Facts, once unassailable, have become, well, difficult to quantify. People make up or repeat lies, especially on social media platforms and other online spaces, and people believe them, think what they read or hear is true, is a fact. As it turns out, those lies can be dangerous. We’ve all witnessed it at the national level, but it’s also happening right here in Western North Carolina. 

Two weeks after an unusual meeting where Commissioner Terry Ramey was told to resign over lies he helped spread about the post-Helene housing situation in Haywood County, the other four commissioners made clear they weren’t in the mood for any more shenanigans — removing one woman from the meeting, refuting more lies and even using a little bit of poetry from a cherished Western North Carolina scribe to keep things on track. 

To the Editor:

Donald Trump has been guilty of spewing so many fact-free statements over the years that ‘fact checking’ has become a ritual after every Trump pronouncement. No one, including the people that support him, denies this fact.

Let’s not sugarcoat it anymore. To call it “misinformation” is, in itself, misinformation. Let’s just call it what it is — straight-up lies, of the sort that would earn you a whoopin’ by meemaw if you repeated them to her face instead of spreading them from behind a keyboard like a coward. 

To the Editor:

I have just finished wading through the tirade by Mr. Snell regarding President Trump. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I find it sad that he harbors so much rage and pure hatred. 

We have all told little white lies at some point in our lives, feeling like we had no alternative. We found ourselves face to face with people that play an important role in our lives and our “truth” was nowhere near the surface. Are these half-truths, exaggerations, harmless untruths, or partial truths damaging?

To the Editor:

A strange paradox is alive in American politics.