drivel with a counter argument. No one believes that because they have proof of any of it. The Constitution clearly gives the states the right to govern and certify their own elections.
Most Trump fans I know believe that he financed his own campaign for President. Not true. He spent around $50M of his own money, got around $280M in donations and had hundreds of millions spent on his behalf by political action committees (PAC’s) A majority of Democrat voters polled believe that Russian operatives hacked voting machines to get Donald Trump elected. There is no reported evidence of that. People believe whatever they want to believe and facts have little to do with it.
What is going on? In Christian circles we sometimes talk about discernment. It means having good judgement, having the ability to tell right from wrong, a true prophet from a false one, and a lie from the truth. It is a critical skill. You can’t even pretend to be a wise person without it. Some people naturally have more of it than others, but everyone has the capacity. It gets more accurate the more we practice it. It looks to me like many, if not most, people don’t even try.
How do I know when something is true?
Personal experience is the gold plated standard. Not quite gold, but close. If I personally experience something and I was not under the influence of a mind altering chemical or having a psychotic break, then it probably happened. If other people were there at the same time and experienced the same thing, that’s as close to gold standard as you get. A science experiment that has been duplicated by several experimenters that all got the same result is the same thing, direct, corroborated, experience. Even here, we must be careful that we limit the inferences we draw. If I see a car speeding away from a bank, that proves that a car was speeding away from a bank, not that the driver had just robbed the bank. If I drove a truck full of mail from New York to Pennsylvania and the mail sorting center diverted me to a different sorting center, that is proof that I drove the truck and that I was diverted. It’s not proof of election fraud.
A person I trust told me something. This isn’t a terrible reason to believe something but it has its problems. Why do I trust this person? Have I known them for 20 years and they’ve never told me something I subsequently found to be false? Is it someone who I agree with politically? Trustworthiness usually comes from a long association unless your discernment skills are world class. Most of the time I do some checking before I repeat something anyone told me as the truth. I have been let down too often.
I saw it or read it in the news. This is quite a bit better than most people believe. Donald Trump started a full frontal assault on the credibility of the news media before he was elected that continued for his term. “Fake news” is the rallying cry. I had asked someone what they thought about a particularly troubling Trump statement once and he asked me, “Are you sure he really said that, or was it must the mainstream media making it up?” “He said it, on camera, millions of people watching”, was my reply. “I don’t believe it”, he said. How is that possible? It has been correctly said that you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.
Major newspapers and media outlets are not in the business of making things up. The only time they print or broadcast outright falsehoods is on the rare occasions that they were a bit too eager to believe a source before they fully investigated. This is rare. That isn’t to say there is no bias. There is no such thing as unbiased news, or unbiased anything else for that matter. They do tend to stick to the facts, albeit providing their own spin. Let’s say Donald Trump was seen helping an elderly woman cross the street. He starts to step into the crosswalk but suddenly sees a city bus he missed in his first glance. He pulls her back on the sidewalk and then crosses uneventfully. On CNN the headline will be, “Donald Trump nearly kills elderly woman in a shocking act of negligence.” On Fox it will be,” Donald Trump’s bravery saves elderly woman from being killed by liberal Democrat bus driver.” If you read the story under the headline, you will get the same set of facts. A wise person will draw his or her own conclusions. If you see a story in a real newspaper or a real media outlet the facts of the story are very probably true. When I say real newspaper or media outlet, I mean actual news organizations with professional reporters and editors like the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ABC, NBC, CNN, Fox News and the like. “Reallyshockingliberalnews.com” and “trumpfans.org” don’t count. Any knucklehead with an ax to grind can pretend to be a news outlet. The opinion pages of newspapers and TV talk show hosts aren’t held to the same standard. They lie with impunity all day. The Fox news hour tends to stick to the facts. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin have a pretty lose relationship with the truth as do their counterparts on the mainstream outlets. They are not seeking the truth, they are seeking ratings and access to politicians.
I saw it on Facebook, Twitter or some other corner of the social media cesspool. You’re kidding, right? Social media are today’s main conduit for lies, misinterpretation and innuendo. If it’s been made into a meme or a hashtag or any other thing that gets passed around it probably isn’t true. I don’t care how good it makes you feel, if you can’t verify it, just leave it. Passing this stuff around is nothing more than high tech gossip. It’s destructive to society and, if you’re a Christian and care about such things, it’s a sin.
I heard it from my favorite politician or religious spokesperson. Not a very good source. Politicians have been misleading people since people first started trying to organize themselves. I lumped the politicians and the so called religious leaders in the same section because, these days, they are nearly indistinguishable. Too many of our well known religious personalities have turned into another brand of power seeking politician. When religious leaders start shilling for political parties and politicians, I stop trusting them.
The assault on the truth is working. Hanging out on social media means swimming in a river of lies. People grab onto their favorite lies and pass them around like joints at a Grateful Dead show. America is drunk on outrage and high on lies. I can’t stop it, but I can make sure I am not contributing to it. I am asking anyone who reads this to please stop. Stop and think. Let’s all start thinking. Learn to discern the truth. If you don’t have time to make sure something is true, don’t pass it on. If something is true and passing it on will hurt someone for no good reason, don’t do it. “The truth will set you free” is a popular phrase. Many of the people that use it probably don’t know the source. The Christian Bible, Gospel according to John, quoting Jesus, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The flip side to this is that the lie will enslave you. The people that stormed the Capitol last week were enslaved by lies. Shake off your chains. Seek the truth. It will set you free.
