Misshapen “truths” perpetuated by polar-opposite “news” sources have done more to shatter our national culture than can be mended in one election cycle, if indeed one generation. They are driven by business models that thrive on one-sidedness, tribalism, and our need for easier answers. All of these impassioned sources use the “us vs. them” fallacy: the choice of one side, “our side,” delegitimizing and dehumanizing the other. Their “truths” are one-sided half-truths, from which they build effective panic-prods, dividing us, and chuckling all the way to the bank.

Rather, we need to adopt a “both, and” filter when discerning truth. Examples: our border crisis is both humanitarian and national security related. Assault weapons are both killers of innocents and unbannable. Justice requires acceptance of both “Black Lives Matter” and funded, well-trained police. We must grapple with both truths: pregnant moms are carrying a human life, and collateral bystanders killed by mistake is also abortion. Education: both parents and teachers have responsibilities; that the work of one party without the other leaves the child vastly unprepared for a complex world. Books must be both age-appropriate and available for kids to read and grapple with ideas we don’t think they’re ready to handle. The truths that make us free are not easy, and require energy. Finding truth is a process, often uncomfortable, but necessary if we are to survive as “one nation, indivisible.”

Scott Lounsbury

Wolfeboro