The furor over fake news and “alternate facts” is fast reaching a crescendo in our national consciousness. My colleagues in the media seem to be in shock and awe at the honest confession of the Trump administration of the practice of picking and choosing the bits of data that confirm, justify and even prove their position. But it turns out, this isn’t really all that new. This has been going on since the beginning of humans. It is how the human machine works, specifically how the human brain (the hardware) interacts with the mind and emotions (the software).
The only shocking thing is that Trump, who is not a politician, openly admits to what every administration in the past 20 years has done; Select the only the “facts” that prove their “truth”. The Obama administration chose the alternate fact of an obscure video to prove their truths about Benghazi. The Bush administration chose the alternate fact of yellow cake purchase to prove their truths about Iraq. The Clinton administration chose the alternate fact of the definition of “is”, and on and on. Every human being does this by default, in psychology, it’s called confirmation bias. We non-consciously chose to focus on information that agrees with our opinions, beliefs and justifies our actions, and discard anything that would go against our genius self.
Facts vs. Truth
Facts and Truth are two completely different entities. Facts are something that have actual existence. A fact is merely information, neutral, independent and objective. As a cop, investigating a crime, I was always in search of the facts, which are entered as evidence. If, and when, a case went to court, witnesses would swear an oath to tell the truth. We know, for a fact, that eye witnesses are unreliable at best. Why? Because, by default, humans deal in truths, not in facts. The truth is created by our internal perceptions of the facts and circumstances that make up the experiences of life.
For example, the fact is: it’s 68 degrees outside here in South Carolina. The truth is: that after 3 years of living in Hawaii, 68 degrees was downright cold. However, it is also truth that after spending a winter in Serbia and Kosovo, 40 degrees feels balmy, and 68 degrees is heat stroke territory.
Facts cannot change, they are unalterable. Truth, on the other hand, is pliable. Knowing this, we can take the facts of any circumstance and perceive them from any angle we want, creating for ourselves, a truth or truths. (Heads up, you are already doing this and have been your entire life, usually to your detriment.) Truths are what beliefs are founded on. We act on our truths. Almost everyone knows the medical facts that fast food isn’t good for you, but for most of us, the truth is that “it’s okay.” Based on the fact that the fast food industry makes billions of dollars in sales each and every year, and the fact that 1 out of 10 deaths are related to obesity.
Recognize, Acknowledge, Evaluate
We must collect as many unbiased, objective, and evidence-based facts as possible, to create logical, well-reasoned and clear opinions and decisions. Facts must be recognized, acknowledged and evaluated. The first step of recognizing facts is often easier accomplished by consciously identifying truth when we hear it. Love, momentum, stress, fear, arrogance, confidence, being nice, being a jerk, strength, weakness, self-worth, beauty, ugly, always, never, easy, hard, hot, cold, warm, respectful, disrespectful, smart and dumb are all truths. Truths can each carry different and varied connotations to each of us, based on our biology (genetic makeup), our psychology (how we think our thoughts) and our sociology (our environment, backgrounds, interactions and experiences with the outside world).
The second step is to acknowledge the facts. This takes conscious and deliberate effort and requires objective reality; forsaking our biases and the delusional thinking that accompanies them. Doing this on the front end saves you from embarrassment and often more severe consequences. For example, the facts clearly indicate the President Obama’s 2009 Inauguration crowd was larger than President Trump’s. The facts also indicate an obscure video had nothing to do with the attacks in Benghazi. The facts indicate there was no yellow cake and that sexual relations were had. As humans, we seem to have an extremely difficult time with this step when we have a personal emotional investment.
Finally, evaluate the facts. Humans do this naturally, and this is where we create our “truths”. Unfortunately, the default evaluation of facts tends to be lower truths instead of higher truths. This is the basis of worry, anxiety, stress, and our aversion to any change. We automatically tend to imagine negative possible outcomes, creating lower truths immediately upon hearing any new information (which is often jam-packed with the lower truths of the source of information). Instead, let us deliberately imagine the possible positive outcomes, creating higher truths upon hearing any new information (even though it is often jam-packed with the lower truths of the source of information).
You can create new and higher truths by changing your attitude, perception and level of awareness that will put you on a path to confidence, fulfillment and happiness. So, R-E-L-A-X and take control of your own thought processes when evaluating fake news, alternate facts and the furor.