No, the title is not a quote from someone. It is my semi-sarcastic way of saying most of us have our favorite quote of the moment, of the month, of our lives, or that we can remember. The other side of that coin is a quote about what? So, I’ll share a little story about my favorite quotation of the moment.

The quote is made by Jack Nicholson’s character in a Few Good Men. The quote was made while the character was being cross-examined in a military-court. Tom Cruise’s character said he wanted the truth, and Nicholson’s response was loud, angry and condesceding, “You can’t handle the truth!”

There have always been those who thought they were the only ones who could handle the truth. The rest of us were too timid, too dumb, or too untrustworthy. Today the situation has been complicated by the advent of social media, and increased use and misuse of that medium of digital communication.

The subsequent attempts to limit, control or ban some content is understandable to a degree. Social media is beautiful way to share truth, half-truths, and lies. And each such action has increased the pressure of people in charge to get out truth. The question is whose truth, theirs, mine, yours or someone hiding behind titles, money and distance.

Whatever the truth, almost every Fact Check is skewed by those who publish it push their truth. If one knows how, it is easy to lie with facts and bits of the truth. Each time that happens the person twisting the information a certain way is yelling at all of us, “You Can’t Handle The Truth!” That makes this the quotation to which I most closely relate today.

© oneoldcop.com – 2022

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