Why Fact-Checks are Completely Worthless

Many people are stuck on grade school levels of telling truth from lies. Which means they accept whatever is told to them by an authority they trust (like).

They haven’t knowingly caught on to the trick that most events can be seen as both true or false depending on how you look at them.

For example, say Politician A issues a blatant misstatement of fact.

• If the scapegoat outlet reports the statement, it gets flagged, because it is spreading a falsehood.

• If the mainstream outlet reports the statement, it slides, because it is just covering the falsehood. 

It’s a very simple trick that most people can do without even realizing they’re doing it. It’s just motivated reasoning. If you think so-and-so is a liar, you will interpret anything so-and-so says such that it is a lie.

This gets even easier when people use idioms, hyperbole, sarcasm, and other rhetorical flourishes, as most people are wont to do. In fact, people rarely speak literally about anything. At root, all language is metaphor, so it could be said we NEVER speak literally.

For every word, phrase, or sentence, there are two or more ways of interpreting it. Approaching someone with bad faith guarantees you will find the interpretation that defies reality and, almost certainly, wasn’t meant.

Which brings me to my ultimate point, that willful misinterpretation is, itself, a lie. 

And that’s why fact-checks are completely worthless.