The public wants to rely on the facts by assessing political actions and striving for critical thinking. Recently, however, facts have lost their evidentiary value in the political process. A question arises of how an advanced society manages public decisions if the facts are used without evidence. Various experts talk about a new post-truth policy, which implies concealing actual facts behind information addressing personal beliefs and emotions.1 Even though the information is available to the public more than ever before, its reliability has been shaken due to this accessibility.
Certain factors have influenced the emergence and support of the post-truth policy and, accordingly, the controversial facts. The transformation of media, populist political movements, and many information-collecting and interpreting methods create distorted facts.2 3 For example, social media has created entire spaces for data dissemination.4 More and more people can create content based on personal opinions, misconceptions, and prejudice. In this case, the one who will cause the most emotional response in the audience will attract more attention. In politics, at the same time, facts can be subjective and presented from the emotional position that is most beneficial. Thus, advanced society manages public decisions guided by personal opinion and emotions.
In conclusion, it is difficult to find objective facts on which one can rely in the world of post-truth. Competitions between populists, the availability of information, and the ability for anyone to create content became the reasons for the emergence of post-truth. Exaggeration, fiction, and rigging have become common phenomena in the political process. As a result, people believe in information that corresponds to their beliefs rather than supported by reality. Such changes lead to politics being based on emotions and can cause significant harm to people.
Footnotes
- Keane, John. “Post-Truth Politics and Why the Antidote isn’t Simply ‘Fact-Checking’ and Truth.” The Conversation, 2018, Web.
- Ibid.
- Hyvönen, Ari-Elmeri. “Careless Speech: Conceptualizing Post-Truth Politics1.” New Perspectives, vol. 26, no. 3, 2018, pp. 31–55.
- Ibid., p. 46.