Post-Truth
eBook - ePub

Post-Truth

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Post-Truth

About this book

Are we living in a post-truth world, where "alternative facts" replace actual facts and feelings have more weight than evidence? How did we get here? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Lee McIntyre 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? McIntyre analyzes recent examples—claims about inauguration crowd size, crime statistics, and the popular vote—and finds that post-truth is an assertion of ideological supremacy by which its practitioners try to compel someone 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, and we have the ideal conditions for post-truth. McIntyre 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.

McIntyre argues that we can fight post-truth, and that the first step in fighting post-truth is to understand it.

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Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Series page
  3. Title page
  4. Copyright page
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. Table of Contents
  8. Series Foreword
  9. Preface
  10. Acknowledgments
  11. 1 What Is Post-Truth?
  12. 2 Science Denial as a Road Map for Understanding Post-Truth
  13. 3 The Roots of Cognitive Bias
  14. 4 The Decline of Traditional Media
  15. 5 The Rise of Social Media and the Problem of Fake News
  16. 6 Did Postmodernism Lead to Post-Truth?
  17. 7 Fighting Post-Truth
  18. Glossary
  19. Bibliography
  20. Further Readings
  21. Index
  22. About the Author

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Yes, you can access Post-Truth by Lee McIntyre in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Political Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.