Mi gente,
Listening to the news these days, I am forced to reflect on one theme in all my posts. The theme, if you look at enough of them, is fundamentally (pardon the high mindedness), the evaluation of reality. How do you know what is true? A subtext of many of my posts is the importance of the scientific method as the avatar of discerning what we can approximate as the “Truth”. At the foundation of the scientific method is the critical role of quality evidence for claims.
I have to say that the presidential campaign is highlighting the danger of not being able to rationally evaluate evidence. We are seeing an infamous figure in American life routinely lie and say fantastical things and convincing half the voting populace that he deserves the most power a human can have in the world.
As horrible as this is, it is only a symptom of the problem of the decline of our society…. To list some others are …Zika denialism, climate change deniers, alternative health claims, vaccines, religious bigotry abroad and in the USA (gay, transgender issues), AIDs origins, gender role issues (women & high heels)… the list goes on.
In my view, this is part of an avoidable decline of our society…when people don’t know how to tell what is true or not and don’t even care. Trump success proves that. Millions and millions don’t know what he says is true and don’t care even though the consequences will bite them in the ass. Its the swirl of lies and half lies that get thrown in the public arena that most folks can’t tell what’s what. Telling what’s what is a key human endeavor.
Those of us who have a set of tools that include the requirement for quality evidence (eg. NOT national enquirer lead stories) have an advantage, but are not immune either. Confirmation bias is rampant. Truth discernment is an on-going struggle to figure out what’s what.
However, when you throw the need for evidence out the window, as someone progressive recently told me …(to paraphrase…”I don’t use evidence”), then we reap the whirlwind. As people of color we should be particularly sensitive to this. White supremacy has lies at its foundation…lies about biology, history so on. I would contend that we have to have a high standard, its not just their lies…but lies in general. People of color should strive to attain to the highest degree possible our best discernment of the truth. We shouldn’t even tell comforting lies to ourselves. We have to strive towards truth, or we and all our fellow citizens and humans are on a road to a lesser dark ages, where superstition, tyranny and oppression rule the day. All of this, truly has at its foundation lies, untruths and mendacity.
pepitothinking 