Oprah Winfrey has made a career out of compassionate listening; indeed, encouraging a guest to deliver “your truth” is her trademark. In a recent interview, for example, Winfrey invited Meghan Markle to do so, and Markle delivered two hours of fireworks about her truth of life in the British royal family.
But there’s a problem here, which writer Conor Friedersdorf highlighted in The Atlantic three years ago: “Your truth” is not “the truth.” In an age of disinformation, the distinction matters. In fact, “your truth” may illustrate the same kind of phenomenon on the American left that “alternative facts” captures on the right. Although these terms are different in many ways, both foreground personal beliefs ahead of indisputable fact. And in doing so, they open the door to disinformation.
