Mr. or Ms right wing screamer: please have a seat, take a deep breath, turn off your cell [View all]

[Atticus]

phone and try to just listen for a change. I know you have been conditioned to not just automatically disagree with anything said by a person without a MAGA cap, but to interrupt them and shout them down. But, about 80% of Americans understand that, when people do that, it means that they are cowards who know, deep down, that their views are so ridiculous they cannot be defended. Will you concede or proceed?

All right then!

In this first session, we'll start with just the basics---the sort of things most functioning adults thoroughly understood by the time they moved beyond the milk and cookies stage of their early years education.

So,--- what is a "fact"? I won't ask for a show of hands of those who know the answer to that because I am here to educate you, not humiliate you.

A "fact" is a statement based on objective reality. And, ---hang on tight here---facts can be PROVEN! Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have any doubts about that, you can prove it with a readily available thermometer. Those are FACTS!

Facts either are or they aren't. That is, they either exist or they do not. And, this next part may startle you: facts can be DISCOVERED, but facts cannot be created by simply ANNOUNCING them! You can call "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction" and "Trump is a genius" "facts" untiI you're blue in the face and your tongue comes off its roller, but those remain, not just lies, but transparent lies!

Finally, as a bonus with today's lesson, before the Trump years, "alternative facts" were simply referred to by the more familiar term "bullshit".

Okay, I hope that is not too much for you to process without Himself or one of his brown shirts telling you what to think about it. There will be no more of these sessions until I see some evidence that you understand what you heard in this one. If you don't understand what facts are and respect them, my time would be better spent stalking unicorns than trying to make informed responsible citizens of you.

"Thus, endeth the lesson."