“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan
I guess that I am not very smart or very well informed. I read magazines, I listen to the radio, I watch TV news but I still fail to understand what’s happening.
For instance, why is it that pundits can always explain “facts” after they occurred, but never before those damn things happened?
And what exactly pray tell is a fact?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a fact as “something known to have happened or to exist.
I like facts. They are like concrete blocks used to construct solid structures. With good quality facts, you can build a great variety of sturdy walls, houses, dams, etc.
The problem though is that lately some people have been using “alternative facts”. In other words cheap knockoffs of real facts.
If you look up “alternative” in the dictionary, you will find synonyms like substitute, replacement, emergency, fallback.
Is this the kind of facts you would feel comfortable with?
For a fact to become genuine, dependable, a few people must have witnessed it. It then becomes irrefutable, isn’t it?
Not quite, because some people play fast and loose with facts nowadays.
Take the Holocaust for instance. Thousands of people have witnessed it or were victims of this gory episode, but today some individuals still continue to deny that this crime against humanity ever happened.
They use “alternative facts” to account for what really happened.
Personally I’m too poor to buy cheap stuff or ersatz facts. I believe in utilizing good quality products because they last longer.
I will buy genuine facts before stooping to shoddily made “alternative facts”.
Counterfeit facts are like fake one hundred dollars bills. They are everywhere, can easily pass for genuine and do a lot of damage to the economy.
Before accepting a “fact” as genuine, you should scrutinize it, hold it to the light.
If your fact remains murky under a bright light, it is likely a counterfeit.
So before cashing in substitute, replacement, emergency, fallback facts, turn off your ideology and try hard to be impartial.
A fact is like a parachute; it is safer to use the genuine article than to trust an alternate product.
Alain