The quote "everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts" is frequently cited and primarily attributed to the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Ironically, the phrase predates him by many years, having been used earlier by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger, and even earlier and more precisely by Bernard M. Baruch as part of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. Although the origin story may have been misleading, the sentiment remains powerful. Often, the quote is used to shut down a conversation. The prevailing idea is that "you can't argue with the facts." However, as we have seen over the course of the last decade in particular, the facts do seem to be up for debate.
We live in an age where it's harder than ever to know what is in fact true, if that level of truth is even possible. Journalism has been muddied by pundits pontificating day in and day out, under the guise of "news", and opinions coalesce into facts due to a lack of critical thinking and an inability to change our minds in the face of new information. Tribalism, born out of group think and other forms of unconscious bias, has cemented us firmly into two fictional camps even as most people tend to agree on more than they disagree on. Politics and policy have always been driven by who crafts the best narrative and manages to sell it to the most people, and that has meant emphasizing some facts while passing over others. We selectively highlight that information which proves our point, while overlooking that which doesn't. Unfortunately, we now find ourselves in a position where the manufacture of facts has become an acceptable replacement for real empirical evidence.
All of this leads me to a simple question. When did we stop asking why until we got an acceptable answer? As children, our curious brains, drunk on the exponential growth of synaptic connections, continually question everything. There is an innocent curiosity there because we haven't settled yet on what we believe. Our values haven't been firmly encoded into our sense of self. We genuinely want to know why, and we ask the question as we see it, without sidestepping the issue. As we grow up, we begin to pick up on the social ques around us, we listen to those in our social and family circles, and we recognize what is acceptable to believe and what is off limits. Nobody has to police our speech or behavior because we do it ourselves out of a desire for social cohesion and psychological safety. From there inertia takes over, and it's just easier to stay the course.
Everyone is indeed entitled to their own opinions, but I would add they should be willing and able to justify them through sound reasoning and logic. In addition, we must always be open to changing those opinions in the face of better reasoning. Our ability to grow as human beings rests in part on our aptitude for inputting new information and incorporating it into our knowledge and beliefs, even if it means we think differently about something after internalizing it. Changing one's mind has of late been branded as a sign of weakness, when in reality it demonstrates growth and flexibility. That facts will continue to change as we learn, explore, and grow. We ask better questions, which lead us to ask even more questions. We'd do well to let our opinions grow in the same manner, and not simply insist on changing the facts to fit our opinions.
