THE PROBLEM WITH FACTS

Somebody help me out. What is the problem with facts? The beauty of a fact, as defined by Oxford, is that it's "a thing known for certain to have occurred or to be true; a datum of experience." The problem with a fact is that it's also defined as "a thing assumed or alleged as a basis for inference."

On the beauty side, when I say, "It's hot," and the temperature is 110 degrees Farenheit, by all global averages, it is, in fact, hot. On the problem side, when I say, "It's hot," to a man accustomed to Saharan heat, but we are in San Francisco, and the temperature is just shy of 80, it is not, in fact, hot, not even by global averages. I am in both instances telling the truth, but in the latter, my truth is not informed by a fact. Hence the problem.

Oxford's first definition simply distinguishes between what is (a heatwave) from what may be (personal interpretations of hotness). Many of us, particularly if we have no life in politics or big business, recognize this definition as thorough and unambiguous. Oxford's second definition is the sieve through which nearly every¹ policy-related issue in Washington pours. The mere presence of words like "assumed" and "alleged" and "basis for reference," in essence, drains a fact of any force it, by definition one, would otherwise wield.

In other words, haggle over the language Presidents and Congressmen use all you want, they won't change their ways. All you need to navigate through government is to remember the difference between a fact and a fact.

¹"Nearly every" isn't very factual, unless you subscribe to definition #2.