The Truth and Nothing but the Truthiness

In 2005 Colbert jokingly coined the term "truthiness" to describe things that people "know to be true from the gut", making fun of El Presidente of course. (You can read more about it on the omnicient wikipedia) Ok. That's funny. Silly President, facts are for kids! Tee hee...

And yet... Lately I have had the pleasure of being lectured on "The Truth" by a number of intelligent, rational liberal folk like myself. You know, those people that are watching Colbert and laughing? I believe it was Bill Maher who said he no longer likes touring colleges campuses. Once the bastions of liberal thought and debate, these schools are all lefty-bandwagon-y and and no debate or thought. Everyone's all "I'm a liberal hear me roar, rah rah rah!". Which is cool. And I agree with their causes a lot of the time. And yet.... isn't Academia is supposed to be the home of open dialogue and discussion? Still, we can chock it down to those crazy eager college kids, always rallying wrecklessly one way or the other.

So, why do I keep getting yelled at, by grown-ups, with the likes of:"You don't KNOW the truth. THIS is the truth!"(And trust me, the only person who can pull off lines like that is Jack Nicholson.) Of course this sentence is followed with long rants about people's opinions, angry feelings and things read on some random website (...maybe here? Hmmm? Hmmm. No, probably not.) They are just PEOPLE YELLING AT ME. WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? Why is "The Truth" comprised of your angry opinion and baseless generalizations and nary a reference or example. Since when is the truth fact-free? Sounds like a pretty suspicious truth to me.

It's depressing is what it is. Don't get me wrong, if you're a postmodern novelist I welcome your depictions of your own truths. But if we're talking about history or politics and going for The Truth, that comprehensive, indisputable holy grail, shouldn't we at least try to get all the facts first? And maybe listen to some other opinions?

It is concerning. It is disturbing. It feels like I'm living in 1984 and all my friends and colleagues subscribe religiously to the Ministry of Truth e-mail group.

And yet..... I shut up, listen and nod. Not because I agree, but because Truth Yellers won't shut up until you do. Which thoroughly sucks. And that's the truth.