Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Some Words About THE TRUTH

We are living in a world that is becoming more and more fragmented; at times it feels like a never-ending twilight episode. Whole sections of society become blind to the meaning of facts, especially when those facts conflict with their worldview. People go into rants because they have a particular point of view that they want to push, and when the known facts don’t back this up, they ignore those facts, sometimes making up others to replace them.
I believe a lot of that is caused by relativism – the notion that facts or truth are a personal thing. We have been cowed into a politically correct framework that says when you are wrong; it isn’t nice to tell you. In this new world order, there is no right or wrong – no one has the right to judge anyone else (UNLESS the judge holds the right, politically correct views.) Two prominent examples come to mind:
Man-made Global Warming is a religion masquerading as science. Statistics were twisted, climate models with no true foundation were presented as fact. The name had to be changed to Man-made Climate Change because we haven’t been warming for at least a decade. Proponents have been caught red-handed, throwing out or suppressing data that conflicted with the theory they wanted to push.
As John Adams said in defending the British soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Ignoring facts and evidence is not science; science is based on examining and accounting for ALL the facts, especially the ones that disprove your theory. Despite a profound lack of proof, there are still people pressing to fix a problem that has existed - forever? – and is mostly caused by variations in solar activity.
The killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has become a rallying cry against racial injustice and police brutality (and a convenient excuse for lawless rioting and looting), with no evidence to support either charge. All physical evidence and verifiable eye-witness accounts validate the officer’s account, and a Grand Jury has refused to indict the officer for defending his own life. Yet people with a particular political axe to grind refuse to pay attention to these stubborn facts, and continue to act as though we’re talking about an angel killed by white devils. Regardless of the facts, they insisted on an indictment – and then a conviction – or they would protest/riot. And if there was an indictment? They would still riot anyway. Neither the evidence nor the decision really mattered.
In relation to this story, it would be nice if we could see some honesty in reporting. Using the phrase “unarmed teenager” to describe Michael Brown may be factually correct, but it is a way of using the connotation behind those facts to lie about what happened, and I still see it used today. Here’s a test: close your eyes and visualize an unarmed teenager, then open them and watch the video of Mr. Brown stealing cigars. Does that description really match the person?
A thug regardless of his color is still a thug. If he performs a strong-arm robbery, refuses to respond properly to authorities, then assaults a police officer, and when pursued charges that officer to assault him again, tell me why he shouldn’t be shot?
There also seems to be confusion over the use of the words PROTESTOR and RIOTER, as though they are one in the same. That needs to be cleaned up, too. People exercising their freedom of speech by expressing their opinion in the public square are PROTESTORS, and have a CIVIL RIGHT to do this whether I agree with them or not. People breaking into and burning buildings they don’t own, or stealing the property of others, are violating our laws and the CIVIL RIGHTS of others, and should be behind bars, no matter what color they are.
You can have your own opinions, because there are plenty to go around. Why are there second opinions? Because opinions can be wrong, and they can also change. You can’t have your own facts. The truth is fixed – not malleable. Facts don’t lie; they can be manipulated, misinterpreted, or misrepresented, but they don’t change just because you want them to.
Can’t we all just deal with reality? REALLY.
Just saying…
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William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Dead End Jobs”) can be found in many places, such as:

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