“Fact is merely what enough people believe, and truth lies only in how fervently they believe it.” –Charles P. Pierce, Idiot America

By now countless journalists, academics, and luminaries have expressed serious concern over the election of Donald Trump. To put it simply, the only ones celebrating his victory are the KKK, Russia, ISIS, and American conservatives.

This fact alone should disturb anyone who voted for him, but the magnitude of this election, and its inevitable repercussions, are not registering with the populace.

Make no mistake, the Trump presidency is a national tragedy.

It’s not because the first female candidate for president lost the election, even though she won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million, a number larger than anyone in history who did not go on to become president.

It’s not because a political party who has campaigned for half a century on family values compromised them all by supporting Trump.

Trump’s election to the presidency is tragic because it marks a turning point in world politics. November 8, 2016 is the day that proved Americans could no longer differentiate between fact and fiction.

We are living in a “post-truth” nation.

For those who think people are overreacting, for those who think Trump can improve this country, and for those who think this is merely a political disagreement: this is for you.

It’s not about red versus blue, or liberal versus conservative, or Democrat versus Republican. This is not a disagreement about policy or ideology. It is much more complex than being on a certain side of an issue.

It’s about the ability to differentiate news from noise.

First, let me say, I am not a Democrat. I’ve been registered independent since I was 18. I’ve voted for as many Republican presidential candidates as I have Democrat. Party affiliation used to mean nothing to me, and I still pledge allegiance to neither. My allegiance is only to the truth, to the facts, and to justice, like most journalists, writers, and storytellers.

If you voted against Hillary Clinton because you think she’s crooked, untrustworthy, or just unlikable, then congratulations – you’ve been manipulated.

A visceral, negative hostility toward someone we’ve never met is more than likely manufactured. If you can’t point to specific reasons for your dislike, then it’s definitely manufactured.

I’ve encountered this repeatedly over the last year, and it’s not limited to conservatives. The majority of Americans have a negative view of Hillary, but it’s only the minority who can support their emotional reaction with valid reasons.

If someone were to ask me why I might not like Hillary, I would quickly answer:

Because she’s been known to change her stance on issues to appeal to different voters.

Because she cozies up to Wall Street and makes us doubt there could be any real financial regulation. Same with her ties to Big Pharma

Because she and her husband helped strike down the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which led to the financial crisis of 2008.

Because she and her husband’s welfare reform bill sent more people into poverty.

However, if you happen to dislike Hillary for any of the following reasons, you’ve been conned:

Benghazi

Private emails

Whitewater

“I just don’t trust her.”

One of the oldest political tricks is to undermine the messenger, especially when you can’t disagree with the message. Republican strategists have perfected this, and Karl Rove has made a career out of it.

With more than a little help from Newt Gingrich, the Clinton smear campaign undermined much of the Clinton presidency. Instead of battling the Clintons on issues, Gingrich led Congressional Republicans to play dirty and tarnish their reputations instead. Some may call his attacks on Hillary sexist, and they very well may be, but he was successful in souring her name with the voting public, a campaign stretching more than 25 years and ultimately cost her the presidency.

The truth is that Clinton is one of the most honest politicians in America, regardless of popular opinion.

By comparison, Donald Trump lies more than he tells the truth, regardless of whatever image he sells.

But that hypocrisy doesn’t register with the average voter. All that seems to matter is selling the smear. And if you’re guilty of the very thing you accuse someone else of – like Trump often is – the American public is complacent in its ignorance.

If you need further proof of our willingness to tolerate such hypocrisy, consider the Clinton email scandal. Newsweek:

Clinton’s email habits look positively transparent when compared with the subpoena-dodging, email-hiding, private-server-using George W. Bush administration. Between 2003 and 2009, the Bush White House “lost” 22 million emails.

By comparison, Clinton lost 33,000 emails, most of which were private. She was exonerated by the investigation, but the myth of her corruption prevails.

How do we know this is a smear tactic?

Because Donald Trump’s companies regularly destroy or hide documents, including thousands of emails, directly defying court orders. His personal and private life is so shady, he racked up over 4,000 lawsuits in three decades, and currently has 75 lawsuits against him at the time of the election.

How flagrant is this Republican hypocrisy?

During only the first two years after Sept 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials knowingly made at least 935 false statements about the national security threat posed by Iraq. And for the most part, the media and the Democrats willingly played along.

By comparison, the Benghazi smear campaign cost the American taxpayers 7 million dollars, and it was nothing but political theater.

But there’s no end to Republican hypocrisy.

Remember Newt Gingrich’s impeachment trials of Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal? Gingrich didn’t care Clinton had an affair – he was only scoring political points with his party and playing to the Christian values of his conservative base. Meanwhile, Gingrich showed utter disdain for those same values and his own gullible voters by cheating on both his first and second wife, one during the impeachment period.

This is how successful the Republican noise machine is – everyone connects Clinton to extra marital affairs, but no one thinks of adultery when they hear Gingrich’s name.

Several conservative attack dogs have renounced their own party to expose such deceit, like David Brock, who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters, and former Congressman Mike Lofgren.

The idea that Hillary is crooked – or at least more so than other politicians – is a myth repeated so many times, it clearly no longer matters if it’s true.

This effect is known as the “illusion of truth” – when you hear certain information so many times, you believe it, regardless of its accuracy. Political lies stay with us not because of their authenticity, but because manipulative campaign strategists understand psychology.

The majority of the time, this information works against our best interest.

For instance, if you believe Democrats tax and spend more, then congratulations – you’ve been manipulated.

This is little more than another campaign strategy used to mislead voters.

Furthermore, if you think Democrats increase the size of government, while Republicans reduce it, then congratulations – you’ve been manipulated yet again.

So why do our Republican representatives bash Planned Parenthood’s meager $540 million and PBS’s paltry $445 million budgets, while $12 billion in public funds were given to big business to subsidize over 50 new sports stadiums between 2001 and 2010 alone?

Furthermore, how can Fox News find the one individual who bought lobster with welfare money, yet ignore the $90 billion earmarked for a Navy submarine fleet, or the $400 billion spent developing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, whose cost doesn’t even include building and maintaining them. (Oh, and by the way, they can’t even fly in bad weather, or at night, and none have yet been used in combat.)

If you voted for Trump because he pledged to lower taxes on the wealthy in order to create jobs and return industry to Middle America, then congratulations again – you’ve been manipulated.

The OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, disproves the myth of trickle-down economics, also known as Reaganomics. Cutting taxes on the wealthy has not fostered economic growth as promised, but stymied economic growth significantly, and only made the rich richer.

Trickle-down economics did nothing but transfer all economic gains to the 1% and business class at the expense of the Middle Class. The sooner we acknowledge this, the sooner we can address our country’s economic woes.

Can Donald Trump fix this? No, because he does not understand this, acknowledge this, nor care. He is the 1% we transfer our economic gains to.

Instead of directing our ire at the real culprits, Donald Trump fueled the flames until a fire of racism and resentment spun out of control and consumed the election cycle.

Our politicians are responsible for our economic decline – but let’s put the blame where it belongs.

The clearest marker of our dire straits, besides staggering inequality, is that culpability is mostly with the 1 percent and the business class, and as it is often throughout history.

Demagogues like Donald Trump have helped focus resentment, fear, uncertainty and anger by blaming the poor and immigrants, who are in no way responsible for any of our predicaments. Instead of focusing anger at the REAL culprits - the business class, Republicans, Wall Street, the 1 percent - Trump chose to demonize the most helpless members of society.

And we rewarded his behavior with the presidency.

What will bring back jobs and spur economic growth? Billionaire entrepreneur Nick Hanauer says it best in his TED Talk on the subject. He explains why rich people aren’t job creators:

In other words, when high concentrations of wealth accumulate at the top, as Republicans continually pursue, the economy suffers. The billions that sit in offshore accounts in the Caymans are not funneled back into the U.S. economy. If this money were put into the hands of the lower class, it would be used immediately at malls, grocery stores, and car dealerships. When everyone has disposable income, the economy soars. When only the 1% has disposable income, money sits and accumulates, creating dynasties with unparalleled power and influence. (I’m talking about you, Donald Trump.)

This is why petty welfare abuse is akin to telling employees to keep an eye on the supply closet while the CEO embezzles millions. (And why if you vote based on petty welfare abuse, you are once again being manipulated by the embezzlers, i.e. the 1%.)

Furthermore, if you think Trump has any ideas on how to bring back jobs to the rust belt, you are in for a rude awakening. You can read all about his business failures HERE. And HERE.

Trump has never held public office in his life, and you can be certain he has neither the economic understanding nor business acumen to return jobs to any sector of the economy. And if we allow his Republican Congress to manage the country, we won’t have much of a country left.

To understand just how bad conservatives have screwed the individual states they’ve governed, look no further than Kansas and my home state of Louisiana.

A reminder: this is not partisan preference; this is merely the facts.

Why do we continue to trust Republicans to steer the economy when Republican presidents and governors leave us in worse shape?

Because in this day and age, we can no longer differentiate between fact and fiction.

​Political lies and smearing have been around for centuries. What is worrisome is that in the Information Age, they are not debunked, but disseminated.

It is because of the lies and distortions that liberals and conservatives can no longer reach common ground, as only one group is grounded in reality.

In 2002, Karl Rove dismissed journalists as being part of the “reality-based community.” He explained:

Rove would know, as he’s spent the majority of his life constructing false narratives and selling them to the public like an ad agency shills laundry detergent. His words go a long way to explaining why so many Americans are so misinformed – because that’s exactly how conservatives want it.

Reality has been debatable ever since, as outlets like Fox News turn smearing the opposition into a full-time job. (Yes, I realize MSNBC is also agenda-driven – but there is no competition when it comes to down-right deceit.)

Part of the reason for this demonization of the left is that Democrats have been moving further and further to the right since the Reagan era in an attempt to find common ground. In response, instead of reaching across the aisle, Republicans decided to campaign by attacking the Democrats, and going further to the right in defiance. Instead of being for something, their strategy changed to undermining Democrats.

Enter the smear campaign that follows the Clintons to this very day. To reiterate: this is the real reason Hillary lost the election – it’s hard to beat a 25-year long attack of indoctrination blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

In a capitalist culture, information should not be a commodity. Truth should not be a brand. Disinformation should not be a product.

This is not a debate between two ideologies. This is a showdown between myth and reality. And last week, reality lost.

We lost when you chose to believe Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, even when our own administration didn’t believe it.

Just this week, The Oxford Dictionary sealed our fate by naming “post-truth” the word of the year, defining it as:

“Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

The greatest problem of our future is not political; it is not economic; it is not even rational. It’s the battle of fact versus fiction.

Sadly, a Trump victory illustrates that we are no longer able to distinguish between the two.