There aren’t many words or phrases that, regardless of the context they are used in, make me wince when I hear them — the phrase “My Truth” is one of them.
It’s not even the words themselves that get to me. It’s the dismissive, self-focused, and manipulative tendencies that the use of this phrase often implies.
Since when do individuals have ownership over truth?
Since when were individual perceptions, beliefs, opinions, etc., raised to the same level and given the same value as truth itself?
What would be the appropriate response to someone claiming something is their truth when what they are saying is, quite literally, untrue?
I’ve been in conversation with people where they’ve invoked this phrase not only to dismiss my perspective or other relevant facts, or to shield themselves from any perceived criticism, but also to shut down the conversation entirely.
It was a way of saying they weren’t interested in any of my input for whatever reason, and that they rejected any new information in favour of their preconceived notion of “their truth.”
In reality, these people were not interested in truth at all — they were merely interested in what they believed or identified with, and wanted to present those concepts with the elevated…
