Philosophical, jargon-filled analyses of fake news are all well and good, but let’s take our heads out of academic journals and get back to the real world. What does being Post-Truth mean for us today? What does it look like? What are the consequences?
Misinformation wastes the time of real scientists who are forced to again and again prove deniers have been wrong over and over, yet those disproven deniers still get pickup for their nonsense. Deniers don’t need to be right, as long as they can keep providing excuses for their followers to parrot to justify delaying regulations.
The post-truth world impacts our health and safety. When the Center of Disease Control gets an order from the federal government to avoid using the words “science” and “evidence-based” in policymaking, we know that citizens’ health could be in danger from a fear of evidence-based arguments in opposition to the status quo.
And post-truth politics means our National Security plan doesn’t address an underlying driver of national security threats. If we don’t prepare for risks because their causes is politically sensitive, we are vulnerable to attack and our defenses are less effective.
Being post-truth wastes our tax money, since the IRS can no longer effectively do its job making sure charities aren’t just fronts for corporate lobbies due to a years-long witch hunt. Corporations can write off taxes on supposedly charitable donations to organizations that consistently advocate for policies that boost their funders’ bottom line.
From climate denial, to trickle-down economics, to basically anything that Trump says, the effects of decades of right-wing fake news echo chambers has done untold damage. Once some stories, people and news outlets are considered fake, anything can be suspected of being fake.
There is some hope we can find our way back to facts. The anti-science PR group Pruitt hired to do “media monitoring” for the EPA backed out due to, ironically, bad press. A few of Trump’s nominees have failed or dropped out after going viral, and even Kathleen Hartnett White may be in trouble. Career government staffers continue to use facts and truth to hinder the post-truth administration, like with Perry’s grid study. And of course Roy Moore, even with Steve Bannon’s fake news muscle in his corner, lost to a Democrat in Alabama, in large part thanks to the explosive Washington Post investigation exposing his disgusting sexual history.
Climate deniers can pretend extreme weather isn’t getting worse, but as the saying goes, “Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1.000.” Hard to ignore the flames when they’re licking at your doorstep, eh Rupert Murdoch?
We don’t know what’s post-post-truth (post-truthiness?) but we can’t wait to find out.
And with that, we’ll see you in 2018.