Trump supporter and CNN commentator Scottie Nell Hughes posited Thursday that, as a result of the fractured media and current political environment, there is no such thing as facts anymore.
As a call-in guest to WAMU’s “The Diane Rehm Show” Thursday, Hughes was asked about the work of James Fallows, who has maintained a blog on Trump’s rise to the presidency on The Atlantic’s website.
“I’m sure you’ve heard James Fallows talk about lies that Donald Trump has put out there in tweets, in things he’s said. What do you think about that?” Rehm asked.
Hughes responded that the existence of truth itself was dubious, and that the veracity of Trump’s tweets depended upon whether the person assessing them liked Trump.
“On one hand, I hear half the media saying that these are lies. But on the other half, there are many people that go ‘No it’s true,’” Hughes said. “And so one thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch, is that people who say ‘facts are facts,’— they’re not really facts.”
“Everybody has a way—It’s kind of like looking at ratings, or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true. There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore, as facts,” she added.
She brought up one of Trump’s more recent tweets, which claimed without any evidence that “millions” of illegally-cast votes handed the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. He has not provided any proof of that claim in the days since tweeting it.
“And so Mr. Trump’s tweets, amongst a certain crowd, a large part of the population, are truth,” Hughes said. “When he says that millions of people illegally voted, he has some facts—amongst him and his supporters, and people believe they have facts to back that up. Those that do not like Mr. Trump, they’ll say that those are lies, and there are no facts to back it up.”
Listen below:
In a related note, the 31st anniversary of the film Brazil is in a few days. Orwell is not absurd enough to make sense of these Trumpkins, so go straight to Gilliam.
Welcome to the first days of the last days of the Republic, everybody.
Exactly Snottie [1], which is why I’ve decided that your material existence is merely a tentative working hypothesis.
[1] “Snottie beamed me twice last night; and it was wonderful” (h/t to Mel Brooks")
“We’ll hear from both sides after we return from this break.”
Seems she could have also said we create our own reality. And where have we heard that before?