The New York Times asked an interesting question Sunday: What if you had been told a lie all your life, only for the government that told it to suddenly acknowledge it wasn’t true? In this case, the example was Saudi Arabia, which now officially allows women to drive despite saying for years that women were less intelligent and would cause birth defects in their babies if they drove while pregnant.

The question resonates more broadly, of course. The era of fake news makes demands on us all. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center looked at how well Americans separated fact from fiction. Among the qualities that distinguished those who did better: a high political awareness, a sense of digital savvy, and a lot of trust in the news media.

But research shows that facts themselves often don’t change opinions. Indeed, they frequently only set people more firmly in their ways. In Saudi Arabia, for example, many men still think the same about women, even though the official government position has changed. In other words, even if “facts” change quickly, the worldviews behind them don’t.

That brings the political challenge of today into sharper focus. Problems are not solved by force of facts but rather by turning arguments into “a partnership, a collaboration,” writes Julia Galef, president of the Center for Applied Rationality. Is that even possible amid such polarization? In reality, it simply points to the evolving task of any nation: the struggle to find some true sense of “one” among many.

Our five stories for today include a touching piece from Colombia about books, and fresh thinking from lobstermen in Maine, but two articles also dig a little deeper into the struggles worldwide over facts and perceptions.