We're living in a post truth world, (or so they say?)

grahamg

grahamg

Old codger
Location
South of Manchester, UK
According to some intellectuals we're living in a "post truth world", (in fact this assertion has been made for at least thirty years I believe).

I'd like to think it is balderdash but I suppose there could be something in it, (here's the result of a bit of checking):

https://ideas.ted.com/are-we-living...-but-thats-because-were-a-post-truth-species/
Quote:
"Are we living in a post-truth era? Yes, but that’s because we’re a post-truth species."

Another view here:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ing-trust-and-accountability-it-cant-end-well

Quote:
" In our new normal, experts are dismissed and alternative facts flagrantly offered."

Yet more here:

https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2020/06/03/living-in-a-post-truth-age/

Quote:
"I believe that it all goes back to the terrible question by Pontius Pilate, “What is truth?” We tend to think in terms of, “Well, truth is an accumulation of facts that are gathered by scientists and experts, and they pile up into a heap somewhere that we all agree to.” That’s just not the way the world works. Truth is a function of trust and pertains to the authority of the source. So, if tomorrow we came to think of scientists, for example, as being crackpots, then their pronouncements would have no more resonance than the TV commercial."

2nd quote:
"We don’t see an enchanted world anymore. There aren’t any fairies in the woodlands, and there aren’t any spirits that we can appeal to. And I think that is exactly what’s happened many centuries later to essentially that 20th century industrial system of institutions and government. There has been a profound disenchantment for the same reasons, that some of the things that were being claimed, many of the important claims that the systems made, were found to be not so.

And the flip side of that, again, from what you were saying, which is I think really the mood most of us seem to be in today, is that fracturing and that private truth you’re talking about, we seem to be getting deeper and deeper into a very subjectivized perception of what truth should be. That’s sometimes described as an information bubble, but that’s false because that assumes that you are in a bubble but somebody somehow knows the truth. So, you are escaping from some gigantic truth by being in your bubble. There is no truth out there. We’re all retreating into ourselves."
 

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I think that a disturbing number of people operate with perceptual blinders, filtering out anything that disagrees with their personal beliefs, prejudices, and preferences. The other day I saw a pickup emblazoned with anti-vaccination bumper stickers. Where reality is concerned, perceptions can trump actuality. Make mine science, please…🔬
 
I agree. We are living in an age of "alternative facts", spin, and intentional misinformation dissemination. We have 24 hour "news' channels that are biased, and are not really news oriented as much as they are opinionated spin panels. TV shows about ghosts, UFOs, yetis, big foot that are presented as reality. I don't want to dash anyone's cherished beliefs, but there are no zombies. And it doesn't matter if there's a three -part TV series, featturing the Doomed Cave on Satan's Island, where the EvilTemple of Alien Zombies is That stuff is not a documemtary, it's hype. It's not presented as fantacy, but as"alterantive facts". But it adds to the attack on reality, and truth.
 
I tend to agree...some unmentionable subjects originally mandated from the Left that curtails or prevents the truth (unconstitutionally). It is mainstream PC and other issues that are offlimits on the forum and most of the internet and world.
 
Don M. said:
There is so much information floating around on the media, and internet....some of which is just pure nonsense....that a person has to review several sources to try to figure out what is really happening.
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If you do all that, and don't think the truth is unimportant, (or passé!), then does this mean, in a "post truth world" you're "not of this world"? ( :) )
 
Victor said:
I tend to agree...some unmentionable subjects originally mandated from the Left that curtails or prevents the truth (unconstitutionally). It is mainstream PC and other issues that are offlimits on the forum and most of the internet and world.
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Funny how in my experience it all stems from the delusional and intolerant right wing. ;)
 
Many people choose to live in an alternate reality for reasons I don't fully understand. But here's a pretty good example of cable media being complicit:

Lara Logan was a regular on 60 Minutes until she produced a fabricated story about Benghazi. She was given a temporary suspension and then brought back, but was finally let go. She's now at Fox News. This is what she had to say about Fauci regarding the covid-19 vaccine:

“What you see on Dr. Fauci — this is what people say to me: that he doesn’t represent science to them. He represents Josef Mengele,” she said. “Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews during the Second World War and in the concentration camps. And I am talking about people all across the world are saying this, because the response from covid, what it has done to countries everywhere, what it has done to civil liberties, the suicide rates, the poverty, it has obliterated economies. The level of suffering that has been created because of this disease is now being seen in the cold light of day.”​

I seriously doubt anybody has said that to her. She just used that as an excuse to spread garbage.

And she's far from the worst on Fox News, but she's trying.
 
just idiocy. As usual, most of these strange stories are an attempt for ratings. The News, i heard, doesn't bring in much money. It might break even or lose, so this is all about profit at any cost.

Public Broadcasting remains conventional, reliable with a strong liberal view. And BBC news.
 
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Fyrefox said:
I think that a disturbing number of people operate with perceptual blinders, filtering out anything that disagrees with their personal beliefs, prejudices, and preferences. The other day I saw a pickup emblazoned with anti-vaccination bumper stickers. Where reality is concerned, perceptions can trump actuality. Make mine science, please…🔬
Click to expand...
This is disturbing I'd agree, (I should have said so earlier!), but has it always been so, is the question jumping into my mind, and we weren't so aware of it because their wasn't the internet etc., to remind everyone of views that would otherwise more easily have dissipated and/or been ignored(?).
 
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