Facts are the indispensable tools of SMEs. They are always consistent with objective reality, and they can be proven through evidence. They are foundational and the basis of logical inference. They do not bend for the rich or the powerful. They are rarely delicate. They can be painful and difficult, heavy and hard. Facts are often uncomfortable to speak and distressing to hear.
Experience has taught me that some SMEs depend solely on the power of facts to exercise their influence. They swing facts like clubs, wear facts like armor, and crown their heads with fact-fashioned headgear. These SMEs are injurious, impervious, and intimidating, all at the same time. They attempt to crush falsehoods and dismantle flimsy philosophies. They find great joy in the facts that support them and care little for the wreckage that those facts can leave in their wake. They subscribe to the philosophy of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, who said, “If the truth shall kill them, let them die.”
In vivid contrast to the fact-clinching SME, we have a large and growing public awash in post-truth thinking. These days our culture cares more for feelings than facts. We protect the hypersensitive as if they were oppressed, and we cocoon the delicate feelings of the off ended. If language off ends then it must be rejected. If a fact causes discomfort, then a safe space must be provided. We emphasize manufactured outrage and make celebrities of victims, both real and imagined.
Facts still rule the day, as they always will, but the days are over when simple facts alone will win the debate, much less calm a troubled heart or silence a frightened crowd. It is increasingly likely that winning a debate will be considered hostile and mean-spirited. Of course, experts must embrace facts no matter how difficult, no matter how painful. To act otherwise would be ruinous to their recommendations, their knowledge, and their skills. But facts can be painful and aggressive. In a post-truth era, an SME is expected to walk the tightrope between truth and sensitivity, facts and feelings.
