No, you may not live in your own bespoke reality
Either Obama/Biden officials said the ballroom was needed, or they did not. That is not a matter of opinion. That is a matter of objective fact.
I have often railed against the “all or nothing” mentality in politics, which more closely resembles a cult than serous political principles. But while many things are not an “all or nothing” proposition, there is one thing that is all or nothing: Facts. The fact that so many people want to live in their own bespoke reality is a real problem. Too many people reject objective facts because those facts do not fit their biases. This does not bode well for the future, and it will only get worse.
I said on social media that the attempted assassination of President Trump on April 25 was an argument in favor of building a new White House ballroom, as events could be more easily secured at the White House than at a private venue. I also pointed out that the need for a larger event space was an area of bipartisan agreement:
Privately, many alumni of the Biden and Obama White Houses acknowledge the long-overdue need for an event space like what Trump is creating. It is absurd that tents need to be erected on the South Lawn for state dinners, and VIPs are forced to use porta-potties.
Naturally, this argument from the Washington Post was not only rejected, it was condemned as false. It is not reliable because it is an “opinion” piece, rather than straight news. This, of course, is totally absurd. The fact that this was from the Editorial Board does not make it any less valid than if it was in a straight news article. If the Washington Post Editorial Board is openly fabricating things in a staff editorial, then that destroys trust in everything the newspaper is reporting.
Either Obama/Biden officials said the ballroom was needed, or they did not. That is not a matter of opinion. That is a matter of objective fact. Either the Washington Post lied, or what they said is true. There is no third option. There is no “that is just an opinion piece.” In this case, it absolutely is all or nothing.
There are legitimate arguments to be made against President Trump’s plan for a White House ballroom. That is not my point. My point is that, like so many things involving President Trump, people are inventing their own bespoke reality instead of dealing with objective facts. This is not exclusive to Leftists, naturally, as MAGA supporters will claim that screenshots of the President’s posts on Truth Social accompanied by a hyperlink to the post are “fake news.”
There will always be disputes over facts. There will always be disputes over the interpretation of facts. But we live in a society where far too many people reject the existence of facts at all. Anything and everything that is politically inconvenient for your tribe is dismissed as “fake news” or labeled as an irrelevant “opinion,” no matter how well-sourced it may be. If we are going to be a unified nation and not tear ourselves apart, this needs to stop. We cannot have each political tribe existing in its own bespoke “reality” where all “facts” fit the judgment of your tribe. We must put our commitment to the truth above our commitment to our respective political parties.