Post-truth

by McIntyre, Lee C.

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Title Statements

Full title :Post-truth / Lee McIntyre.

Summary

Are we living in a post-truth world, where "alternative facts" replace actual facts, and where feelings have more weight than evidence? How did we get here? In this volume, the author traces the development of the post-truth phenomenon from science denial through the rise of "fake news," from our psychological blind spots to the public's retreat into information silos. What, exactly, is post-truth? Is it wishful thinking, political spin, mass delusion, bold-faced lying? The author analyzes examples from the late 2010s - claims about the crowd size at the 2017 presidential inauguration, crime statistics, and the popular vote - and finds that post-truth is an assertion of ideological supremacy by which its practitioners try to compel their audience to believe something regardless of the evidence. Yet post-truth didn't begin with the 2016 election; the denial of scientific facts about smoking, evolution, vaccines, and climate change offers a road map for more widespread fact denial. Add to this the wired-in cognitive biases that make us feel that our conclusions are based on good reasoning even when they are not, the decline of traditional media and the rise of social media, and the emergence of fake news as a political tool - factors that create the ideal conditions for post-truth. The author also argues provocatively that the right wing borrowed from postmodernism - specifically, the idea that there is no such thing as objective truth - in its attacks on science and facts. The author ultimately argues that we can fight post-truth, and that the first step in fighting post-truth is to understand it.--adapted from publisher's description.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:2018

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):MIT Press
Place of Publication:Cambridge
Language:eng
Publication Date:2018

The Physical Object

Description:1 online resource (xvi, 216 pages)

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780262345972, 0262345978, 9780262345989, 0262345986
oclc:on1024286475
LC Classification:BD171
Dewey Decimal:121

What is post-truth? -- Science denial as a road map for understanding post-truth -- The roots of cognitive bias -- The decline of traditional media -- The rise of social media and the problem of fake news -- Did post-modernism lead to post-truth? -- Fighting post-truth.