There have been opinion editorials and political talk shows for as long as I can remember, but their popularity, reach, and vitriol has exploded over the last decade thanks to social media, 24 hour “news” channels, and internet accessibility. At the same time, the delineation between that programming and news has become murky. With the political polarization of societies worldwide and the desire of each group to feel validated, the accessibility of opinion echo chambers has only served to further divide people.
In many ways, it reminds me of the movie Denial:
Denial is a 2016 biographical film directed by Mick Jackson and written by David Hare, based on Deborah Lipstadt’s 2005 book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. It dramatizes the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel.
Irving eventually lost the case, but there was a moment when the judge questioned if Irving could be considered a liar if he honestly believed his own claims about the Holocaust. That matters for a libel case, but for the sake of public discourse and societal well being there needs to be more. We need to challenge ourselves and our beliefs, and not simply seek out or settle on sources that reinforce the opinions we want to have.
We can have different opinions, but we should be evaluating the same facts. For example, I have previously said that I am not a fan of LeBron James. I do not like his personality, how he conducts himself, his focus on “I” during interviews, and his propensity to leave teams once they no longer guarantee his shot at playing in the championship. What I cannot deny is the fact the he is one of the historically best players in the game.
Denial provoked thoughts about what we need to accept information as factual when we lack first hand experience or expert level knowledge. None of us can independently validate everything we accept as fact. We don’t have the time, the expertise, or the tools to do so. We have to trust that when enough of those who are knowledgeable in a particular area concur, that’s sufficient to make it a fact. When I did a radon test in our basement in Minnesota and the results came back high, I could have argued that radon didn’t exist, or that the results were part of a larger conspiracy to make folks buy things they didn’t need. After all, I can’t see or smell radon, and I’m relying on tests that I cannot validate myself. Instead, I chose to trust the information we had received from the State, the EPA, the testing agencies, and the mitigation system installer.
In the movie, because of his ethnic biases, Irving would not accept the facts of the Holocaust, and sought other explanations to fit his preferred narrative—that’s the danger. We must never search for facts to support an opinion, but rather allow the facts to inform our opinion.
As Spock would say, “Anything less is illogical.”