Library:Post-Truth
| Post-Truth | |
|---|---|
| Author | Lee McIntyre |
| First published | 2018 |
| ISBN | 978-0-262-53504-5 |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Politics & Elections Culture, Religion & Society |
| Tactics | Propaganda Technique |
Post-Truth is a 2018 book by Lee McIntyre.
Summary
Lee McIntyre, a philosopher of science at Boston University, wrote this short book for MIT Press's Essential Knowledge series in 2018. It responds to the moment in 2016 when Oxford Dictionaries chose "post-truth" as its word of the year, and asks what the term means and how the condition came about.
What post-truth means
McIntyre argues that post-truth is not simply lying, which is as old as politics. It is the political subordination of reality: the claim that feelings, loyalty or power can determine what counts as true. A post-truth politician does not just deny particular facts; he treats the question of what is true as negotiable.
The roots
The book traces several causes. The first is science denial, especially the tobacco industry's campaign to manufacture doubt, which created a template later applied to climate change. The second is cognitive bias: ordinary mental tendencies that lead people to favour information that confirms what they already believe. The third is the decline of traditional media, with its shared standards, and the rise of partisan outlets. The fourth is social media, which fragments audiences and spreads false claims quickly.
The postmodern question
McIntyre's most controversial argument concerns postmodernism. He suggests that academic theories questioning objective truth, developed mainly on the left, may have provided intellectual cover for later right-wing attacks on facts, even if their authors never intended it. He acknowledges the connection is indirect and contested, and other scholars dispute it.
Fighting back
The book ends with practical advice. McIntyre argues that false claims should be challenged rather than ignored, that the truth should be repeated even when it seems obvious, and that people should be alert to their own biases. He emphasizes that the remedy is not cynicism but a renewed commitment to evidence.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
This is a concise introduction to the conditions the site was created to confront. Its argument that challenging falsehood matters, even when it seems futile, is close to the site's founding purpose, and its contested claim about postmodernism makes it a useful case for showing how an entry can present a disputed argument fairly.