America is a nation built on the concept of differing opinions and that is protected by the U.S. Constitution - but we have never been so divided over the truth. Chris Christie got into a shouting match with Trump supporters that booed him during a speech in Florida, berating them that "your anger against the truth is reprehensible."
Merriam-Webster defines the truth as "the property of being in accordance with facts or reality." Today in America, the truth is now defined as "that which you believe is true," and that's where the problem begins.
We seem to have lost the ability to have a logical debate in this country because opinions are supposed to be based on facts. For example - it is a fact that the sun will rise in the East. Whether the sunrise is good or bad is an opinion, but if we can’t agree about where it rises, what’s the point?
The great American divide is enhanced by the acceptance that facts are now often based on what people believe is true rather than what is actually true. It is a fact the O.J. Simpson was found "not guilty" in the criminal trial - but it is an opinion that O.J. killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend.
To justify a U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush Administration promoted the idea that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and those weapons posed a direct threat to the United States and our allies and therefore, war was necessary. At the time, the most trusted man in America was Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell testified before Congress and the United Nations that the presence of the WMDs were an imminent threat to democracy. The WMDs were positioned as the primary reason Americans should support the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The WMDs were never found in the amount that was promoted to the American people. On the air on WWL, I supported the war because of my belief that WMDs did exist and were a threat to democracy.
When the WMD threat was proven to be false, I accepted that I had believed the credible but false assertion that Saddam had a huge supply of WMDs. Admitting that along with many other Americans I was deceived by the Bush Administration, I accepted the truth that WMDs were not found and moved on without feeling as if I had lost part of my soul because I believed something that proved not to be true.
Comparing the lie about WMDs in Iraq to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election - today - many Americans are still unwilling to accept the truth that the election was not stolen, and there is a mountain of strong evidence that relentless attempts to steal the election came from President Trump and not those who opposed him.
This is America and people have the right to believe that something that is not true actually is true - but that doesn't make what they believe true. The most frustrating aspect of talk radio today is that people are absolutely convinced that things that are not true are true and the presentation of facts renders no change in their recognition of the truth.
I fear that many Americans define their very being by their politics and the right-wing radicals who continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump with facts to the contrary - refuse to admit that there is zero evidence the election was stolen because admitting they are wrong would somehow diminish their intellect and self-esteem.
Passionate debate is awesome - but we need to call out those who refuse to accept facts. Being wrong because of misinformation or because a politician changes their mentality is not a legitimate reason to dismiss facts and the truth.
