Truth is truth
Facts are facts.
Fiction is fiction, and lies are lies.
The challenge facing any democracy is separating truth from fiction and facts from falsity. It is not always easy to do that, but a careful analysis and comparison of facts will ultimately lead you to the right conclusion.
It is snowing in Upstate NY. Binghamton has over forty inches of the fluffy white stuff. You can measure it. You can see it. Those are provable truths.
It is not snowing in St. Petersburg, Fla. there is no white stuff on the ground. You can’t see it. You can reasonably conclude that it is true that there is no snow in Florida.
But what if I told you that it was freezing in Florida, and snow on the ground was over two feet. Would you believe me? What if I told you to go on Facebook if you don’t believe me, and you did, and found lots of Facebook postings saying that the weathermen on TV were broadcasting fake news, and denying there was snow, when there was really over two feet of it in the ground?What if I just kept repeating that it is snowing in Florida. It is snowing in Florida, ad nauseum. Would you then believe me?
Well, the comparison to our election process and fake weather forecasters is actually applicable. The President is still claiming major election fraud. Despite all of the investigations and recounts that found none. Despite such claims being rejected by over 50 Judges of both parties that there are no facts to back up that claim, some still truly believe. Donald Trump wants you to believe in him, and not the facts. That is what all autocratic leaders seek, to be the fountain of all “ truth”. He apparently believes electoral fraud himself, not based on any observable fact, but based on what lots of folks on Facebook and Twitter are saying, or re-tweeting and re-posting.
In those circumstances, you would think that ferreting out the truth would be a “ no brainer”, but, alas, that is not the case.
As many as three quarters of the electorate who call themselves Republicans are believing the election fraud hoax. It is an Alice in wonderland, up is down and down is up situation. But, it is what it is.
How do we break free from such profound preverication?
We trust, but verify. It is what every “ Doubting Thomas” should do. We take Christ up on his post resurrection offer to see and touch his wounds, so we can verify what St. Thomas did not.
Just to reassure everyone, it really is snowing in Upstate NY, and it is not snowing in Florida. That is a non-equivocal, provable fact. Trust me. If not, tune out Fox, CNN and MSNBC, and tune in the weather channel instead. They always tell it like it is. And they have actual video too.
