Early Ramifications for It All Being On the Table
Back in January (which seems a long time ago even now), I wrote about the issue of truth and telling the truth with some trepidation as it seemed with the new presidential administration that everything was on the table - true or false.
It hasn't really changed. What has changed is the fact that now political leaders from all over the world seem to have been given (or taken upon themselves) permission to decry anything that paints them in an unflattering manner as 'fake.'
Charges of abuse and of humanitarian crises can be sloughed off as "fake" or "contrived" to make the political leader look bad. It hasn't happened yet, but it seems to me that we have set ourselves up for the whitewashing (here used with the meaning "a deliberate concealment of someone's mistakes or faults in order to clear their name") of the truth for the sake of political expediency and ego. It also seems to be the phrase we can now utter to decry any opinion that we do not share.
It reminds me of an episode of the television show Cougar Town where Courtney Cox's character would say "agree to disagree" on subjects where her opinion was clearly wrong - such as stating that the phrase "snap out of it" was actually "slap out of it" because that was how she had thought she had heard it in her childhood. Instead of admitting she was wrong or possibly wrong, she would say, "agree to disagree."
We have moved into a dangerous time in which truth can be discounted, "alternative facts" can be accepted, and the media is criticized for trying to get it right. Everything is and remains on the table and that should make us all very nervous.
Because if everything is up for grabs, and there is no fundamental agreement on accepted truths and/or facts, then eventually that could mean that human rights themselves are up for debate. What if, God forbid, somewhere along the line, some politician claims that a group of people aren't really people but are less than human and can, therefore, be used as slave labor, or simply exterminated? If enough people accept that someone doesn't matter, then it becomes a reality - albeit one that might be limited to a particular group, but that can do plenty of damage as the Nazis proved and as did Stalin.
When nothing is held firm, then no one can escape the potential targeting of hatred, animosity, or lies that come with that kind of mentality. What may have begun as a political tool (and a bad one at that) has already been bought wholeheartedly by people who do not want truth to be found out. It is a dangerous situation and one that can only end when the masses decide that they will not allow "alternative facts" to replace actual facts.
It hasn't really changed. What has changed is the fact that now political leaders from all over the world seem to have been given (or taken upon themselves) permission to decry anything that paints them in an unflattering manner as 'fake.'
Charges of abuse and of humanitarian crises can be sloughed off as "fake" or "contrived" to make the political leader look bad. It hasn't happened yet, but it seems to me that we have set ourselves up for the whitewashing (here used with the meaning "a deliberate concealment of someone's mistakes or faults in order to clear their name") of the truth for the sake of political expediency and ego. It also seems to be the phrase we can now utter to decry any opinion that we do not share.
It reminds me of an episode of the television show Cougar Town where Courtney Cox's character would say "agree to disagree" on subjects where her opinion was clearly wrong - such as stating that the phrase "snap out of it" was actually "slap out of it" because that was how she had thought she had heard it in her childhood. Instead of admitting she was wrong or possibly wrong, she would say, "agree to disagree."
We have moved into a dangerous time in which truth can be discounted, "alternative facts" can be accepted, and the media is criticized for trying to get it right. Everything is and remains on the table and that should make us all very nervous.
Because if everything is up for grabs, and there is no fundamental agreement on accepted truths and/or facts, then eventually that could mean that human rights themselves are up for debate. What if, God forbid, somewhere along the line, some politician claims that a group of people aren't really people but are less than human and can, therefore, be used as slave labor, or simply exterminated? If enough people accept that someone doesn't matter, then it becomes a reality - albeit one that might be limited to a particular group, but that can do plenty of damage as the Nazis proved and as did Stalin.
When nothing is held firm, then no one can escape the potential targeting of hatred, animosity, or lies that come with that kind of mentality. What may have begun as a political tool (and a bad one at that) has already been bought wholeheartedly by people who do not want truth to be found out. It is a dangerous situation and one that can only end when the masses decide that they will not allow "alternative facts" to replace actual facts.
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