Truth is hard to come by these days. Truth is not dependent on how you look at things, truth is pretty absolute based on fact or reality. Yet journalists are being attacked by the President of the United States for reporting truth that Mr. President doesn't want you to know. Journalists are being jailed or worse in several Middle Eastern countries for reporting truths their governments do not want told. This war on truth began years ago, but has really taken off since Trump coined (or at least popularized) the "fake news" label.
There is no such thing as "alternative facts" in spite of what Ms. Conway would like you to believe. Excluding the often capitalized "Truth" of spiritual or fundamental "reality", truth is "the body of real things, events, and facts; actuality" according to Merriam-Webster, or "a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like" according to Dictionary dot com, or "all the facts about it, rather than things that are imagined" according to Collins.
We need real truth in order to make informed, sound decisions. Yet we are overrun with supposed, but contradictory, truths 24 hours a day. Opinion is not fact. Hopefully, the opinion is based on reason and fact, but opinion alone is not fact. Alternative facts are not fact. To be an informed populace these days, we must make at least a little effort. We cannot rely on tweets, sound bites, late night comedy shows, and such for facts. We can no longer rely on Dan Rather or Walter Cronkite or even Barbara Walters to give us unadulterated, slant free facts on the evening news. Journalists who are being persecuted are more likely to be providing factual truth, in my opinion, based purely on logic. Why would the "powers that be" object to their reporting so much if it were not true? Why is our dear leader cozying up to known despots and dictators (Putin, Kim, Erdogan, Saudi Prince bin Salman) to the detriment of long time proven friends and allies?
Get your news from reliable sources, and not just one. To have a reasonable chance of getting the full story, check multiple providers. Some suggestions: BBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Slate, Mother Jones, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Fox News (if you can bear their rhetoric), even Breitbart. That last one especially check at least twice -- if they told me it was raining I'd stick my arm outside to be sure it's true. But, they may also mention an item covered no where else. Use Snopes to check the veracity of questionable items. Check in on real world news with a couple sites mentioned here; our local so-called world news really isn't very worldly. What goes on "out there" does affect what goes on here, too.
Use your own common sense in evaluating items. Sure, they're quoting results of a study that, for instance, shows glyphosate neutralizes within six months. Really? What study? Who did it? Who paid for it? Oh, Monsanto paid for it, hmmm. It was done by their in-house chemists, hmmm. And Monsanto, conveniently enough, just happens to have a line of glyphosate resistant seeds you can plant and still use their chemical broad spectrum "weed" killer. They are a corporation in a capitalistic society. They are doing what's best for their bottom line. They are not doing what's best for you or for the environment (some of those "weeds" are the only food source for some endangered pollinators in larval stage). The controversy over the safety of glyphosate is still ongoing, with the World Health Organization listing it as a "probable carcinogen", February 2018 article here.
The "invading caravan" from Mexico -- now that the election is past, why do we not hear more about them? Just another diversion attempt from Mr. President to distract American voters from the real issues? Speaking of our dear leader, over Christmas weekend he is pouting and tweeting (literally "poor me") because he used the shutdown of the federal government as a bargaining chip to try to force Congress to approve funding for "the border wall" (you know, the one he said Mexico was going to pay for). Congress did not approve more funds, so there is not even a temporary budget to keep government offices running -- because Mr. President is behaving much like a spoiled toddler who didn't get his way.
The real truth matters. Please take time to suss it out. Don't be like Mo (or Trump for that matter). Please don't fall for wild conspiracy theories like this one (a giant in Afghanistan, really!?). If we don't support the freedom of the press, we could easily end up without a free press. We must elect people who will represent us, not corporate or foreign or their own personal interests. If we don't become responsible, informed citizens, we may well become like the citizens of the world's most oppressive nations. I don't want that, do you?
We need real truth in order to make informed, sound decisions. Yet we are overrun with supposed, but contradictory, truths 24 hours a day. Opinion is not fact. Hopefully, the opinion is based on reason and fact, but opinion alone is not fact. Alternative facts are not fact. To be an informed populace these days, we must make at least a little effort. We cannot rely on tweets, sound bites, late night comedy shows, and such for facts. We can no longer rely on Dan Rather or Walter Cronkite or even Barbara Walters to give us unadulterated, slant free facts on the evening news. Journalists who are being persecuted are more likely to be providing factual truth, in my opinion, based purely on logic. Why would the "powers that be" object to their reporting so much if it were not true? Why is our dear leader cozying up to known despots and dictators (Putin, Kim, Erdogan, Saudi Prince bin Salman) to the detriment of long time proven friends and allies?
Get your news from reliable sources, and not just one. To have a reasonable chance of getting the full story, check multiple providers. Some suggestions: BBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Slate, Mother Jones, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Fox News (if you can bear their rhetoric), even Breitbart. That last one especially check at least twice -- if they told me it was raining I'd stick my arm outside to be sure it's true. But, they may also mention an item covered no where else. Use Snopes to check the veracity of questionable items. Check in on real world news with a couple sites mentioned here; our local so-called world news really isn't very worldly. What goes on "out there" does affect what goes on here, too.
Use your own common sense in evaluating items. Sure, they're quoting results of a study that, for instance, shows glyphosate neutralizes within six months. Really? What study? Who did it? Who paid for it? Oh, Monsanto paid for it, hmmm. It was done by their in-house chemists, hmmm. And Monsanto, conveniently enough, just happens to have a line of glyphosate resistant seeds you can plant and still use their chemical broad spectrum "weed" killer. They are a corporation in a capitalistic society. They are doing what's best for their bottom line. They are not doing what's best for you or for the environment (some of those "weeds" are the only food source for some endangered pollinators in larval stage). The controversy over the safety of glyphosate is still ongoing, with the World Health Organization listing it as a "probable carcinogen", February 2018 article here.
The "invading caravan" from Mexico -- now that the election is past, why do we not hear more about them? Just another diversion attempt from Mr. President to distract American voters from the real issues? Speaking of our dear leader, over Christmas weekend he is pouting and tweeting (literally "poor me") because he used the shutdown of the federal government as a bargaining chip to try to force Congress to approve funding for "the border wall" (you know, the one he said Mexico was going to pay for). Congress did not approve more funds, so there is not even a temporary budget to keep government offices running -- because Mr. President is behaving much like a spoiled toddler who didn't get his way.
The real truth matters. Please take time to suss it out. Don't be like Mo (or Trump for that matter). Please don't fall for wild conspiracy theories like this one (a giant in Afghanistan, really!?). If we don't support the freedom of the press, we could easily end up without a free press. We must elect people who will represent us, not corporate or foreign or their own personal interests. If we don't become responsible, informed citizens, we may well become like the citizens of the world's most oppressive nations. I don't want that, do you?
Very good article. Opinion is not fact and people need to understand this or the truth will forever be corrupted. Opinions are great for looking at things from different directions to develop understand, however, the truth can never be based on opinion alone. Truth will always have facts available that back it up to prove it is true.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to comment. Yes, agree; people need to understand the difference.
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