a Trump surrogate on CNN recently said: “There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts.” And our President-elect lies and misinforms the public without compunction.

Reality has a way of asserting itself, whether one believes in it or not.

Science still recognizes facts.

The question is how much damage will be done by people in power making up their own facts, before we realize this is a bad idea.

Sadly, the guy shooting his assault rifle in the pizza parlor that he falsely believed housed Hillary’s non-existent child sex-slave operation shows that a lot of damage can be done. Even more sadly, this nut-job conspiracy theory has been spread by General Flynn, about to become our National Security Adviser. So in the next 4 years, the damage could include unwise use of the world’s most lethal military.

People need to figure out that they cannot believe what the President-elect and his National Security Advisor tell them, and journalists have an important role in this process, assuming they can figure it out themselves, which is still an open question.

[photo credit: Skye Bergen]