Really?
I don't want to embarrass anyone but this is a direct quote from a person who commented on my "Rush To Judgement" blog.

"This all is not an opinion, but traceable, verifiable, observable, fact."

You can read the entire missive in the comment section of Wednesday's blog.Read it or not, agree with it or not, I can't let it go without a comment in return.
First of all, I am always suspicious of any noun (particularly the word "fact") that needs to be modified by three adjectives. I am also skeptical of anyone who states that a narrative is "not an opinion". Of course it is an opinion. Even if someone states the truth, it is an opinion of the truth, not the truth itself. As the Buddhists say "a finger that points toward the moon is not the moon".
However, the modifier that confounds me the most in this narrative is the word "Observable". This could be the most unreliable method of determining a fact there could be. Observable? Really. Is it a fact because it is observable? In what reality is the observable an unqualified fact?
If I am watching a sunset on the beach the "observable" fact is that the sun is slowly sinking into the ocean. If I am in a desert the "observable" fact is that there is a lake of water on the horizon. Magicians rely on the idea that the observable is not always the fact of what is happening on stage.
The fact is that although one can "observe" the sun sinking in to the ocean, that is not what is happening. Nor is there a lake in the desert when one observes it on the horizon, it is a mirage.
When someone we like says something we disagree with we call that "freedom of speech". When someone we don't like says something we disagree with we call that blasphemy. That is not a fact that is my opinion on human nature.
As you were,
Jay