How do we get people to agree on a common set of facts?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

As Pete himself might agree, previous consensus was facilitated by a monolithic media structure. The obvious pitfalls of such a structure, or of state media, and so on, is that an institution monopolizing the truth may do with it what it sees fit. The left has a proud history of pillorying institutional and orthodox pillars of "truth" and "common sense". It is only natural that the triumph over orthodoxy would backfire on them (in some way, the right's purported belief in "individual liberty" has done the same to them. Having a non-state institution lead the march to restore sanity (I know I'm pirating Jon Stewart here) only creates another voice in an allegedly pluralistic system. Having state regulations on the spreading of fictions be implemented in a way so as to break down the average American's "bubble" runs the risk it always has--of becoming oppressive, manipulative, or politicized.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Bouncing off of PR's comment, I believe cognitive science has asserted that people in general seek to confirm their own suspicions, and that the idea of the unbiased observer is generally mythical.

That said, one way of "shaking up" people's bubbles would be to institute certain experiences as part of the very fact of being a citizen--national service, for example. This might be something that mandates the mixing of races, classes, and creeds in a way to encourage more agile thinking. Civil libertarians will attack this as slavery, naturally, and this also runs the obvious risk of not working.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

There are no facts.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Live by the Creed, Die by the Creed.

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