By Michael Foster-Sanders/campus editor
This newfound phenomenon where people try to skew the truth into their own version to fit a narrative called alternative facts is stupid and dangerous, especially in this day and age where people take everything at face value.
At the end of the day, alternative facts are still just lies.
A Texas textbook was criticized in 2015 for teaching that Africans who came during the trans-Atlantic slave trade were “workers,” not people who were bought and sold like property.
That’s a perfect example of how something that’s a lie goes unchecked and becomes dangerous.
Lying has been around since the beginning of time, but “alternative facts” is a recent phrase coined by Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview where she defended White House secretary Sean Spicer’s false statements about President Trump’s attendance numbers at his inauguration.
Conway said, “Spicer didn’t lie. He gave alternative facts.” She was then ridiculed in the media and became a laughing stock on social media for lying.
When Colin Kaepernick started to take a knee to combat injustice against minorities, Trump used alternative facts to explain why Kaepernick was taking a knee to spin the narrative in his direction and turn people against Kaepernick.
Trump claimed Kaepernick was disrespecting the flag and American veterans.
Even with a veteran coming out to defend Kaepernick and talking about the issue and suggesting he kneel so there would not be any confusion about his protest, the lie was big enough to be seen as the truth in people’s eyes.
How does a person combat alternative facts? The truth must be presented and backed up by proven facts. It must be stressed to the people telling the lie that they’re wrong.
As former senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everybody is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
