In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries declared "post-truth" the word of the year. The definition: "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."  Welcome to 2020, a time in which progressives are mired and muddied in a post-truth quagmire born of postmodern indoctrination.

Bunker Biden once said he chooses truth over facts, probably because his truth is contaminated with wishy-washy concoctions of "truthiness."  No wonder he gets bored by his own jabberwocky talk as he sticks his finger in the air.  By contrast, facts can be inconvenient to liberal orthodoxy; in this topsy-turvy world set ablaze by malicious mobs inciting mayhem, facts matter more than oppressive opinions.

A feature of post-truth politics is the mind-numbing repetition of talking points about systemic racism, that there are inequalities in every system, and that white privilege prevails.  Even when facts intrude, truth is subjugated by emotional reasoning such as "if I feel it, it must be true."  No wonder our founders were disconcerted by the prospect of mob rule — it leads to a stinky, dystopian wasteland like CHAZ in wretchedly liberal Seattle.

Rather than policy details, the post-truth ethos fosters undisciplined emotions.  This is not optimal if we are to avoid crafting programs in which crafty "race-hustling poverty pimps" and big-mouthed civil rights advocates enrich themselves.  Meanwhile, their poor constituents flounder in poverty, the achievement gap widens, and families disintegrate.  Yep, facts matter, so let's observe some and their import.

First, the corrupt cabal of anti-American progressives and anarchists are trying to paint the narrative of "white privilege," and they are using a very impressionistic style.  Maybe there are a few vestiges — we mostly made America, after all — but white Americans are about as benign a ruling majority as you'll get.  Compare to some of the rampant tribalism in Africa; in Uganda, for example, people are suppressed more than anywhere on the continent.  By contrast, our Constitution and amendments inexorably expand the reach of the same human ideals that encourage downtrodden masses to risk life and limb seeking refuge here.  America — what a country!

There really isn't that much white privilege in the workplace, either.  Wherever I look, I see huge human resource efforts to hire and promote minorities.  Racism may exist in isolated pockets, but it's hardly institutionalized; conversely, reverse discrimination masquerading as affirmative action is institutionalized.  Indeed, minorities are sometimes hired because they are qualified for training, rather than simply qualified.  Americans are renowned for being work martyrs, often forgoing vacation days in order to get ahead.  Not much privilege there, either.

Most rich people are self-made, producing new products (including the fancy phones the rioters carry around and the internet infrastructure they take for granted), creating new markets, jobs, and wealth.  As extravagantly rich as some of the tech entrepreneurs are, they are probably underpaid relative to the societal wealth they engender.  Elon Musk (of Tesla, SpaceX, and Hyperloop fame), for example, probably deserves a bonus.  He is not a remnant of white privilege, but a tireless worker whose ingenuity creates an abundance of wealth and transforms society.  To the extent that there's inequality, it's often earned.

It's not so much white privilege that creates disparities evident in the achievement gap, but the decimation of black families that pandering politicians ignore, lest they offend a constituent's sensibilities.  Many social science studies are riddled with social warrior bias and the "publish or perish" imperative.  But there is little dispute that two parent households are predictive of well adjusted and successful children; for example, they are more likely to enter college.  Here's an unpopular fact: a majority of black American children grow up in single-parent households.  That's crazy, and it's not sustainable if they are to properly partake in America's beneficence.

Our post-truth milieu cocoons intellectually lazy social activists who engage in emotional and motivated reasoning — motivated to find any excuse to defund the police, for example.  Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face — if the police are defunded, it will hurt minority communities the most.

Not Biden-esque truthiness, but facts matter — while it's tragic when Americans are shot dead by police, the number pales in comparison to the number of black homicides committed each year.  By all means, reform the police where facts demand it, but reform the minority communities they serve, too.  Since educational attainment is a powerful predictor of health and wealth, school choice is a good starting point.  Put down the gun and pick up a book.  Ultimately, the pen is mightier than the sword, wise people profess.

According to Peter Kirsanow (himself a minority) of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, black Americans are killed more frequently by police officers but far less than the data would predict, given that they are more likely to commit crimes.  Kirsanow's assertions are well founded in Department of Justice data.

Given that our (mostly) upstanding police officers experience millions of interactions with the problematic public each year, frequently coming under attack, it's a stretch to say racism is systemic.  It's certainly not an a priori truth, something the WSJ elucidated in the article "The Myth of Systemic Police Racism."  There's even evidence that black cops are more likely to shoot black suspects than white cops.

One can usually tell when the facts are not on someone's side — they try to suppress free speech.  The radical left is intolerant of intellectual diversity; these attack its proponents, and instigate a soul-destroying Cancel Culture where harmless creations like nice Paw Patrol are condemned.  It's unnerving to imagine the workings of warped minds that wallow in this constant outrage.  They are not "woke"; they are asleep.  Actually, many are mindless zombies with broken brains — and equally gnarly and disheveled, to boot.

We need free speech to approximate the truth, to undo postmodern campus indoctrination.  So, while reforming the police (where appropriate), let's also reform the radical left's policing of our politics and culture.  Then we might be able to elucidate facts over the dense din of prevailing "community agreement," thereby thwarting the radical left's disastrous urban policies.