You have a right to your own opinion," my mother likes to say. "You do not have a right to your own facts."
Somehow, people still want to pick fights over facts.
Barack Obama was not born in Kenya. Health care reform would not create death panels. There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism or that fluorinated water causes cancer.
These are fairly well-documented facts that people choose to debate.
I'm well aware that much of the American public doesn't trust the mainstream media to give them the truth.
The media have contributed to that, I'll admit. Plagiarism scandals and ideologues have damaged the news industry's credibility.
But I have to wonder how much of that distrust is people not being told what they want to hear.
If you don't like what you're hearing from the major networks, you can find a cable network to fit your opinion. If you don't like what you read in the major newspapers, just read the blog of your choice or tune in to AM radio.
It's not a conservative or liberal issue. Both sides are guilty. From Ann Coulter to Keith Olbermann, both viewpoints have their outspoken bobbleheads.
It frightens me, though, that bobblehead syndrome has infected the public.
It's not worth arguing with people who believe things regardless of proof. That's the entire point of an argument: to convince people of your point of view by presenting evidence. But evidence seems to be worth less and less.
Just ask Rep. Joe Wilson. You'd have to be pretty convinced to call the president a liar during a televised presidential address. Subsequent research has revealed, though, that his accusation that health care would be provided to illegal immigrants was baseless.
Or think of Sarah Palin, who used the words "death panels" to describe health-care reform.
Then there's Vice President Joe Biden, who said crazy things about avoiding all confined spaces because of swine flu. One sneeze cannot infect a whole plane, sir. This is H1N1, not tuberculosis.
It happens outside of politics, too: Jenny McCarthy, former Playboy bunny, uses her celebrity to claim that vaccines caused her son's autism. I respect McCarthy for doing everything she can to protect her child. But claiming that vaccines are dangerous is irresponsible. Childhood vaccinations have saved millions of lives, and studies have not indicated any link to autism.
These people use their national spotlight to make baseless accusations that the public pays attention to.
I won't completely blame the politicians and celebrities for these fanatical beliefs. People will buy anything hook, line and sinker if they want it to be true.
There are valid reasons to not be happy with the health care plan, but the death panels story is too good to pass up for those who simply want something to latch on to and hate.
Parents of autistic children want a cure, and that's completely understandable. But so much effort and publicity is directed toward vaccines when research could be directed toward finding a viable solution.
Arguing over these issues isn't only pointless. Arguments over facts or falsehoods - for instance, debating whether health care reform would euthanize your grandparents - prevents productive discussion and compromises that could help everyone.
Life has shades of gray. But facts are black and white. And it's your responsibility to find the facts, not what you wish the facts were.
What you choose to do with those facts is up to you. After all, you do have the right to your own opinion.
Hilary Lehman is a journalism senior. Her column appears on Wednesdays.
