Two Realities

The most disturbing conflicts to me today are the conflicts that occur when two realities collide.  In the US we have two realities.  I will call one of those realities “Reality” and the other reality “Pseudo-Reality.”  I assume we understand that there really is only one reality, so one of these realities must be false.  Clearly I will argue for Reality not Pseudo-Reality.

Let’s talk about Reality first.  More than anything else Reality is based on facts, on observation, on truth, on science and on math.  The list of Reality realities includes the earth is not flat, evolution is real, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, homo sapiens have been on the planet for over 200,000 years, 75% of the earth’s surface is water, global warming is happening to a large extent to human behavior, Santa Claus is a mythical figure, etc. etc.  Reality is neither liberal nor conservative.  It is the way things are.  It is real, verifiable, provable, observable, and mostly the result of scientific investigation.

Pseudo-Reality rejects much of Reality.  More than anything else Pseudo-Reality is based on beliefs, opinions and attitudes.  The list of Pseudo-Reality beliefs includes the earth is flat, the earth is 10,000 years old, secret conspiracies are afoot, there are witches, warlocks, ghosts, demons, zombies and devils, Obama was a bad President, a Muslim and born in Niger, Hillary is a crook, global warming is a myth, evolution is just a theory, God actively interacts to select winners in American politics, Christians are right and every other belief system is wrong, if Fox News reports it, it must be true, etc., etc.  Pseudo-Reality is not based on fact, it is based on beliefs, attitudes, values and opinions.  Each of the beliefs of Pseudo Reality followers can be disproved by reality, but that does not matter to the ardent Pseudo-Reality follower. 

Confronted with Reality, Pseudo-Reality followers get angry, call the Reality followers derogatory names, and/or unfriend them on Facebook.  (I have wondered why after gaining control of the Executive and Legislative Branches of our government that the Pseudo-Realists remain so angry.  They won!  And yet to hear their vitriol one would think they are a persecuted minority.  Me thinks they protest too loudly.)  To be called a snowflake or a libtard is not life threatening and likely even amusing when one realizes that faced with fact, Pseudo-Realists must resort to name calling as there is nothing else to say. Worse, some Pseudo-Realists will argue that there are two realities, there are alternative facts.  Some have said do not believe what you see and hear for it is not real.  Others have said there are multiple truths.  If one does not find this extremely scary I yield to their courage or ignorance.

A classic example of this is when Trump, King of the Pseudo-Reality crowd, announced that his inauguration crowd was the largest in American history.  That was not real.  In fact, photos of the event showed his crowd to be significantly smaller than Obama 1, Obama 2, Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc.  One could in fact make the reality based argument that he had the smallest crowd.  But, his followers did not believe those facts, despite the reality of the photos.  Interesting that much later the White House photographer admitted that Trump had ordered him to photo shop the inaugural crowd pictures to make it appear that more people were there than actually were present.

Another example of this is when Trump announced he won the Presidency with a landslide election.  Again, this was far from the truth.  Not only did he not win by a landslide, Trump actually lost the popular vote and became the winner via the Electoral College.  3 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump.  Upon hearing these numbers Trump made a remarkable statement:  If he lost the popular vote it must have been due to voter fraud and he ordered every state to conduct an investigation.  So committed was Trump to making his Pseudo-Reality actual reality, he found a non-real reason for the reality.  After months of state level investigation 200 fraudulent votes were found.  Trump’s theory was false.  Trump’s picture of the reality of his election was false.  It was all Pseudo-Reality, not reality.  Sadly, many Trump supporters are desperate to show that the Psued0-Reality is real and even after learning the real numbers believe there must have been some kind of conspiracy to thwart their beloved leader from creating a reality that better fit his ego.  Not gonna happen in reality, however.

The Pseudo-Reality crowd is further helped by media outlets that feed Pseudo –Reality miss-information to the masses as though it was reality.  That does not work on those of us grounded in reality.  The current debate over Trump’s nomination should, in reality, not be a debate at all.  Kavanaugh has lied multiple times in the hearing, that is perjury and he should be withdrawn and prosecuted.  Kavanaugh is accused of sexual molestation.  That should be grounds for withdrawal.  Kavanaugh’s college buddies back the stories of Kavanaugh being a rowdy and aggressive drunk.  That should be grounds for withdrawal.  But the Pseudo-Reality crowd is convinced these facts are not real.  They believe these facts are a Democratic Party sabotage effort.  Would the Democrats love to see Kavanaugh withdraw?  You bet.  Is it a conspiracy?  Highly unlikely.  There is no such evidence, just wishful thinking and opinion of the Pseudo-Realists.

I do not know how to close the reality gap.  I do know that presenting facts in a logical, dispassionate way and urging the Pseudo-Realists to fact check what they hear has earned me the label libtard and I have been told to pull my head out of my butt.  Interesting.  I have yet to be confronted with another set of facts that reside in dispute to the facts I present.  I am confronted with beliefs.  I just get called names.  I have been unfriended.  It does not matter.  When Reality clashes with Pseudo-Reality it will be Reality that prevails.  Facts, truth, confirmation are not liberal conspiracies though the Pseudo-Realists want so much to believe they are.  Why, I do not know.  I do know that the 10 states in the US with the highest level of educational attainment all voted strongly for Hillary, and the 10 states with the lowest level of educational attainment all voted strongly for Trump.  Therein may lie another less pleasant truth.