Post-truth facts for kids

Post-truth is a term that describes a time when people are worried about what is true, especially in public discussions. It's about how facts and feelings can get mixed up.

The word became very popular in 2016. The Oxford Dictionaries chose "post-truth" as their Word of the Year. They said it means a time when feelings and personal beliefs are more important than facts in shaping what people think. This happened a lot during the 2016 United States presidential election and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom.

Some experts say that post-truth is like older ideas about how people see truth. But others believe it's a new problem, especially because of how we share information today. This includes new ways we use technology and social media.

What is Truth?

For a long time, people have thought about what "truth" really means. Philosophers, who are thinkers, have many ideas about it. One common idea is that something is true if it matches what is real. For example, if you say "the sky is blue," it's true because the sky really is blue.

However, when we talk about "post-truth," we are not usually asking "what is truth?" Instead, we are asking "why do people disagree about what is true?"

Why Disagree on Facts?

Many experts believe that post-truth happens because people no longer trust traditional sources of information. These sources used to be things like the government or news channels.

Now, with new technologies, anyone can create and share content online. This includes videos, pictures, and stories. Sometimes, it's hard to tell what is real and what is not. This can lead to a lot of confusion about what the facts are.

For example, the philosopher Julian Baggini explained that when people argue about big topics like global warming, they are not disagreeing about what truth is. Instead, they are disagreeing about who to trust for information. In the past, people often trusted religious leaders, experts, or common sense. Today, it feels like there is no single authority that everyone trusts. This means people often have to choose their own experts or just trust their feelings.

How Post-Truth Affects Us

The idea of post-truth is very important in today's world. It helps us understand why people might believe things that are not true. It also explains why it can be hard to agree on basic facts.

Hannah Arendt's Ideas

A philosopher named Hannah Arendt wrote about something similar to post-truth in 1972. She called it defactualization. This is when it becomes hard to tell facts from made-up stories. She talked about how governments sometimes hide or change facts.

Arendt said that facts are not always "compellingly true." This means they can be easily changed or ignored by lies. She warned that if people are forced to ignore the difference between truth and lies, then truth will disappear from public life. This makes it harder for society to be stable.

She also pointed out that advertising plays a big role. Advertising tries to make people "ready to buy" things. This way of thinking, where feelings and opinions are more important than facts, can spread into politics.

Another thinker, Byung-Chul Han, talks about how "fake news" works. He says fake news is not just lying. A liar knows the truth but hides it. But fake news attacks the idea of facts themselves. It makes people not care about whether something is true or false.

Modern Examples of Post-Truth

Many people believe that the words of Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, predicted the "post-truth" world. He wrote in his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

Sagan worried about a future where people can't tell what's true from what feels good.

The idea of post-truth has been used to describe many recent events. These include the 2016 United States presidential election and the 2020 United States presidential election. It also applies to the spread of false information during the COVID-19 pandemic. The historian Timothy Snyder said that "Post-truth is pre-fascism." He meant that if we give up on truth, we give power to those who can create big shows instead of facts. Without facts, people cannot work together to protect themselves.

See also

• Consensus reality
• Consensus theory of truth
• Fake news
• Filter bubble
• Philosophical skepticism
• Social constructionism
• Truthiness