Yes, the truth matters!

In case you haven't seen the news in the past week, newly elected Congressman George Santos has been on quite the media tour. Not to celebrate his victory, but rather to try and explain his VERY curious relationship with the truth. In fact, one might even say he and the truth have never even met each other.

Among his amazingly long list of admitted lies: That he graduated from Baruch College (which he didn't); that he is the descendant of a Holocaust survivor (which he isn't); that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (not true); and that his mother died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center (she actually died 15 years after 9/11).

As a defense to these lies, he said "If I was trying to defraud the people like everyone is saying, I could have listed bigger names." In a Fox News interview on Tuesday night, he said he is "not a fraud" and "not fake." But rather, "I made a mistake, and I think humans are flawed and we all make mistakes."

This is becoming a pattern. Public figure lies, public figure gets caught, and public figure shrugs and says, "so what!" At which point everyone just pretends it didn't happen and moves on. Well, I for one, am fed up with this! We cannot continue pretending that liars just made a mistake or dismissing their lies as "just the way it is." Lying is NOT ok and our public figures owe us more! I don't care which side of the aisle they are from, nor do I care what their views are. In fact, I don't even care about Congressman Santos. There is a bigger and more important issue in play here. It is not ok to be a f@cking liar! THE TRUTH MATTERS!

The thing is, we human beings hate this kind of conflict. We hate those awkward moments that my kids refer to as "Sooo Cringe." As a result, we try to get out of them as quickly as possible. But, in the process, we allow this behavior. We do not punish liars, nor do we subject them to the appropriate amount of social ridicule and ostracization. It's like a social train wreck and we don't want to see it. But we need to resist the urge to look away when a train wreck happens. In fact, we need to look right at the train wreck. We need to discuss it, we need to make sure others see it, and in the process, we need to prevent the next one.

I have heard people say that we are in a "post truth" society. That it's just too hard to know what's true anymore. NO! While it may be easier to fake things, and it is certainly more difficult to figure out sources of information that DOES NOT in any way diminish the value of the truth or the importance of having integrity. We cannot allow ourselves to become so jaded by lies and so lazy that we just accept that people openly lie. Nor can we allow people to not take any responsibility for their lies. Being truthful is a cornerstone for society. We have got to be able to trust each other and our leaders. We cannot normalize lying. We cannot allow those who lie to keep the spoils of their dishonesty. And we can never give up on our social contract. It is not ok to be a f@cking liar!