Belief Is Not a Substitute for Knowledge
By Krystena LuCastro · Originally published on Medium May 23, 2025
Why Ignorance Has No Place in Government
I watched the moment unfold with a knot forming in my chest.
This wasn’t just ignorance. It was the casual dismissal of real lives, spoken aloud in a place of power.
Recently, a government decision-maker openly denied the existence of an entire group of people — in this case, intersex individuals — not out of malice alone, but out of sheer ignorance.
A Black woman — a member of the most educated demographic in the United States — tried to educate him. She explained, calmly and clearly, that services he sought to eliminate also served intersex people: individuals born with biological characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female.
Instead of engaging, asking questions, or acknowledging her expertise, he responded with disbelief. He could not even comprehend the term “intersex,” let alone the reality that they exist.
In his eyes, she was fabricating a myth.
In reality, she was naming facts — facts that he, a public servant, should have known long before he ever assumed the power to make decisions on behalf of others.
And sadly, this dismissal is not unique.
History is filled with groups — whether intersex individuals, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+ communities, disabled individuals, or multiracial families — whose very existence has been denied or erased simply because it made others uncomfortable.
At moments like this, it almost feels like we are living in a broken simulation — where some lives are acknowledged, and others are treated like glitches in the system because those in power choose not to understand them.
But people’s experiences are not optional.
Their existence is not up for debate.
To deny someone’s reality because it doesn’t fit within your own limited framework isn’t just ignorant — it’s delusional, and it’s dangerous.
The Dangerous Gap Between Belief and Fact
Governance demands respect for reality, not a commitment to personal belief systems.
Belief is personal. Facts are collective.
And when those entrusted with leadership cannot distinguish between the two, people are harmed. Communities are erased. Lives are made harder — or even lost.
Reality is not optional.
Reality does not require belief to exist.
Intersex individuals exist. Indigenous peoples exist. LGBTQ+ communities exist. Disabled individuals exist. Multiracial families exist.
Ignoring them does not erase their existence — it only exposes the incompetence and cruelty of those choosing not to see.
Ignorance Is Not Innocent — It’s a Weapon
When leaders refuse to acknowledge basic facts, it’s not a neutral act.
It is malpractice.
When policymakers cling to ignorance and faith-based ideology over proven fact, they leave entire groups vulnerable to erasure, neglect, and harm.
It’s not just about one uninformed man in a local office.
It’s about a system that allows — and even rewards — ignorance.
Governance based on denial is governance by erasure.
And we have tolerated this malpractice for far too long.
A Reality Check for Leadership
It is long past time to require a foundational standard of reality in leadership.
Those who insist on prioritizing belief, faith, or ideology over factual knowledge, science, and evidence should not be entrusted with the public good.
Private belief has its place — but public service demands something higher: a commitment to what is, not just what feels comfortable.
Leadership requires humility, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning, especially about groups and experiences outside one’s own.
It should never be optional.
It must be the bare minimum.
We Were Warned: The Separation of Church and State Was Not a Suggestion
The forefathers who insisted on the separation of church and state understood something critical:
That personal faith must never dictate public governance.
They were not trying to erase religion — they were trying to prevent the very reality we are living through today, where belief, not fact, is driving decisions for the collective.
Faith, for many, is deeply personal and meaningful. It deserves respect.
But it does not belong at the foundation of policies that affect millions of people with diverse experiences, identities, and beliefs.
Those who are driven solely by faith tend to think in absolutes: right or wrong, saved or damned, good or evil.
Governing, however, demands the ability to think in nuance — to live in the gray, to tolerate complexity, to understand that the collective good cannot be built on personal certainty alone.
We are dangerously close to recreating the very systems of exclusion, oppression, and division that early Americans fled from.
And it is happening because we forgot the wisdom of keeping governance firmly rooted in reality, not belief.
If We Want a Different Future, Here’s What Must Happen:
1. Establish Minimum Educational and Reality Standards for Public Office
Candidates must demonstrate basic knowledge of science, human rights, and historical reality — just as they must meet age and citizenship requirements.
2. Codify and Reassert the Separation of Church and State
Strengthen legal protections to ensure religious ideology cannot drive public policy that affects a diverse, pluralistic population.
3. Implement Mandatory Equity and Reality Training for All Public Officials
Just like harassment and ethics trainings, there must be consequences for those who refuse to learn about the full humanity they are meant to serve.
4. Vote with Knowledge as a Non-Negotiable
Support and elect leaders who understand that belief is personal, but governance is collective — and must be rooted in fact.
5. Create a Public Movement for Reality-Based Governance
Organize locally and nationally to demand commitments from candidates, institutions, and parties to honor and protect reality, not just belief.
We Deserve Better
History has taught us — painfully and repeatedly — what happens when we allow belief to outweigh reality.
We do not have to repeat these generational curses.
We can break the cycle of trauma and exclusion.
But it starts with reclaiming governance from the hands of the willfully ignorant.
It starts with demanding leaders who recognize every life, every truth, every existence — not just the ones they find familiar or convenient.
Reality is the minimum.
Humanity is the minimum.
And anything less cannot be allowed to lead us forward.
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Read the published version on Medium · Substack