The French writer Flaubert just gave up and said “there is no truth, there are only ways of seeing”. But that is dangerous. We all see things from our own point of view, but some do it honestly, looking for the facts and trying to be reasonable. Others tell lies and use their power to get us to vote for what is only in their interests and not in ours. It may not be easy to spot the liars, the lazy arguments, the underhand manipulation and the hidden messages. But if we don’t spot them we just become slaves to those who make more effort than we do. And by the time we wake up to the fact it may be too late to object.
The problem is that ‘facts’ or ‘the truth’ are often more complex than most people want to admit. They want their facts in twitter-size bites and it gets twisted as it gets simplified.
As Aristotle said, in his book on Ethics:
It is the mark of the educated person to look for precision is each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject permits.
It is harder in politics as so many people try to use grey areas to confuse and manipulate. But it is also more important because there is no point having a vote if you let someone else use it without your even knowing how it happened. And if you don’t vote at all you have no right to complain when your other rights slowly disappear.