I saw this term being used by someone on twitter- of course it piqued my interest
“Post-truth is an assertion of ideological supremacy by which its practitioners try to compel someone to believe something regardless of the evidence”
When the leadership class repeatedly and forcefully claimed the experimental jab was going to end the pandemic this was an example of post truth. There was no evidence, ever, to support that claim. There was evidence to the contrary and still the authoritarian regimes tried to compel us into believing their false claims. Many did. Far too many, actually.
This article of from 3 years ago- before Covid cult and Trans ideology extremism had taken hold.
Let’s have a read and then, of course, share some thoughts?!
When we say post-truth, what do you think that means?
Lee McIntyre: “It’s easy to have a misconception about what post-truth means. And to say that we live in a post-truth era doesn’t mean that truth doesn’t matter anymore, or that no one cares about truth. It means that we live in an era where truth is at risk, where we’re in danger of losing sight of what truth means.
In my book, I define post-truth as the political subordination of reality.So I think ofpost-truth as a tactic that's used by authoritarians and their wannabes to control the flow of information so that they can then control the populace.It’s intended not just to corrupt our belief in some specific thing that’s true, but really to undermine the idea that we can know truth outside of political context.”
“I think of post-truth as a tactic that’s used by authoritarians and their wannabes to control the flow of information so that they can then control the populace.
What’s different now?
Lee McIntyre: “It’s a great question, because the roots of this have been around forever. Politicians have lied. There have been, you know, enormous lies, enormous political subordination of reality, if you will: the Holocaust, American slavery. I mean, you just go back in history. It’s always existed. What’s different now? And I think the reason that the Oxford Dictionary named ‘post-truth’ their word of the year in 2016, is that this seems new in the following sense.
“The extreme political partisanship, married to the social media, married to how quickly misinformation and disinformation can get out there, I think makes this sort of a unique challenge of our time. It’s sort of a pandemic, if you will, of disinformation and misinformation that is new. So maybe the … roots that I explore in the book ‘Post-Truth’ have been there for a long time. But we’re now facing something that I think is a unique threat. And it’s new, at least in the American experiment. Here we are.”
Has anyone else come across this theory? There are some claims around this theory that humans are somewhat prone or susceptible to being mislead by lies masquerading as truth- Based on reading the Gustav LeBon book. I’d say there is some truth to this. However, it does not apply across the board.
3 replies on “A Post Truth World?”
To me it boils down to what the individual trust.
I am going to an example and for the sake of keeping it grounded I leave out the supernatural aspect.
I trust the Greed in People
I trust the Lust for escape from Reality in People
I trust the Irrationality in People (f.e Hatred is a form of irrationality to me, but I take even broader and say that “acting on Feelings alone” is irrational)
Just broaden it up, because I do realize I left a lot of things open.
So as I was saying how trust plays a big role in here. People have been living with the system and it gives them the realization of we know how that system works. And they trust that the system will on its own deal with the unsavory elements. This is why there is no real effort into thinking in these things. This in my view allows them to concentrate on things which are more important on them, social warmth, fun, career, Luxery.
It comes back to what has the system done wrong to me. In the Turkish language we have a proverb “May the snake who doesn’t touch me live a thousand years”.
But when the system does fail people, those people will be outliers. Their teachers might have failed them, their “friends” might have failed them, acquittances, parents, government, school, whatever. Something has failed them which caused them to change.
From this you get a whole breed of different people, Those who are in Denial and try to cope one way or the other, Those who leash out against that betrayed them, Those who start mistrusting everything, those who start taking revenge by abusing the system.
This is also why those whose hearts has been marked by darkness will have a hard time convincing those who have not. Personal experience is a very strong modifier.
Its saying. Hey the system is rigged to people who have not witnessed the tampering of the system. And if you were to show what is tampered in the system, it will be so over their head that can’t exactly understand what is tampered and when an “system expert” assures them its okay, its only those with a “heart of darkness” who will seem foolish.
“Why go against is”, “What has it done to you”, “Look at other countries, look how good we have it”, “Don’t you see the progress we have made”, “If it was such a big issue, why would have known by now”, “What if it was that way, it isin’t hurting me so why should I care”
How many arguments can you expertly defend, how many landmines can you expertly defuse. When you want to convince the others, you cannot afford to make mistakes, you cannot afford to use comprised sources. But they, can just be half-arsed about it.
And another one. In the face of peril, would you cast away your individuality to survive. Or cling to it even if it may cause you to lose everything.
Kaz, I need to read your comments, again. They have struck me as very thoughtful so I’ve got to read and consider what you’ve written
Thank you