In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, Big Brother rules with a despotic hand over Oceania, preaching the values of “the Party”. The most common diatribes say, “Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, War is Peace.” These ideas are pounded and ingrained into the minds of the public and imply a certain degree of servitude. The people are led to believe what they are told by their leaders. Free thought is discouraged and outright illegal. All that comes from the mouths of politicians should be considered true. To these misled citizens, truth is not empirical and intrinsic, but formulated by superior minds.

Unfortunately, the duopoly of modern American politics has polarized disagreement to the point that the truth is being lost. Many speak “their own truth”, ignoring reason, logic, and evidence in the process. “Ignorance is strength” in the world of political clout today. This issue has been brewing for several years now. By 2016, the egos of our politicians peaked at the point where truth could suddenly be created out of thin air. Then-candidate Donald Trump coined the term “fake news”, accusing several left-leaning media networks like CNN and MSNBC of bias and lying to hurt conservatives and his presidential campaign. Suddenly, millions of his supporters were subject to the truth at his discretion. Credible reports on the climate and the economy were abruptly ignored by people. In a response, the left has become even more agitated and semantically engaged, returning fire with their own accusations of “fake news” towards Fox News and Trump’s team themselves. To a normal American voter, all of the mudslinging makes it virtually impossible to know what the truth is. And, honestly, in modern America, the truth oft lies unspoken or left unexplored.

Most recently, this bipartisan effort to dissolve the truth has come to fruition in the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Whether you agree with Kavanaugh’s political tendencies or not, this entire process has been a political circus by both sides. After his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh was accused by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford of sexually assaulting her in their high school years. Kavanaigh denies this. The significance and weight of such an accusation cannot and should not be taken lightly. Time should be taken to properly investigate the claim and to expose all of the facts. However, neither of the parties in power have that in mind. Most Democrats are mainly focused on delaying the vote until after the midterms, and it is hard to deny that based on their hesitation to address the issue until after initial hearings. Meanwhile, most Republicans are more concerned with a man’s reputation than investigation a serious allegation against him which weighs heavily in the evaluation fo his character. Overall, the entire situation has led to unprecedented posturing and jawing back and forth between the two sides. A hearing was held, and here we are, the truth still unknown. Perhaps it never will be. That is the absolute shame of contemporary America.