What Happened to Truth?
Can democracy survive a fact free America?
During the last presidential campaign, Trump, the MAGA wing of the Republican party, and supportive media outlets claimed that our economy was in shambles, criminal immigrants were turning cities into hellscapes, stealing American jobs, and flooding our country with deadly drugs. The solutions were simple, build a wall, deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and fund everything with tariffs on China.
During this same period of time the Biden/Harris administration passed legislation to fund infrastructure projects, rebuilt our economy, worked with Mexico and other stakeholders on immigration issues, lowered inflation, and built an economy that was praised as the “Envy of the World” while crime rates and fentanyl deaths were declining.
On election day voters narrowly chose Trump to lead our country. Why did his message resonate with voters? Why were the successes of the Biden/Harris administration discounted or ignored and Trump’s false claims believed? The answer may lie in how people deal with fear and uncertainty.
Belief vs Knowledge
Belief is personal. It doesn’t require validation or proof. It’s a product of emotion, feeling, of “common sense”. What seems right or true. Belief is resistant to change, and impervious to challenges based on observed facts. Belief in a strong leader who can provide simple solutions to complex problems is comforting.
Knowledge is developed over time by observation. It’s a model of how the world works. It can be used to solve problems or improve lives. Knowledge is not absolute. It is fluid and ever changing. It responds to and incorporates new information. Knowledge is true because it works. But knowledge can be complex, counter intuitive, and uncertain.
Humanity’s journey from primitive to modern has been largely due to the steady displacement of belief by knowledge. And over the last 100 years the rate of change has been revolutionary and disruptive. But the improvement in quality of life has been revolutionary.
The commercialization of national news outlets and the emergence of social media has blurred the boundary between knowledge and belief. Traditional debate, based on an exchange and discussion of ideas, has been replaced by the broadcast of talking points designed to win converts and vilify the opposition. There is no need for truth, and alternate facts are manufactured as needed. Belief is unassailable, immune to any challenge.
Communities or organizations based on belief are viable when membership is voluntary, but our democracy can’t survive in this environment. Citizenship is based on geography and citizens are only willing to sacrifice personal autonomy for the greater good if decisions are seen as fair and equitable. In the absence of a shared reality there can be no consensus.
So is there a path back to civil discourse and a discussion of ideas based on observable facts? History tells us that there is no guarantee, but at some point the disconnect between belief and reality can become impossible to ignore. In the past the resolution has been either a change in leadership or violent suppression of dissent.
Questions
So what is our path forward? Is there any hope of a return to decision making based on observable facts, debate and compromise? What are your trusted sources of information and how do you choose them? What do you do if they challenge your beliefs? Comment below with your thoughts.
"To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance."
Ursula K. Le Guin in her interpretation of the Tao Te Ching
Wow Jim! Great description of where we find ourselves in this moment in terms of belief over fact-based knowledge. I have a feeling, a belief, that there is a good chance that folks with unshakable belief in Trump will be shaken with knowledge as the facts reveal themselves over the coming months and up to the 2026 elections through changes in their wallets and quality of life. In the meantime the rest of us need to find ways to enhance delivery of that knowledge past the media that seems to want to excuse or muffle or even enhance the propaganda and lies that have brought us to this point. It may take some time, but as folks begin to feel the difference in the weight of their wallet and their quality of life, I believe their feelings will be susceptible to change. However my beliefs are not knowledge until and if this change comes into play, but if and when it does, the rest of us should be ready to help gently steer. I say steer with reasonable and neighborly influence on an equal basis because an “I told you so” is sure to cause heels to dig in. We need ways to amplify each stupid MAGA move without alienating the crowd that voted for Trump believing his lies that manipulated them. Truth can be used as a gently applied wedge into the cracks that will eventually appear until there is room for a crow bar or a hydraulic jack to widen the cracks into a canyon through which facts can flow like a river. Real change can’t be forced to happen with clubs and spears as the civil war has shown us. The war may have been won by the north, but it didn’t change the beliefs that have been manipulated back to full blown life for enough influence to give Trump this election. The change may be greater in community. Small social gatherings in your neighborhood to help each other as people begin to feel the effects of this administration’s plans joining together with other neighborhoods, then towns, then counties, then states to build bridges we can all walk on together to win back what we are now threatened to lose. Eliminating the division between us of belief versus knowledge that MAGA has managed to create and you have thoughtfully pointed out.
Thank you!