In the age of social media and the internet, it is dangerously easy to find an idea that aligns with one’s own perception of the world and hide within a broader narrative.

Such is the case in the viral confrontation that has consumed not just one, but multiple 24-hour news cycles as the media and readers alike attempt to decipher what exactly went down between a drove of Catholic students from Kentucky donning signature-red “Make America Great Again” hats and a Native American man beating a drum in prayer.

A quick rundown: Over the weekend, a video clip of a white teenager staring at a Native American man named Nathan Phillips, of Omaha, began to squeeze itself into the fray of the mainstream media.

The schoolboy, Nick Sandmann, had been attending the March for Life rally with his classmates — many of them also wearing MAGA hats. Phillips had been in the same location for the Indigenous Peoples Rally.

In the foreground of the viral clip, one can see Sandmann staring at Phillips with a grimace spread across his face. In the background, his classmates can be seen chanting and jeering while Phillips beats his drum.

Almost immediately, news organizations tried to make sense of the incident as more and more people began to weigh in on social media. Many on both sides of the political party were in agreeance that the behavior of the Covington Catholic students from Kentucky should be condemned.

Phillips, in describing the incident later that weekend in an interview with the Detroit Free Press said, “the looks in these young men’s faces … I mean, if you go back and look at the lynchings that was done (in America) …and you’d see the faces on the people … The glee and the hatred in their faces, that’s what these faces looked like.”

So how did Phillips become involved in a stare-down with the students? He said he was attempting to intervene: “They [the students] were in the process of attacking these four black individuals. I was there and I was witnessing all of this … As this kept on going on and escalating, it just got to a point where you do something or you walk away, you know? You see something that is wrong and you’re faced with that choice of right or wrong.”

The four black individuals were later revealed to be members of a religious group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites. Phillips said that the students were harassing the men, who had also been saying some pretty “harsh things.” Videos later surfaced of the Black Hebrew Israelites calling the Catholic students racists, bigots and “incest babies.”

And in yet another twist of the story, Sandmann and his family released a statement on Sunday night explaining his version of the story — one that highlights his own fear of the situation and attempts to de-escalate the growing tension between his classmates and the Black Hebrew Israelites and later the Native American group.

This is when the social media storm really hit.

There were two truths that were presented to the public that fed into different narratives of how the events transpired. Context is essential to any well-reported news story, yet this situation quickly turned partisan — many Republicans swiftly, but surely, dubbing the original reporting as “fake news” and hashing judgement on the “leftist” media.

It is not fake to report on Phillips’ fear of whether or not Sandmann and his friends had the intent to be intimidating in that situation.

It is also not fake to report on the statement by Sandmann and his family, despite the fact that it was crafted, in part, by a public relations firm to help calm the crisis.

The truth takes many shapes and forms and in cases such as the aforementioned, it takes no linear path.