@blatham,
blatham wrote:
How many fact check operations do you need to survey in order to answer that for yourself? Serious question. Is there a single such operation that has not found that Trump is unique as a political figure in the frequency of his falsehoods and the blatant nature of them?
You have the option here of denying the validity of any such or even all such. Your probably rationale in doing so would be "media bias". And your grounds for establishing that would be - their findings.
Rather obviously, the danger (and it's real) is rejection of any information which does not correspond with your wishes. It is a rejection of the notion that objective facts either do not exist or are unattainable. It is the acceptance of an epistemological framing which holds relativism as the best to be hoped for.
You have not provided us with an objective answer to the,apparently rhetorical, question you posed at the opening of this statement. You are in effect positing that Trump is a consistent liar, in error or something like that. Absent that fondation your following conclusions are empty.
Certainly the rejection of information, merely because it does not conform to ones wishes is indeed an illogical action, as you say. . However such an action in no way constitutes the assertion that objective facts are unknowable or non exixtant, or for that matter that only relative judgments are available.
There are additional complications here. Since the inner thoughts and motives of others are not objectively knowable one cannot, with absolute certainty affirm that another person is knowingly lying. Certainly in many cases one armed with collateral knwledge or information can deduce a very reliable opinion on the matter (sufficient under our law), but it is still a deduction, not objective fact.
In some cases indeed relativism, as you put it, is all that is available to us.
