LIES TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH

Among the many tasks beyond checking the spelling, punctuation and grammar of any article printed in the newspaper, the proofreader is also required to double check the facts of any material, other than ads, to be printed. Out of the many jobs I’ve held in my life, it’s in the top five. So, with a background of double checking the facts in literature and in life, I was less than amused by the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the year 2016.

post-truth: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less infl uential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” At first I thought ‘Ah, so there’s a word for it other than ignorant’. I have a pretty extensive vocabulary (thanks NALIS), so I had ascribed many other words, some very colourful, to this phenomenon where facts and information are irrelevant to the decision making process. I am yet to think of a scenario where it is preferable to arrive at an opinion based on emotions than facts. That is equally relevant of picking a spouse or a political party.

My second thought was ‘ Wait a minute, if it’s not based on facts or the truth then it is based on a lie.’ and I shook my head. Here we go again with another attempt to make the dishonest feel a little better about themselves. I remember being in secondary school and reading an article in a Reader’s Digest about factoids.

Oxford has a definition for that too:

factoid: “An item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.” I took great umbrage with this word since it sounds similar to the word fact and it is something that parades as a fact but is in fact a lie.

It feels almost like our language is evolving to create unnecessary grey areas when things are black and white. Before I am accused of having a rigid personality I don’t think this applies to things like feelings and emotions. Sticking with the black and white theme, for example someone saying, “I feel like I’m being discriminated against” is making an emotional statement and does not require substantiation. A person saying “Eighty percent of white people killed were murdered by blacks” is not sharing their emotions, a factoid or a post-truth, they are telling a lie. I don’t care how much money they have in the bank.

Both these statements are actual quotes and the person making the emotive statement was harangued and supporting facts were demanded, while the other sharing the lie was readily accepted. Hummm… Back in the day when I worked as a proofreader, the internet was around but something like Facebook was still an idea in the heads of the Winklevoss twins.

People in Trinidad and Tobago got their news from the TV, the papers, and the person living in the corner house. The internet since then has become a cesspool of sorts and that does not only apply to internet dating.

Anyone, anywhere in the world can put anything online and there is no way to know if it is true.

In the introductory seminar when I did my master’s degree, the lecturer flat out advised us against use of internet sources for our research. Only websites from official sources like government ministries, respected journals etc, would be accepted. Referring to something like Wikipedia would get you a fail.

The internet, while fun and entertaining, is generally not considered a reliable source of information in academia, so why are so many people getting their news from it? It seems a bit hypocritical to say that when I spend almost twelve hours a day online. Everything I read I pass through my BS filter; I check the statements and I check the sources too. For the record ‘Somebody said’, ‘I heard it somewhere’, or ‘I read it somewhere’ are never statements that preface a reliable set of information. I’m a cynic by nature, I don’t take anybody’s word for anything. There is a YouTube channel I subscribe to and the host ends each episode with the statement “Stay curious.” Curiosity does not kill the cat, these days curiosity will protect you from factoids and post-truth.

Since we have all these nice, new, cuddly-sounding alternative words, it seems we’re a lot less averse to lies and liars. There seems to be an attempt to reintegrate the unapologetically dishonest into polite society. Political correctness has been useful in many ways. In terms of sexuality and gender, using terms like non-binary, trans/pan/homo/bi/a/grey/demi sexual, while confusing, gives insight into what the non-hetero segment of the community is experiencing and just how diverse the population is. Political correctness has also improved race relations; I much prefer being referred to as an Afro-Trinidadian than a creole or negro or other less flattering terms, and I’m sure this extends to other ethnic groups as well.

However political correctness is not necessary when dealing with the truth-impaired. Soft words legitimise the misinformation spread by hate groups, special interest groups, anti climate change groups etc. when we simply need to call it what it is. Lies.

Oxford has a definition for that too.

lie: “An intentionally false statement. Used with reference to a situation involving deception or founded on a mistaken impression” This softening and desensitisation of people to the difference between truth and lies, makes us all vulnerable to manipulation by the less than civicminded in positions of authority and in the worst-case scenario, demagogues.

demagogue: “A political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.” Post truth and factoids are the tools of the demagogue to gather power and influence. While I advocate for improved vocabularies across generations, these are two words we don’t need, let’s hold on to two that even the illiterate among us are familiar with, lie and liar. Here are two more we must never forget or compromise:

truth: “The quality or state of being true.

That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.”

fact: “A thing that is known or proved to be true. A thing that is indisputably the case.” So, Oxford Dictionaries thank you for the definitions used in this article but to be frank I don’t have room for post truth in my vocabulary or my life and that’s the truth.