~ AT-BAOTVOU-TJPO-BW ~ And Then – Beyond All Of These Varieties Of Untruth – There’s Just Plain Old – Being Wrong

~ TH-WWBFWTCBWTAWAGS-WTTGFTGS ~ Throughout History – When We’ve Been Faced With The Choice Between What’s True And What’s A Good Story – We Tend To Go For The Good Story

~ IWAJ-THJ-GABOOH ~ It Was A Joke – That Had Just – Got A Bit Out Of Hand

~ ITOTHKHTDW-IPFNGR ~ If There’s One Thing Humans Know How To Do Well – Its Panic For No Good Reason

~ SF-A-AJSGTWCATTNBT ~ Some Facts – Apparently – Are Just So Good That We Can’t Allow Them To Not Be True

~ HILWPWCTHUVOTTTND ~ History Is Littered With People Who Claimed To Have Undertaken Voyages Or Treks That They Never Did

~ TDDTBTFAHSP ~ This Desperate Desire To Believe The Fantasy Also Had Staying Power

~ APBFL ~ A Perfect Bullshit Feedback Loop

~ IYLWYICOAC-IRFM ~ If You Lie When You’re In Charge Of A Country – It Really Fucking Matters

~ A-WOLL-S-R-R-R-LNOPD ~ Also – When Our Leaders Lie – Sometimes – Really – Really – Really – Large Numbers Of People Die

~ ITATWTDOOLTCIIO-IWSWTGTW ~ If There’s A Time When The Dishonesty Of Our Leaders Truly Comes Into Its Own – It’s When Somebody Wants To Go To War

~ FG ~ Full Gatsby

~ OOOMCMAHIHMWOTROE-A-OBT-‘ME’-E-‘MRE-W’-I-TPIM-NNTC ~ One Of Our Most Consistent Mistakes As Humans Is How Much We Overrate The Reliability Of Eyewitnesses – And – Our Belief That – “More Eyewitnesses” – Equals – “More Reliable Eye-Witnesses” – Is – To Put It Mildly – Not Necessarily The Case

~ I-ME-TFOWSP(AOPTIT)WC ~ In – Medieval Europe – The Fear Of Witches Stealing Penises (And Occasionally Putting Them In Trees) Was Common

~ U-IMWCDTAFFPTHH:WPWTM-BCOTWAATFOLII-WQLTBAT-POFAAGOP-WANU-AS-‘TF’-A-IWDDIO-TNBSEWSTBFTUWTB ~ Ultimately – It Might Well Come Down To A Fairly Fundamental Problem That Humans Have: When Presented With The Mind-Bogging Complexity Of The World And All The Frustrations Of Living In It – We Quite Like To Be Able To – Point Our Fingers At A Group Of People – Who Are Not Us – And Say – “Their Fault!” – And – If We Don’t Do It Ourselves – There’ll Normally Be Somebody Else Who Stands To Benefit From Telling Us Who To Blame

~ WDLOMITP-TBWUESOTW ~ We Didn’t Leave Our Monsters In The Past – They’ve Been With Us Every Step Of The Way

~ TATF ~ Toward A Truthier Future

~ WANT-CO-AOU-NMHCWTWATTT-CEFI-TET-A-FOLTL-AYIIPTYPB-A-WYAIASAYM ~ We Also Need To – Check Ourselves – Any Of Us – No Matter How Committed We Think We Are To The Truth – Can Easily Fall Into – The Ego Trap – And – Find Ourselves Liking The Lie – Ask Yourself If It’s Playing To Your Personal Biases – And – Whether You’re Approaching It As Skeptically As You Might

~ EMM-A-WNTGBACTOUWAOTAT ~ Everybody Makes Mistakes – And – We Need To Get Better At Celebrating Those Of Us Who Are Open To Admitting Them

~ TGWATIO-‘FN’-IAT-PBFN-IT-TSBRN ~ The Greatest Worry About The Idea Of – “Fake News” – Isn’t Actually That – People Believe False News – It’s That – They Stop Believing Real News