Post-truth (emotive lie): definition and examples

Post-truth is a context in which it does not matter whether facts are true or false.

In Plato's myth of the cave, the famous Greek philosopher argued that truth is independent of our opinions. It will always be there even if no one believes in it. It is a very idealistic view of what exists.

However, this very powerful idea also has a dark side: the lie can also survive and get all the attention because, although it does not faithfully describe reality, it does not need to; it simply "works" in our heads. It allows us to construct a narrative about our lives. That's why it survives.

A few months ago the Oxford Dictionary noted that the word of the year for 2016 was post-truth, which in English is something like post-truth.. This concept points out that between truth and lie there is a territory of murky waters that escapes these two definitions.

What is post-truth?

Post-truth has been defined as a cultural and historical context in which empirical testing and the search for objectivity are less relevant than belief itself and the emotions it generates when it comes to creating currents of public opinion.

Basically, the word serves to point to a trend in the creation of arguments and discourses that is characterized by the assumption that objectivity matters much less than the way in which what is asserted fits in with the belief system that we feel is ours and that makes us feel good.

Post-truth implies a blurring of the boundary between truth and lies, and creates a third category distinct from the previous two. One in which a fact, fictitious or not, is accepted in advance simply because it fits our mental schemes.

Alternative facts

The popularization of post-truth has been joined by the concept of alternative facts, which in English translates as "alternative facts". Lies. But with a nuance: alternative facts, unlike lies in general, have a powerful media apparatus behind them, have behind them a powerful media and propagandistic apparatus that backs them up and will do everything possible to make these falsehoods appear to explain reality or, at least, to make them not appear to be lies.

After all, for something to be an alternative fact it needs something to give it momentum and to allow it to generate a discourse parallel to reality without hitting the ceiling. Otherwise, it would not be the alternative of anything.

Alternative facts, before being baptized as such by the head of Trump's election campaign when she was reproached for having used false information, are the raw material of post-truth. Or, seen in another way, the elements whose existence has forced someone to create the concept of post-truth and use it in political science and sociology.

Some examples of post-truth

As clear examples of the influence of the post-truth culture we could mention the fact that led to the first use of the concept "alternative facts" in a professional political context. Kellyanne Conway, the aforementioned head of the campaign of Donald Trump's campaign, justified the barriers imposed on citizens coming from countries with a Muslim tradition who want to enter the U.S. by pointing out that two Iraqi refugees had been involved in the Bowling Green massacre.. The Bowling Green massacre did not exist.

Another simple example of post-truth is White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's statement that the media had deliberately hidden the massive turnout of citizens at Trump's presidential inauguration, according to him, the inauguration with the largest audience in the world.

But, of course, alternative facts were not born with Trump; they are a constant in politics. Here we could mention, for example, the assertions coming from the Spanish government that pensions are guaranteed when indicators that cross demographics with socioeconomic data show the opposite. If it fits a discourse that arouses strong emotions because it represents us, it is valid, whether it is true or not.

Cognitive dissonances

In reality, what the term post-truth more or less refers to has been known for some years in psychology; the intellectual sacrifices we accept in order to maintain a belief system that has become ingrained in our identity. a belief system that has become ingrained in our identity.. A phenomenon pointed out, for example, by the social psychologist Leon Festinguer.

The The cognitive dissonance that Festinguer spoke of is that state of tension and internal conflict that we feel when reality clashes with our beliefs. When it occurs, we try to resolve the situation by readjusting the fit between that belief system and the information that comes to us from the outside; many times, we choose to manipulate reality reality in order to keep the former as it is.

Post-truth as an opportunity

But not all aspects of post-truth are formulated in a negative way, as something that destroys the way of seeing things that characterized us before. There is also a positive aspect to post-truth; not because it is morally good, but because it leads to building something new, rather than undoing what is already there.

And what does post-truth bring? The possibility of creating a context in which truth and the testing and presentation of evidence is so little valued that all kinds of lies can subsist. that all kinds of lies and ideas with no head or tail can survive.. From climate change being a myth, to homosexuality being unnatural, to all sorts of inventions about distant countries to create an excuse to invade them.

This tendency to renounce intellectual honesty for its own sake has in "alternative facts" a name that allows it to legitimize itself.

In the post-truth world, literally any idea can give way to a valid discourse about what happens in reality, as long as the loudspeakers through which it is transmitted are powerful enough. Knowing whether it is true or not is superfluous.