Post Truth
The reality is there are usually two opinions but only one truth
The rise of the false equivalency arrived when “fair and balanced” news came to be seen as the world of two truths. The reality, however, is there are usually two opinions but only one truth. Facts, data and information can say that truth is complicated, but not that two opinions — one of which is based on these criteria — both represent the truth. The right to an opinion and the validity of that opinion are not one and the same. Which is to say, some opinions matter far more than others.
We avoid being ruled by emotion over reason by focusing on true or false, not feelings. Denying science, ignoring economic data and dismissing facts aren’t valid points of view but agendas avoiding science and fact-checking. Truthiness — falsehoods that sound true — isn’t truth. Indeed, there’s a phrase that refers to the current state of this pseudo truth: post truth. In the past it was simply referred to as lying. To make post truth seem valid, a combination of “facts” are presented in a false logical narrative that is directed at confirmational bias — the tendency to want to hear what agrees with what one already believes.
The current Republican presidential candidate, a pathologically dishonest narcissist, has taken this to new levels, specifically saying what others believe — but won’t say themselves — without regard to how false the assertions are. For his supporters, this post truth is their truth. For many in the Republican party, this is so disturbing that they either won’t support and vote for him or will actually vote for his opponent. But for true believers, there’s only one “truth,” and they accept it even if they have doubts.
In my last post I described the alt-right. For them, the post truths coming from the candidate noted above are confirmation of their own truth — their country is literally being stolen from them and is doomed. An essential aspect of post truth is fear, uncertainly and doubt…and then anger. Ironically, the positive, hopeful message from the candidate’s Democratic opponent is deemed false, confirming the post truth reversal of true and false. His dark view is truthful, her optimistic one is false.
The thing to remember is that this reversed true and false is primarily in the world of the outliers on the fringes of the political continuum. While post truth is too often a Republican talking point, many Republican candidates are not enamored with this but cannot find politically feasible ways to run away from it. Unfortunately for the Republican party, the extremist fringe is their base and thus becomes the gift that keeps on giving. It cannot easily push away this millstone, which means Republican primaries are a nightmare for a party seeking a bigger tent, thus making it essentially impossible to field more moderate conservatives with broader appeal.
When Stephen Colbert used truthiness for almost a decade as a way of making fun of truth that sounds better than it is, he was also calling it out. In politics, however, such intellectual honesty is often unappreciated and often despised. Post truth is all about intellectual dishonesty, as if fabricating the truth from falsehoods is morally and ethically ambiguous when in reality it is simply wrong. It undermines the very foundation of how we rationally solve problems. Honest, sincere efforts to find agreement sufficient to do more than nothing cease to exist.
To be pragmatically honest, post truth and alt-right are simply newer names for the same darker aspects of human nature and behavior that have always existed. The singular difference is that the quality of discourse is now diminished even more while the levels of provocation are significantly more impolite and uncivil. Assertions have become more exaggerated, more dishonest, more divisive, more angry and more intolerant. Mind you, this unfortunate trend is meant to appeal to the least educated and least intelligent (not necessarily directly linked) individuals. And the most conservative.
In Europe, where coalition governance is common, center-right to center-left political parties join in pushing back against the more extremist, populist conservative rhetoric and candidates, but in the U.S. that won’t work. Here, voters from center-left to center-right have to join together and elect candidates who do not represent or participate in the ugly post truth/alt-right rhetoric that passes for political debate. If lying and making it up become acceptable, we will truly be headed in the wrong direction as a society.
