Not only is truth no longer self-evident, but truth is now in a line-up next to five alternative facts, deliberately chosen because they so much resemble the truth to the untrained, careless or myopic eye that it’s troublesome to tell them apart. While we now like making trouble when it comes to politics, we don’t particularly like taking any trouble when it comes to sorting the truth from the imposters. Do you trust yourself to know what’s real from what’s fake and to know the truth from the lie? As English essayist Charles Caleb Colton wrote, "Pure truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves." Convenience is the enemy of truth, because the truth is complicated.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 16, 2020 15:33 UTC