The post fact generation

So for people my age, two plus two will always equal four. It doesn't matter if a majority of the people in the class thought the answer was five, someone was offended by even numbers and demanded it be three, or if someone wrote a ten thousand word page essay explaining why the equation is just part of the larger burden that white society puts on people to force them into a box and that the answer four is a symbol of tyranny. For us, two plus two equalling four is a fact that simply will not change.

But we are starting to deal with the consequences of a new generation of Americans growing up who are being taught that pretty much any and all facts are subjective. There is a certainly rigidness about facts that simply rub these people wrong. Or perhaps, more to the point, there is a certain rigidness about facts that allows for the accusation that someone is wrong, when in fact they strongly believe it all should just be a matter of upbringing, opinion, or attitude. 

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the argument the other day that "moderate" policies (aka realistic policies) should be discounted with little more than a "meh". Ocasio-Cortez argued that we need "ambitious acts of vision" (whatever that means) rather than the cynical policies of management. One can only assume that the $93 trillion dollar Green New Deal would be one of those "ambitious acts of vision" that Ocasio-Cortez is looking for. 

But herein exposes the problem. Generally one might believe that with just a little bit of cursory research that the Green New Deal would be exposed as being impossible to pay for. In fact, it should be so obvious, that nobody would disagree. But in today's society all of this becomes more a matter of gamesmanship, salesmanship, and whether or not you can convince enough people that the obvious really isn't obvious. Ocasio-Cortez can convince the gullible that she is right by citing the crazy idea that our military loses trillions of dollars a year, or that we could somehow tax wealth to pay for this. 

To some degree, these facts actually become "partisan".

Think about this for a second. Shouldn't the "fact" that $93 trillion cannot be paid for with military accounting errors or by taxing "wealth" be the overriding factor? Shouldn't we focus on what actually is factual and what is actually is real rather than focus on what we can "convince" people is factual or real? Shouldn't the adults on both sides be able to come to terms with obvious realities? 

Because the real problem is that convincing enough people that two plus two is equal to five doesn't actually make it five. If you start using that premise in your statistical and mathematical formulas and attempt to formulate real engineering solutions with factually incorrect additions, you will fail. You will fail 100% of the time and those failures could have serious consequences.  Likewise, convincing people that we can pay for a $93 trillion program doesn't change the fact that it cannot and will not work in our tangible actual society. If you tried to enact this outrageous idea, society would fail. 

The idea of "ambitious acts of vision" makes for great campaign strategies. Make promises. Convince people that the impossible is possible. Demand that others are simply lazy and cynical for not agreeing with you. Garner your political office.

But then what?

The hard part about this is really understanding whether someone like Ocasio-Cortez is dumb and naive enough to believe in what she is saying, or if she is smart enough to be simply taking advantage of a post fact generation that thrives on such stupidity and naivety. I lean towards the former, but I wouldn't discount the possibility of the latter.