The Way Things Are, the Way Things Were, and What Is True

An article I often refer to, asking some questions about how we decide what is true and who has the right to make assertions.

A Thinking Person, a.k.a. Cogit8R

I think a lot about assertions, things that people assert as true, very often without acknowledging their personal bias. To be fair, most of us are so immersed in our ideologies that we’re not aware of how they are compelling us toward bias.

The title of this post refers to some of the kinds of assertions I hear, by which someone states something as a fact:

• The way things are — some assertion about fact, whether it has to do with science, economics, politics, or some other sphere. One of my favorite manifestations is when someone begins an utterance with the stark word “Fact,” followed by a colon to emphasize the factiness of what follows, then followed by an unquestioned assertion.
• The way things were — some statement about history or the past. For example, such and such Egyptian dynasty ruled in such and such time period, or some assertion…

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