Truth is what I say it is

I am pretty sure that when Pontius Pilate responded to Jesus’s assertions about “truth” by asking “What is truth?” he was not at all interested in anyone’s answer to that question other than his own.

Pilate the politician was only invested in “truth” as he saw it, framed it, pictured it, promoted it. Truth was his “truth.” It was the world as he saw it, life as he lived it, reality as he wanted to try to shape it.

What is truth? Truth is me, because truth is what I say it is.

The what is truth? question has never been more important, nor more in contention, than it is today. Truth-discovery has never been easy, but the rise of the internet has made the process many times more difficult than ever before. Everyone’s opinion seems to have equal weight with everyone else’s opinion because that opinion, no matter how bizarre, can be shared instantly with everyone else. It’s all out there to see and to read and to share again, and the more it’s shared the more like truth that opinion seems to be. We have all participated in this practice. And numbed by the constant flow of information through commercially-driven sources of “news,” the less likely it is that the receivers of information will feel they have the ability or the responsibility to discern truth from falsehood.

I write the above in reaction to President Trump’s re-tweeting of a tweet by a known conspiracy-enabler claiming that Hillary Clinton had something to do with Jeffery Epstein’s death. Apparently there is not a shred of evidence for this charge. But that didn’t stop the President of the United States from sending it out “over his signature” to the world, but particularly to his loyal followers who will no doubt take it as true because it comes from him (truth is me, because truth is what I say it is) and send it on to others.

Donald Trump rocketed to political prominence by trying to convince the world that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. (Not true, as he later half-heartedly admitted.) As a candidate for President he cast doubt on the integrity of our elections before he was elected (ironic, yes?). Almost daily he gnaws away at the credibility of our news sources when he doesn’t like what they say about him (even Fox has not escaped his ire), at the credibility of science when its conclusions are not convenient for him, at the credibility of our courts when they don’t side with him, at the credibility of our constitutional checks and balances when they stand in his way, at the credibility of our allies when they want to do things differently than he wants to, even at the credibility of his own advisors when they have ideas other than his own. No truth but his “truth” matters because he himself is all that matters.

What is truth? Truth is me, because truth is what I say it is.

Conspiracies? You like conspiraracies? Here's one for you: A small group of highly-placed people is working together to undermine our republic by challenging the credibility of our most basic institutions. They know, as sure as they know the sun will rise tomorrow, that if they are successful the day will come when in the public’s mind there will only be one source of truth: the Tweets of Trump.

Frightening.