[ddxxdd]

There is a semantic issue here that's bothering me: the word "Fact" is a contronym.

I was taught in elementary school that facts don't need to be true to be a "fact". Nearly 3 decades ago, I was told that "facts" are either true or false, as opposed to "opinions" which are neither.

Then, as time moved on, I encountered what appeared to be a bifurcation in the English language, where half the people I encountered defined "fact" as a true statement, and the other half defined "fact" as any statement about the external world that did not rely on somebody's internal state of mind to make sense.

I challenge all of you to perform a quick experiment with Google. Step 1: Google "Fact vs Opinion". Skim the results. Step 2: Google "Fact definition" or "Fact meaning". Skim the results. Step 3: Compare and contrast.