Spreading False Information

Maxine Peake has been censured and Rebecca Long-Bailey has lost her political position over false stories that they perpetuated over the training of US police by the Israeli Secret Service. Basically they did not check the facts of what they posted/reposted in social media. I suspect that we have all been guilty of this. If we see something that agrees with our own world view/belief system/prejudices we will often republish without question; whereas if it is something that we disagree with we will tend to check it to prove it false or simply disregard it. 

Then of course there are the 'facts/quotes' that we all use everyday which are simply not true, much as we would like them to be true. "Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words" is a saying that is often used and prefaced by 'as St Francis of Assisi said'. However this saying has never been found in any of his writings. St Francis did call for his brothers to practise what they preach, that is do not say one thing and then do another. (I suspect that we have all been guilty of doing this at some time).

“I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is said to have come from Voltaire. It is not from Voltaire, the 18th-century philosopher, but it was a paraphrase from a biographer named Evelyn Beatrice Hall of what she thought Voltaire was thinking. So Voltaire never said one of 'his' most famous quotes.

This can then lead us onto the discussion of is there such a thing as objective truth? There are objective facts, the earth is spinning on its axis, but are there objective truths or does truth depend on our world view?