“If we can agree on anything anymore, it’s that we live in a post-truth era. Facts are no longer correct or incorrect; everything is potentially true unless it’s disagreeable, in which case it’s fake.”
(Alan Burdick, The New Yorker)

Question: When you read the quote above, how much weight do you put on who/where it came from?

Did you ignore it because you didn’t recognize the author?
Did you dismiss it automatically because it comes from a magazine like The New Yorker?

One of the unintended byproducts of the so-called Information Age is the incredible distrust we place on any information. The quote above came from a recent article about the rise of the Flat Earth movement. These are conspiracy theorists who believe the earth is actually flat and we’ve all been duped by science to believe otherwise.

These folks distrust everything except they hear from one another. They actually question our landing on the moon with this: “Well, did you see it with your own two eyes?” (Not that they would believe Neil Armstrong).

So where is your trust level these days? And how do you talk about this with your kids?

Here’s a way forward: Instead of asking whether something is true, ask this: If it were true, how would that change anything about me, or my understanding of the world, or how I live my life?

In a post-truth world, only spend your trust on ideas that matter.

Peace begins with pause,