What Is the Post-Truth Era and Is There Any Truth to It? |
The "post-truth era" refers to a current trend in the zeitgeist, particularly in the media and political landscapes, in which it has been speculated that emotional appeals and personal beliefs have become more influential on public opinion than facts.
I say zeitgeist here because I’m not convinced that such speculation spreads across all of society in a manner that infiltrates "good-thinking" people. People with a basic understanding of epistemology are aware that facts should outweigh emotions and beliefs as sources of evidence, and, as good thinking still exists, I’m confident that this refers to the many, if not most.
However, that doesn’t mean that post-truth hasn’t infiltrated a larger-than-it-should cohort or that we might see "good thinkers" fall prey to such post-truth approaches more often than they should. However, I do think the potential for this speculation to have weight is more widespread than simply relegating it to a pop culture issue. So, I think ‘zeitgeist’ is a good fit—the spirit of this unfortunate possibility is certainly manifest in the background of things.
With that, we’ve seen the use of emotional appeals and the exploitation of personal beliefs for decades, if not centuries, in political argumentation and media representation. Why? It works. I still remember those starving children that Sally Struthers spoke about in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Even the smartest among us are susceptible to fall for such strategies when the conditions are right (at least, in terms of implicit influence). Acknowledgment of such strategies’ power to shape opinion is not new and certainly pre-dates the suggested 2016 start date of the "post-truth era," though I think 2016........