This is my opinion, it could also be fact

I used to be scared of big things like war and small things like bees and getting trapped in the cubicle of a public toilet. I was scared of scorpions and quicksand, the Bermuda Triangle, spontaneous human combustion and a hundred other things that seem so irrational with the benefit of maturity.

I was a scared child, I was also afraid of burglars, kidnappers and murderers which may also seem irrational, but makes more sense when you take into account that I was brought up in Johannesburg, South Africa and one of the things we learned to do at primary school was to run in a zig-zag formation to avoid being shot.

At times my fear of big things and little things has been so all consuming it’s made it hard for me to think clearly, to function like I should. But often, even in those times, I have been able to reach for perspective, to talk to people around me, to read more extensively about something that frightens me so that I understand it better. I have been taught by Fred Rogers to look for the helpers and nurtured by my husband to look for the facts.

And although my husband will assure you that I never actually listened to the logic and facts he spouted, it was all well and good until it wasn’t.

It worked until there were no more facts.

I blame Donald Trump.

I know he wasn’t the first person, or even the first politician, to feed the public with lies, but he didn’t just lie — he took things to a whole new level. He said things with so much conviction and no sense of shame and he made no apology. And he was loud and he was the leader of the free world and his influence was as heavy as the weight of the earth.

When he didn’t like something he called it ‘fake news’ and enough people fall down the drain hole with him that we began to use the term ‘fake news’ unironically.

Last week he tried to start a new social media platform. Heather Cox Richardson explains “The new social media site was called “Truth Social,” and his team advertised it as the first piece of a media empire that would take its place beside the leaders in the field. Rather than a “tweet,” a statement on the new site would be a “truth,” and the terms of service prohibited criticism of the former president”

Isn’t it cool how you can just call something a truth because you say it is so? And if the ex-President of the United States of America can get away with is, it almost makes sense for the person in the street to do it to. Science and facts become collateral damage.

There are thousands of people using the words ‘do your own research’ as if a Google search is the same as conducting peer reviewed studies and learning from years of scientific analysis and education. As if research is just a matter of watching YouTube videos and clicking on Facebook posts.

But it’s not. Research is a systematic investigation where evidence is collected and evaluated in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Research is unbiased and objective. It’s not personal. It’s not controlled by the government (imagine getting every government, and their opposition, to agree to something/anything).

And because some people genuinely believe they can do their own research, our lives are filled with misinformation. Facts are missing. People are putting forward opinion as if it carries the same weight as truth and for someone who needs facts in order not to be scared, it’s a scary time to be alive.

But it’s not just me I’m worried about, we all need science, we need the truth — not just to allay our fears, but to eradicate viruses, to support democracy, to save our planet.

I almost miss worrying about spontaneous combustion — at least science could explain it.