Some time ago, we interviewed James Howard Kunstler on our now-defunct radio show about climate change, Breakin Ice, and he despaired that the morons in the United States were making sensible action – such as self-preservation – impossible.

Perhaps that seems harsh, but I have managed to tap into a vein of idiocy myself. These fools are attempting to explain to me – sometimes in a very condescending manner – that there is no such thing as “truth”; everything is subjective.

Here are some quotes from the morans; warning, the stupid may hurt.

Mark Harrison, Executive Producer of The National, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news program: “…it is not the CBC’s obligation to determine what is “truth”…” [Truth in quotation marks? Like there is no such thing?]

Commenter Mike Vroom: “…you speak of truth as an absolute and that is pure fallacy. There is no such thing as truth for everyone. What you perceive to be true may be (and often is) seen as false to another person depending on their frame of reference.”

Commenter Gary Parker: “…who difines [sic] what the truth is Brian? The goal of responsible media, and it’s [sic] a goal that has been pointed out to you very clearly, is to present all sides of the argument, respect different opinions and then let the public decide what it deem [sic] to be true.”

Commenter Daniel Levine: “truths are not universal, facts are….not only is it not the CBCs obligation to determine what “truth” is, I would go as far as to say it is their obligation NOT to determine what truth is. rather, tell us the facts and the objective opinions of all viewpoints and let me come to my own truth.”

No Such Thing as Truth

No such thing as truth. Do these people actually believe the things that come out of their mouths? How do they get through the day? Presumably not by using anything discovered by science or created by technology. I suppose they would not complain if someone questioned this:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”

That’s just some subjective truth, there. Mr. Levine manages to contradict himself in one short phrase: “truths are not universal, facts are…”

So, facts are universal, i.e., true, but there is no such thing as universal truth. I haven’t been to China, but perhaps gravity works differently there. I’m sure Mr. Levine would fight for my right to assert such, and Mr. Harrison would think it a valid point-of-view for the news.

As disturbing as is the intellectual void these comments reveal, the most troubling to me is that the Executive Producer of a news program, or perhaps I should say “news,” thinks all truth is subjective. How does someone get into this position while believing there is no such thing as truth and it is not the obligation of the news to report it? Perhaps he previously worked in the banking industry.

The fact is, some things are true and some are not. We know things are true because they are based on facts. For example, science has determined that smoking does, in fact, greatly increase one’s risk of cancer, although there are paid shills who still dispute this. Some of those same shills also dispute another scientific finding, that global warming is causing dangerous climate change.

And I suspect this last is what drew out the stupid in these people; they don’t like the facts about climate change, and the only way to get rid of inconvenient reality is to deny that reality exists. Unfortunately for them and for all of us, reality does not go away because you pretend it is not there. No, reality just is, and we either recognise and live within it, or cease to be part of it.