True Facts vs Truthiness

I woke up this morning, slowly as usual.  Morning is not my favorite time of day, and as the old cliché goes, I would like it more if it started later.  But up I arose, found my coffee, and pulled up our Tivo’d Morning Joe.

And there, in front of God and everybody, was a Republican stating that Joe Biden was fear-mongering because he made the statement that if police departments are cut, crime would go up.  Excuse me?  That is no more fear-mongering than my saying that if one lives in California, one will experience earthquakes.  It is a statement of fact.  You don’t want crime?  Don’t cut law enforcement.  You don’t want to live through a major earthquake?  Don’t live in California. 

You don’t believe me?  Take a look at Camden, New Jersey, or Oakland, California, or any other city or county that has had to make drastic cuts to law enforcement.  Do the research.  Significantly cutting law enforcement causes crime to go up. 

It is this constant drumbeat against reason that really gets my blood boiling.  How are we as a country to continue as a democracy if stupid statements such as this are made without any evidence to back them up?  Which brings me to what at first I thought of as a side issue, but perhaps not.  And that is using the term “true facts”.  So, there is such a thing as “false facts”?  What this does is weaken the word fact, or truth.

Steven Colbert has a word for “false facts”.  Truthiness.  That is what that Republican representative from somewhere – Barbarossa – was using.  The truthiness that cutting law enforcement would not cause a rise in the crime rate.  It sounds good, but is absolutely not a “true fact”.