The Tyranny of ‘Your Truth’
We used to search for truth. Now many simply manufacture it. Phrases like ‘your truth’ or ‘lived experience’ sound empowering – until someone has the gall to proclaim the objective truth. Then, he or she is met with violence and hostility. Now, on elite campuses and in online spaces speaking the objective truth is one of the most socially dangerous actions one can take – for no other reason than it may hurt someone else’s feelings.
The Cult of ‘Your Truth’
In the past, many sought to foster an environment governed by objective morality, or the thought that some actions are intrinsically pious while others are inherently deleterious, citing sources like the Bible, theological authorities, and philosophical writings dating back to long before the common era. Morality was not a matter of preference or emotion – it was salient and tangible. It was a reflection of something that transcends life itself – something real and binding.
While one does not need to be a religious person to live a morally good life, it is not a coincidence that religiosity declined globally, the advent of objective morality went with it. A 2022 Pew study found that less than a quarter of Americans under 30 believe in absolute standards for what constitutes right and wrong – plummeting from nearly one half only two decades prior.
Unfortunately, in the absence of a strong moral framework – like judeo-christian values – society has not become more open minded; rather, the world has resorted to tribalism. Morality is now determined by group sentiment, media consensus, and whatever variety of propaganda made it across your Instagram for-you-page first. In elite spaces, like Ivy league institutions, this is manifest in empty virtue signaling: slogans lacking substance, causes lacking coherence, and support for those who seek your annihilation.
Make no mistake, though: the far right is just as guilty of abandoning objective truth – oftentimes in the exact opposite direction. While the postmodern left has deconstructed reality in the name of feeling, the radical right distorts and, at times, completely fabricates the truth in service of fear. From conspiracy theories and blatant bigotry to outright Holocaust denial, this faction in no way defends traditional values. It weaponizes them to incite fear and establish control.
In an absurd case of disruptive selection, both extremes seemingly work to validate Jean-Pierre Faye’s Horseshoe theory. They have replaced truth and objectivity with cabals of hate. In short, we are not observing a duel between good and evil. Rather, we observe a battle between two sides which have forgotten what even constitutes good and evil.
A Case Study: Israel and the Death of Moral Consistency
The collapse of objective morality is no more evident – and thus chilling – in the reactions of the masses to the atrocities of October 7th and what followed.
The very same people who once demanded “trauma-informed language” and called “down to the patriarchy” blatantly ignored the animalistic rape, torture, and slaughter of Israeli citizens – Jewish and Arab. From touting “believe all women” pins only two weeks prior, campus activists positioned Hamas’ atrocities as an act of “decolonization” that was a long time coming – or even worse, they outright denied them. The same “learned” professors who lecture on systems of oppression, came out, essentially, in support of the murder of innocent civilians.
Rather than condemning the actions of a brutal, radical system, backed by the most evil nation on Earth, many self proclaimed “activists” praised such institutions. Unironically, though, the very same institutions that these people gave nearly unequivocal approval to as “freedom fighters” or “social justice warriors”, would have no problem imprisoning, torturing, or even executing them for their sexual orientation, religious beliefs (or lack thereof), or simply showing hair in public.
Somehow the murder of babies became “complicated”. Somehow the rape of women became “contextualized”. And somehow the true evils that plague society, like the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Regime, became objects of intense praise in the name of “anti-colonialism”. Whether you believe in the legitimacy of Israel as a state or not, it should never be hard to condemn rape, murder, bodily desecration, and terrorism. There should be no “but”. There should be no debate.
Again, the far right does not come out unscathed in an examination of post October 7th American society.
Disguised as a re-ignition of the “America First” movement, the far right used the American involvement in supplying munitions and financial support to Israel as an opportunity to spread anti-semitic rhetoric. As seen across social media, many used the conflict in the Middle East to spew bigotry, like anti-semitic conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and Nazi ideology. Suddenly, Jews across the world became responsible for volatile markets and immigration issues.
Funny enough, “clever” internet trolls couldn’t even be consistent, commenting “271k” to delegitimize the Holocaust’s toll or commenting “6 million wasn’t enough” to vow support for annihilation of Jews.
The same side the claims to uphold traditional judeo-christian values cannot even uphold the central message of Genesis: “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them,” (Genesis 1:27).
Final Thoughts
The crisis we face is not merely political – it is moral, spiritual, and civilizational. Interestingly enough, our Founding Fathers were able to predict the drab reality we face. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, the first president preached that “the spirit of party … is itself a frightful despotism”, and in the federalist papers James Madison warned that “a zeal for different opinions… has divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to cooperate for their common good”. This is exactly what we see today – a society where we are pitted against each other and spoon fed fallacies in a positive feedback loop.
The Prophets saw this long before the birth of freedom in North America, however. As Amos wrote, “they hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.” If speaking the truth makes you hated, speak it anyway. Because without truth, there is no justice. No true liberty. No peace. Only power – and those most eager to wield it rarely ever deserve it.