This was a pretty heartbreaking read, and then listen - the podcast is well, well worth the time relative to the short summary that is the article. Perhaps most heartbreaking to me was listening to the people he interviewed at Pride, all to a person not just disinterested in the factual reality, but resentful of the very idea that the fa…
This was a pretty heartbreaking read, and then listen - the podcast is well, well worth the time relative to the short summary that is the article. Perhaps most heartbreaking to me was listening to the people he interviewed at Pride, all to a person not just disinterested in the factual reality, but resentful of the very idea that the factual reality should be of any import whatsoever. I thought Ben’s defense of truth on its own merits was compelling in its specificity - I would not have come up with a defense nearly as compelling on the spot in an interview. But upon some reflection, I want, if perhaps into the void, to add a small defense of my own.
Trust is perhaps the hardest won, and most delicate thing in this world. A great deal more is untrue than is true. Almost nothing is entirely true. Probabilistic universe and all that. Trust should be hard earned in this context. It demands an immense leap of faith. Lies, on the other hand, are cheap and plentiful. It is much easier to build a cause on lies for this reason. They are simply easier to come by, and can be conjured whenever needed to buttress whatever you need to buttress. But to do so is to resign your cause to ephemerality, and to undermine the work of those who share it and wish to see it endure. Not only does a foundation of lies besmirch any claim you might stake to justice, it will never replicate the impact of convincing someone your cause is just because it derives from what is true. If it’s just one of many competing myths, what incentive is there to stray from the comfort of your pre-existing internal narrative? Your identity is likely built on that narrative. It is a costly thing to reconstruct. So yes, the reality of a cultural touchstone moment like this very much does matter. Because if it is the foundation of what changed someone’s mind and values, imagine the indignation and retrograde you will reap if and when they learn as much. Any grander truth you built on top of it is now in danger of falling into the quicksand along with it.
This was a pretty heartbreaking read, and then listen - the podcast is well, well worth the time relative to the short summary that is the article. Perhaps most heartbreaking to me was listening to the people he interviewed at Pride, all to a person not just disinterested in the factual reality, but resentful of the very idea that the factual reality should be of any import whatsoever. I thought Ben’s defense of truth on its own merits was compelling in its specificity - I would not have come up with a defense nearly as compelling on the spot in an interview. But upon some reflection, I want, if perhaps into the void, to add a small defense of my own.
Trust is perhaps the hardest won, and most delicate thing in this world. A great deal more is untrue than is true. Almost nothing is entirely true. Probabilistic universe and all that. Trust should be hard earned in this context. It demands an immense leap of faith. Lies, on the other hand, are cheap and plentiful. It is much easier to build a cause on lies for this reason. They are simply easier to come by, and can be conjured whenever needed to buttress whatever you need to buttress. But to do so is to resign your cause to ephemerality, and to undermine the work of those who share it and wish to see it endure. Not only does a foundation of lies besmirch any claim you might stake to justice, it will never replicate the impact of convincing someone your cause is just because it derives from what is true. If it’s just one of many competing myths, what incentive is there to stray from the comfort of your pre-existing internal narrative? Your identity is likely built on that narrative. It is a costly thing to reconstruct. So yes, the reality of a cultural touchstone moment like this very much does matter. Because if it is the foundation of what changed someone’s mind and values, imagine the indignation and retrograde you will reap if and when they learn as much. Any grander truth you built on top of it is now in danger of falling into the quicksand along with it.