The Fact of the Matter

This week President Elect Donald Trump tweeted that he won the popular vote over Hillary Clinton despite the fact he did not win the popular vote.  Trump's assertion was that by deducting millions of illegal votes from the count he was the election day victor.  Trump offered zero facts to support his assertion nor did he ask for an investigation into any suspected irregularities to build credible evidence of voter fraud.  He simply said something baseless was true.

Businesses use data driven decisions daily to adjust to market forces.  They rely on research and facts to make important strategic and tactical decisions.  Otherwise, they find themselves out of business fairly quickly.   Yet, more and more, it seems individual Americans choose to let emotion drive their beliefs on any given topic rather than giving the time and effort to formulate data driven, fact based, decisions.

Social media venues like Facebook and Twitter are, by design, conduits for eliciting emotional responses.  Topics of interest are often shared because they tie directly to happiness, love, hate, anger, or friendship.  If an individual experiences an emotion such as anger or happiness over any given event, social media makes it easy for friends of the individual to, en mass, instantly tap into the emotion on a personal level.  Whatever the topic, the emotional bond between people can influence the ability to objectively interpret the facts.

Social media has also over inflated the weight of opinion in public discourse.  Opinions from friends, strangers, celebrities, and politicians are available on almost any topic across social media.  Opinions, whether they be from nationally influential people or those of influence in a small social circle, are not a substitute for facts but often overshadow them in sheer number.  Few social circles include professional expertise on every topic discussed and fewer yet include trained journalists or fact checkers that deliver accurate and complete content from which informed conclusion can be drawn.  That's not to say social media doesn't deliver news.  Forty four percent of people say they get news from Facebook.  The issue is that Facebook has disseminated a significant share of misinformation.  This misinformation is then delivered as fact in statements of opinion on social media without validation.

Trump's claim of voter fraud both pre and post election have been debunked.   However, in a September 2016 poll, 90 percent of Trump supporters said they didn't trust fact checkers.  When confronted with evidence of fact the valid way to disprove it is with empirical evidence to the contrary not a baseless statement of dismissal.  That is simply not being done and those doing it must be called out.  Ignorance or laziness are not alibis to deliver misinformation and unthruths.  Trump's election victory claim is not supportable by fact.  The statement is no more valid than a six year old claiming the Easter Bunny is real.

Until recently, not using researched facts was commonly accepted as either ignorant or a willful attempt to lie.  Today, there is an epidemic of baseless information fueled and accepted within like minded social circles.  That practice must end.  Facts matter.  The President Elect and all Americans must demand them, research them, use them, or dispute them with empirical evidence.  Anything short of that is unacceptable.



Note: For more on social media and human interaction this article from Salon is a fascinating read with links to additional fact based research.