“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” — The Dungeonmaster (1984)
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” — Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
If Moore’s slinging bullshit, it’s at least a sort of well-meaning, earthy stuff, the sort of bullshit that’s quintessentially American in the best possible way. High-minded and concerned with our better angels, it’s a bullshit redolent of fertilizer in the field rather than the rankness that lingers in gas station bathrooms.
Which is a great segue into the Republican presidential field, particularly the party’s current King of Bullshit: Donald Trump.
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” — Bertrand Russell, “The Triumph of Stupidity”
“We Report, You Decide” — Fox News Channel
“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” — overheard in a Washington DC bar, quoted in The Big Short
Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don’t mean the argument over who came up with the word. I don’t know whether it’s a new thing, but it’s certainly a current thing, in that it doesn’t seem to matter what facts are. It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that’s not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything… What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?
I think you know what the truth is. And yeah, it’s awful.
