When a new president takes office, that administration always brings change with them. The changing of a new cabinet also brings a new rhetoric to governing the nation. Whether that rhetoric be “making America great again” or not, this change is always something to keep an eye out for.
Recently, the new president has done something quite unexpected. That is, the new president has so graciously introduced a brand new word into our vocabulary. Wow! Not only is the leader of the free world going to make our nation great again, he is also going to make our language great again by introducing the brand new term “ALTERNATIVE FACTS!” We haven’t seen a political party introducing new words into their policies since the N.S.D.A.P. brought new language to Germany in the 1930s! How neat!
However, what exactly are alternative facts? Well, in order to define it, we must break the word down to the basic roots. Let’s start with the word ‘fact’, Merriam-Webster defines it as a “a piece of information presented as having objective reality.” Okay, let us now divert our attention to the word ‘alternative’, which is defined by the same source as “different from the usual or conventional: such as, existing or functioning outside the established cultural, social, or economic system.”
Using this information we can come to the conclusion that alternative facts mean a piece of information that is different from the objective reality, or a fancy word for saying: “I’m really good at covering up a lie by coming up with an entirely new word.” What the new administration is doing is coming up with a cheap cop-out to not admitting that they lied to the public. If I were to put this into a student perspective, it would be like citing Wikipedia on your paper. Yeah, this is a very bad idea.
So now the question that needs to be raised is, how exactly does one know which information is an alternative fact and which is an actual fact? Well, I’m here to prepare you to survive the next four years.
If there is anything I’ve learned throughout my discipline in college is that you should always cross reference and check different sources. You have to get the full side of the story by seeing beyond the biases of different news networks. Unfortunately, this administration has left us with no choice and we’re going to have to do some research to get down to the basic facts. Fear not, for we are living in the age where access to information is at the palm of our hands.
My good friends, you are going to have to pick up that phone and Google search different news outlets in order to uncover the truth. It’s a tough world, trying to be woke, but I believe that we shall persevere. Fight disinformation and fight alternative facts. Stay woke.