But it's true!

BUT IT'S TRUE!

--Me, all of my life

People think that Donald Trump denouncing "violence on both sides" in Charlottesville means he's secretly a Nazi. BUT IT'S TRUE!

We know there was violence on both sides. (Some) leftist counterprotestors showed up to Charlottesville armed and masked. Others bragged about attacking and harassing the other side. I know this from:

---Reputable media sources, such as the Washington Post
---Eyewitness statements, collected by me, Citizen Journalist
---General truths about human nature, i.e., people are stupid and evil, and when you tell them political violence is okay as long as it's against The Enemy, some of them will take you seriously.

Okay, I'm being a little autistic here. Yes, statements by politicians are motivated by more than "is it true." And I realize that empathetic people, who are wrong but numerous, care more about expressing the right feelings than about truth. So call him callous and unempathetic, accuse him of wanting to keep the support of the alt-right...

BUT IT'S TRUE.

People should be allowed to tell the truth without penalty. When you penalize people for speaking the truth, it becomes harder to arrive at the truth.

A friend recently posted something on Facebook, claiming that racism explained why the police were more active in their response to "nonviolent" protests, such as in Ferguson, than in their response to the white nationalist protestors in Charlottesville. I pointed out that the "nonviolent" protests in Ferguson actually involved one person dying, many people being beaten, and many businesses burned and looted. But in my friend's mind, Ferguson was still "nonviolent" because the protestors had good intentions, and the white nationalists were inherently violent because they had bad intentions.

This is what happens when we penalize people for speaking the truth. We lose track of what really happened, and of what words really mean.