One of the most pernicious influences on politics over the past almost two decades has been the rise of so-called “fact checkers.” These are websites that purport to correct errors and falsehoods in public discourse. Instead, fact-checking has become a left-wing industry that does not police facts but, instead, presents its opinions as facts. Nothing illustrates this trend more perfectly than Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” for 2024.
This year was distinguished by many significant lies but there were two that really stood out. The first was the claim from every single person in the Democrat establishment (politicians, media outlets, “influencers,” and Hollywood types) that Joe Biden was a man of sharp mental acuity and high energy, perfectly suited to taking on a second term. That lie was blatantly exposed to the world during the presidential debate that saw Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris shiv Biden, driving him from the campaign.
And it was a lie. Democrats couldn’t say that they were as surprised as everyone else to see the extent of Biden’s mental decay. Instead, immediately after the debate, the confessions started coming out: Yes, he’s been a walking vegetable for a long time now, and everyone knew it.
The second big lie was Biden’s claim, which his Press Secretary repeatedly echoed, that he would not pardon his son under any circumstances:
Naturally, Biden pardoned Hunter—and not only did he pardon Hunter for the crimes for which he was convicted, but Biden pardoned Hunter for the crimes he hadn’t yet been charged with and the crimes that he could still commit in December. Many people noticed that, when it came to the crimes for which Hunter hadn’t yet been charged, there was a weird overlap between those crimes, starting with the Burisma gig and suspicions about Biden’s own conduct.
Those are some mighty big lies. But that’s not what Politifact went with. Instead, it decided that the big lie was Trump’s contention that Haitian immigrants were eating dogs and cats:
Assuming solely for the sake of argument that this was a lie, it was inconsequential, at best. In many ways—and Americans understood this—it was a metaphor for the mad influx of illegal aliens and people who were improperly/illegally granted refugee status. They are eating away at the heart of America.
But more importantly, it wasn’t a lie. For one thing, Trump believed it when he said it, so he wasn’t lying. If there was dishonesty, it was in other people’s reports. For another thing, although one town mayor disavowed the claim, others stuck to their guns and said, “yes, these immigrants are eating our domestic pets.” So, at best, this was a matter of debate, and Politifact deliberately mischaracterized it as a lie.
John Adams famously said that “facts are stubborn things.” However, we live in a post-modern world in which leftists have redefined what constitutes facts.
On the one hand, they say there are no facts; there are only perceptions, which is how you get to the expression “my truth.” Under that leftist rubric, Trump didn’t lie at all because he simply expressed his truth. However, on the other hand, leftists insist that facts exist, but those facts no longer rely on data or observable reality; instead, they rely on the “truths” of people who agree with them.
Or, as I’ve long said, conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; leftists have conclusions and sell them as facts—and there’s nothing more leftist than a “fact checker.”
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