Difference between truthiness, and truth

Stephen Colbert is one funny guy who pokes fun at conservatives (which I would label myself as one, albeit a moderate conservative), but I get his humor, and I laugh just as hard at his jokes. However, he has some much deeper messages once you look past the facade of the pundit, and start applying some critical thinking.

One such topic is the difference between truthiness, and truth. Watch it first.

What have you learned?




When a lot of people are arguing what they consider to be the truth, they are actually not arguing for the truth, but rather, "truthiness", or what they consider to be the truth, i.e. what they want the truth to be, instead of what the truth really is.

This divides the scam participants into two camps:

• TYPE I: Those that actually think truthiness is the truth
• TYPE II: Those what knows truthiness is not the truth, but pretend that it is

TYPE I is merely... gullible. Unless they are so controlled by their fears, they will eventually figure out that truthiness is NOT truth. Then, they either quit, or turn into TYPE II. 

TYPE II is the more dangerous type, as they can be essentially classified as accessory to fraud, or even committing fraud, as they know their position is false, yet they continue to hold it any way. There are many reasons why someone will continue to hold a position they don't really share mentally, but that is for another blogpost. 

Related articles

• The World of "Truthiness"
• In Pursuit of Truthiness
• Psychology and Physiology of the Gullible
• Did you get a "Placebo Solution" that doesn't solve anything