Who decides what's true?

Photo by Michael Carruth

Who gets to decide what is true and what is not? I seem to get that question a lot.

Of course, much of the skeptical tone with which the question is ask is in direct response to the more authoritarian streak we’ve been witnessing in our society as of late—the censorship by both government institutions and tech giants of our speech and what it is that we are able to have access to.

I certainly understand that concern, but I also worry that it’s leading us to a sort of “truth relativism”—which does not make for a particularly stable society.

Certainly many things are subjective and context-dependent, but there are also concrete truths. We can measure the temperature outside. We can cite which war happened in which year. Or even check the price of avocado toast (if you dare). Those things are not relative. Objective reality DOES exist—at least in so far as we don’t believe we’re just living in some simulation.

And so, in essence, “truth” exists too—as much as some in…