Alternative facts.

Like many readers, I used to roll my eyes when I heard this phrase. After all, there is only one real truth, and it is obviously absolute.

You probably thought that, too. Teachers, parents and other seemingly intelligent individuals from kindergarten all the way through college drilled this way of thinking into us.

But I’m here to tell you we’ve been lied to our entire lives.

How did I come to this profound and life-changing conclusion? Self-reflection Hallucinogenics? Being struck down on the road to Damascus?

Nope.

Two words: YouTube.

Sure, I used to be as naïve and blind to reality as most politicians. Then one day I discovered this phenomenal platform, and it changed everything.

Not only are there alternative facts, but everyone gets to choose whatever facts best suit their purpose at any given time.

Don’t believe me? Don’t think I’m telling the truth? Well, just consider the following tidbits I’ve learned from spending hours watching video after video, all from world-renowned experts:

Everything causes cancer. Apparently, this is true. Even drugs ostensibly developed to prevent or cure cancer eventually prove to cause it.

That settles it, right?

Au contraire, my friend.

Actually, nothing causes cancer. You get cancer from sinning against God. It’s his way of punishing you for not obeying his commands.

Not convinced? Well try this on for size:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the answer to all our problems. We just need to put our fate in the hands of AI and let it take care of us.

Then again, AI will be our ultimate undoing. As soon as it gets smart enough to figure out how stupid we are, we’re doomed.

There is no definitive answer to anything. You get to choose your own truth. YouTube says so.

Even the so-called “American way of life,” something generations of Americans have held sacred, is subject to the duplicitous nature of this insidious streaming service.

On the one hand, democracy is the only legitimate form of government and must be preserved at all costs. And as the grand experiment quickly approaches the two-and-a-half century mark, preserving it has taken on an unprecedented urgency.

Then again, when you consider the declining IQ of the average voter over the last few decades, who in their right mind would entrust our collective future to these self-absorbed simpletons? We might end up electing a complete moron. Bring on the philosopher kings.

As video after endless YouTube video demonstrates conclusively, nothing is conclusive.

Whatever you believe, you can find a community of like-minded people all too willing to reinforce, validate, and expand your particular ontological niche.

The echo chamber is no longer a metaphor, it is a perfectly acceptable way of experiencing and understanding the world for an increasing number of folks.

Turns out, it’s not just beauty that’s in the eye of the beholder. Everything can now be comfortably positioned under that overarching moniker.

Don’t think climate change is real? Then it’s not. Believe we are the descendants of ancient aliens? Then we are. Think the future of the economy is bitcoin? Then invest your lifesavings.

Decided God doesn’t exist? Then get off your knees.

Back in the olden days, I would have considered this way of thinking to be ludicrous and a sure recipe for disaster, both for individuals as well as societies. And all those professors I encountered along the way who kept touting the importance of “critical thinking.”

I used to take them seriously.

What a bunch of losers.

Looking back, the idea there is only one set of valid facts that, at the end of the day, corresponds to objective reality, seems childish and naïve. I am now free from the constraints that defined the old way of thinking. Which means I am truly free.

So you can go ahead and stick with your silly notions such as cholesterol leads to heart disease, gravity makes planes crash when their wings fall off, and all those other things you think you know.

YouTube taught me you can have your own reality and eat it, too. All hail the digital era!

— Aaron W. Hughey is a university distinguished professor in the Department of Counseling and

Student Affairs at Western Kentucky University.