Post-truth: as seen through the U.S. Elections
Post-truth: we’ve seen a lot of it in politics recently with the U.S. Elections. Businessman and television personality Donald J. Trump was up against former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton — the latter holding a degree from Yale Law School and being the sole candidate with experience in the field. After the three presidential debates, it was a no-brainer. Clinton was bound to make U.S. history by being the first female President.
Come November 8, 2016, the day of the election, the world was shocked. Trump was in the lead. By the early hours of the 9th, the unexpected happened. Trump had won.
A man whose campaign was built on political promises, such as the one to make Mexico “pay” for a wall that spans across the U.S.-Mexico border, and many other false claims was victorious — but why?
Because of Clinton’s emails? The ones that the FBI had continuously cleared up until the end of the campaign? Well, partially. Social media has played quite a role in this election from the candidates themselves, as well as from avid supporters who’ve voiced their opinions — sometimes without fact. When glancing at Twitter and searching keywords “Hillary emails”, many call Clinton a “crook” for deleting over 30,000 emails. Their justification appears to be because she lied about them. “Who cares if Trump doesn’t support the LGBTQ community or immigrants? Hillary sent corrupt emails and denied them” — is what one said, despite that no criminal matter was detected within the correspondences.
A question arises: how much of this was influenced by fake news and far-right individuals who purposely appeal to one’s emotions and personal views? Nowadays, we are too easily convinced: it’s like ignoring the fact that gas prices are increasing because we want to believe otherwise. Sounds absurd, doesn’t it?
The reality is that we are now living in a post-truth world where the lie becomes the truth and it’s accepted simply because it matches with our preconception. When Trump claimed that Barack Obama was the founder of the Islamic State, a number of his followers seemed to agree. When Trump stated that Clinton won the popular vote through illegal means, his supporters roared and tweeted the same.
However, social media is not entirely to blame. While fake news sites continue to publish speculation about both candidates and it is often shared, retweeted, and reblogged, the real problem is the gullibility and delusion of the believer. In fact, many are so caught up with proving their point of view that they’re willing to downplay the misdemeanour. In other words, social media is social media: it’s a platform that gives voice to the powerful and weak, and while it generates controversial headlines, it points back to the argument about filter bubbles and what “belongs” in our inner circle.
People want to be told that they’re right. People want to be backed up, someway, somehow. But at what cost? Brexit happening because individuals thought that an E.U. membership cost £350m ($470m) a week due to misinformation? A nation dividing because the President prefers to make up facts on camera for entertainment value? Climate change being disregarded and removed from the White House’s website because it’s seen as a hoax?
Obama to Inverse Culture once said, “An explanation of climate change from a Nobel Prize-winning physicist looks exactly the same on your Facebook page as the denial of climate change by somebody on the Koch brothers payroll.”
And he’s not lying.
As we progress in our digital world, it raises more issues about credibility. Anybody can post on social media. Anybody can be on the receiving end. How often is it that we read a fake article and proceed to tell our friends, who tell their friends, and so forth? And when people ignore scientifically-proven facts for the sake of fuelling their argument, what does it mean for us? What does it mean for the future?
It’s a scary thought when a post-truth culture has the ability to influence historical events. Imagine what’ll happen in 2019 when the U.S. has its next election — perhaps the method to appeal to one’s emotions is one that works. With the addition of social media, anything is possible. What happens elsewhere can easily be found online; thus, the ongoing war between fact and fiction persists. The post-truth world will be encouraged as per such, and is something we need to deal with until media giants like Facebook take action — and until then, something we need to embrace with open arms and open minds.
