The speaker asserts that any piece of information that is referred to as a ‘fact’ should be mistrusted, since it may be proven to be false at a later date. Her reasoning consists of two major points:First, people assume many things to be true, but only when that information is verified. Second, much of what people assume as fact is actually inaccurate. First, it seems obvious that much of what is accepted as fact is correct, since people accept it as fact without verification. For example, few people would question the fact that the Earth is round or that the Earth revolves around the sun

Second, there is a grain of truth to the claim that much of what people assume to be factual is actually inaccurate. Sure, most people assume, for example, that the Earth is round, but the Earth is round because science has verified that to be the case. Most scientists believe that the Earth is round, but there are a few who dispute this. Nevertheless, the vast majority of scientists accept the Earth’s roundness as fact. On the other hand, some people also believe that the Earth revolves around the sun, but scientists have been able to show this to be false using astronomical data

For example, most of us assume that the Earth is round. In times of uncertainty, many people assume that the earth is flat, believing that it is much better to believe something that is already known to be true. However, those who take this idea to its logical conclusion would assert that since the Earth is round, we cannot fall off it. This is not true, as NASA has shown through a number of experiments that the earth can support humans, vehicles, and animals, as well as withstand the forces of gravity. As another example, many people assume that a number of diseases are caused by germs, but medical science has proven this to be untrue. Many diseases are caused by viruses or other germs, but people also spread diseases caused by bacteria. The most deadly disease, smallpox, is caused by a virus, but people sometimes spread the disease by breathing in droplets from someone coughing or sneezing. Finally, people sometimes assume that various chemicals are harmless, but it is only recently that scientists have realized that certain chemicals, such as DDT, cause cancer. However, DDT, which was previously widely used to kill insects, was proven to cause cancer when scientists found that it was carcinogenic in laboratory mice

The idea that people should always question what they assume to be factual is sound, but the idea that individuals should distrust any information, regardless of its source, is misguided. Most people do not randomly assume that something is a fact. Rather, they accept it as fact only if it has been verified by someone or some source. Indeed, if people realize that much of what they assumed was true is actually false, they will lose their trust in people and institutions. For example, if many people realize that their doctors treat only the symptoms and not the cause of a disease, they will stop going to the doctor and rely on home remedies. If, on the other hand, people realize that most of the things they assume to be factual are actually false, they will stop trusting others and begin to suspect everyone and everything. For example, people will assume that since the government has lied to them in the past, they will continue to lie in the future. As a result, they will refuse to pay taxes, complain about their government, refuse to obey the laws, and boycott legitimate sources of information

Since the speaker does not make any clear distinction between facts and falsehoods, her statement could be taken to mean that we should distrust all information, even information that we know to be correct. However, in order for this to be true, she would have to assert that all information is actually false. Since we know that this is not the case, her statement does not make sense.