Michael Tomasky: Senator Al Frankens Resignation Is Deeply Unfair

[ProfessorPlum]

66. we'll never know the facts

so what we are left with are two different people and their respective memories.

"Truth" is very much a subjective function, especially when it comes to interactions between two people. there is an objective reality out there somewhere, but humans process it through many layers of filters, emotions, and faulty sense organs.

Franken is respecting the other person's truth. What is true for them - their memories, their feelings, their filters - may or may not correspond to physical facts. Franken is demonstrating how to apologize to someone whether you agree with their point of view or not. It's a way of respecting their personhood and not calling them a liar, and dealing with their hurt feelings (because the feelings may be real, whether the memory is accurate or not), without calling someone a liar. For the sake of an apology, it doesn't matter what actually happened. If someone you care about tells you you've hurt them, you accept that their feelings are real and deal with those feelings, not necessarily the facts on the ground.

It was a beautiful example of how to heal a relationship, regardless of what the accused actually did, or what they meant to do - but the subtlety of it is lost on just about everybody, it seems.

And, I think in this case which is clearly just Republican ratfuckery, Franken should not have been subtle.