I wanted to make this myTake in order address certain issues that have recently come to my attention namely the proliferation of fake news, political hyperpolarization, and minority bashing (stereotypes and prejudice).
These are clearly huge issues that a democratic society must overcome if it is to maintain its core values of freedom and equality for all.
All of us believe in an absolute truth whether it be God, no God, capitalism, socialism, credibility, university master degrees, wealth, the Bible, whatever. What gets people confused is that they actually believe they can somehow make this "absolute truth" real in their lives. This is ridiculous, impossible, self delusional and downright dangerous.
Let's use the best example: Hitler and the Nazis.
These guys really believed that they were right, that they were going to save Germany, that they were going to uplift the German people into prosperity and wealth. They used racism, prejudice, hatred, violence, oppression, and all sorts of evils in order to promote themselves and their version of "absolute truth". And guess where that led them and countless other billions of people?
The Nazis refused to listen to other people. When people disagreed, the Nazis would beat them up, lock them behind bars, or outright murder them. The Nazis only chose to read what they wanted to read; they wanted to read only the material that supported the "absolute truth" that they believed in.
And guess what? The Nazis were just as human as you and me. They had family, they had kids, they had jobs, they had hopes and dreams, they felt sadness and happiness. And all those people who supported and fought for the Nazis? Still human.
So what am I getting at? Well, there is actually a total absolute Truth existent in the universe (which leads us to our own laws of science and laws of society). Call it whatever you want; it's there. But we can never obtain that Truth no matter how hard we try because we are not God, we are not perfect, we are only human.
So where does this lead us then? Well, it basically means that truth is relative. What you hear, what you listen to, what you understand, what you remember, all of that is relative to the one absolute Truth. That's why things change but history always repeats itself. We see very similar events happening again and again and again but in very different settings.
This is an excellent video made in 1947 to warn people against becoming "suckers":
Well, thanks for reading, and check out my other myTakes!
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Facts can lie when they're presented in isolation without proper analysis. An example that immediately pops into mind is party affiliation and voting patterns for the Civil Rights Acts. The plain facts are that the percentage of Republicans who voted for it is higher than the percentage of Democrats who voted for it. However, if you do a statistical analysis that includes the effect of region, you'll see that being a Democrat increased the probability that someone voted for the Act!
really interesting take on this discussion :) well done