Facts and beliefs

Shannon Bohrer

(5/2024) When we are young, we are both consciously and unconsciously imprinted with certain beliefs that we carry with us for the rest of our lives. You expect to have those same beliefs, like right and wrong and other values and opinions over the course of your lifetime. It is understood that not everyone has the same beliefs, but your thoughts are that most people have some common beliefs. Having that foundation of core beliefs allows one to make sense of the world around them. It is a fact that science is real and explains much of our world. The earth rotates around the sun, and the tilt of the earth relates to our seasons. In fact, many of the beliefs, like science, are reinforced with general education.

As someone born in the late 1940s, the beliefs with which I grew up and believed in for most of my life have been questioned for several years. I do not see the world any differently but apparently many people do, and that perplexes me. I always believed there were good guys and bad guys, and the good guys outnumber the bad guys. As I grew, I realized that my perspective was often too simplistic. It is normal for people to have different thoughts, and in a free country that is real freedom. However, sometimes the different thoughts appear unreasoned in that, from my perspective, they have no foundation and that puzzles me.

For several years, watching or reading the news seems like watching re-runs of the old television series "Twilight Zone." What is portrayed as real is often imaginary, and what is not real is represented as factual. Of course, toward the end of the show additional information often explains misleading information and truthfulness is revealed. It was like being intentionally misled, allowing you to question what you believe. In some ways, the show offered lessons on judging too quickly and without all the facts. When reading or watching the current news, the problem is that there is no reveal at the end to explain what some people believe.

"You must always be willing to truly consider evidence that contradicts your beliefs and admit the possibility that you could be wrong. Intelligence isn’t knowing everything, it’s the ability to challenge everything you know." - Author unknown

When I was young, we were vaccinated against polio, and it worked. COVID-19 is real and upon us. Yet people questioned not just if it was real but whether our government or a foreign entity created it. Vaccines were produced using accepted science, and people would not take them. Some even vilified some well-known scientists because - they could. Disparaging individuals and organizations for telling the truth was perplexing since it was not logical from my perspective. I knew that anti-vaxxers existed, as they always have, but I had no clue there were so many. Furthermore, why vilify the government, doctors, and scientists?

The term "Alternative facts," when first spoken, made the national news. The reality is that while the term was coined during the Trump administration, alternative facts or motives have existed for some time. It could be that people when confronted with information that does not fit with their reality, can ignore anything that challenges what they know, or believe they know.

On January 6, 2021, an insurrection occurred at the United States Capital Building in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the insurrection was to prevent the Electoral College votes from being counted, which would confirm the election of President Joe Biden. There are videos of numerous acts of violence against the Capital Police, also with recordings of verbal threats against members of Congress. Many, if not most, of the insurrectionists have stated they were there to protect our democracy. Many believed the election was stolen, yet there has never been any evidence, even with over sixty court cases.

Shortly after the insurrection members of Congress spoke out against the event, saying it was an illegal activity and that participants should be held accountable. The problem that developed was that the words and beliefs that were spoken - changed. The changes were subtle at first but gradually depicted something that did not occur. No longer were the insurrectionist criminals who should be arrested; those same individuals were transformed into tourists, then patriots and even hostages.

You would think that everyone could agree that someone who assaults a police officer should be arrested and charged with a crime. It is a fact that many were arrested and charged and have been found or pleaded guilty to the charges. Yet, many of the same politicians who vilified the event as criminal behavior have changed their thoughts. One congressperson traveled from Texas to Florida to meet an insurrectionist who was being released from jail. The congressperson, Louie Gohmert, presented the insurrectionist with a flag that had been flown over the capital. Gohmert stated she (the insurrectionist) "is a patriot and American Hero." Even the "Twilight Zone" would have trouble explaining Gohmert’s actions and words.

In the late 1950s, I watched a television show called "Dragnet." The show starred Jack Web as Sgt. Friday. At that time, it was the only show about police work, but television was still young. I remember Sgt. Friday interviewing witnesses and victims, often repeating the phrase, "Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts." Can anyone imagine Sgt. Friday saying, "Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts," then I will decide what the real facts are.

As someone who has spent over four decades in law enforcement, I know that facts are critical in the criminal justice system. No one ever goes to court and offers alternative facts. In a book, "A Spy Among Friends," during World War II, Kim Philby was an Englishman spying for Russia. The Russians believed Filby was a double agent. Russian agents were sent to England for the purpose of exposing Philby as a double agent. The agents followed Filby, and when they lost him, they attributed it to Filby’s brilliant spy craft. While they found no evidence that he was a double agent, they still believed he was a double agent. Strong beliefs, with no factual evidence, do not make the belief true.

In a recent survey, ten percent of people believe the earth is flat. The last president of the Flat Earth Society said the society had members all AROUND the world. Obviously, there are people that have strongly held beliefs that if true, would refute science and facts. In a perverse way strongly held beliefs can prevent a person from accepting new information that challenges those beliefs. Sometimes what we know or think we know can prevent us from learning.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan