All posts tagged: PostTruth

Trump’s Censorship Machine and the Post-Truth Presidency

Trump’s Censorship Machine and the Post-Truth Presidency

Published by Sam Flores

For decades, conservatives and far-right adherents have cried that “radical leftists” and the “anti-Christian left” are censoring their freedom of expression. Many still believe this even when a Republican presidential administration is in power. And now that same administration is going after their “political enemies” in line with the dark legacy of President Richard Nixon. The hypocrisy here is that swaths of the political right, long warning of that censorship, are increasingly using state authority to regulate speech in ways they once denounced. It’s evident. President Donald Trump’s censorship machine is full steam ahead. Across the country, there is a clearer picture of how the president’s administration is actively targeting opponents, critics and entire groups of people it characterizes as threats to some imagined status quo of national society. As of this writing, what I view as one of the most blatant attempts to censor one such group of people comes from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Brendan Carr, the FCC’s chair and a strong proponent of Christian nationalism, announced a public notice seeking comments from parents and consumers about the …

Why science GCSEs matter more than we think in a post-truth age

Why science GCSEs matter more than we think in a post-truth age

Published by skeptic

Concerns about living in a “post-truth” society – where evidence struggles to compete with misinformation, ideology and emotion – are now familiar. From vaccine hesitancy to climate change denial, public debates increasingly hinge not on a lack of information, but on how people judge evidence, expertise and uncertainty. These concerns are often framed as a problem of facts. But a deeper issue may be at play – whether people have the skills to weigh competing claims, understand uncertainty and decide what counts as good evidence. Our new research suggests that science education could play a far bigger role in shaping those skills than is usually recognised. Many philosophers and educationalists have argued that education plays a central role in preparing citizens to navigate an uncertain world. Today, organisations such as Unesco, the UN body for education, science and culture, are grappling with how schools and universities can respond to rising misinformation and declining trust in expertise. Higher education institutions and academics are attempting to find practical solutions to this challenge. Public concern often focuses on …

X-Files revival needs to address one big dilemma in our post-truth world

X-Files revival needs to address one big dilemma in our post-truth world

Published by Daniella Wilson

Add The X-Files to your watchlist Nostalgia for the 1990s is currently a potent fuel, and news that plans for a revival of The X-Files are solidifying has excited fans who have elevated FBI agents Mulder and Scully to the realms of the mythic. But glance at any early episode of the hit sci-fi drama about investigations into the otherworldly and it soon becomes clear just how much of a product of its time it is. Aesthetically, it’s undeniable. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) conducts research not on Google, but by whizzing through a blur of microfiche. When her partner Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) frets about being under surveillance, it isn’t CCTV that concerns him, rather a bug on his landline phone. Photos are developed in darkrooms, not uploaded to Instagram. And evidence mounts in manila folders not online forums. But nothing dates the series so much as its slogan: The Truth is Out There. To put that phrase into context, we must cast our minds back to 1993 – the year that the eerie whistle …

Science Denial: From Post-Truth to Post-Trust

Science Denial: From Post-Truth to Post-Trust

Published by Jenni Sidey

Philosophers Stephen Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro open their book When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People with a dire warning. “Something is seriously wrong,” they write. “An alarming number of citizens, in America and around the world, are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas.” These ideas include the beliefs that vaccines cause autism, that the scientific consensus on climate change is a hoax, and that 5G cellular networks contributed to the spread of COVID-19. According to Nadler and Shapiro, the problem with those who hold such beliefs is not that they are unintelligent or uneducated. Rather, it is that they “think badly”—they should be “perfectly aware that they are forming and holding beliefs irrationally and irresponsibly, and even doing so willfully.” Nadler and Shapiro are not alone in thinking that liberal democracies are experiencing an epidemic of willful ignorance. In the last decade, many observers have lamented the advent of a “post-truth” era, an era in which a growing number of citizens have little or no interest in the truth and would rather believe what is …

Are We Living in a Post-Truth Era?

Are We Living in a Post-Truth Era?

Published by Jenni Sidey

It can seem like everyone feels entitled to their own opinions and even their own facts. But skeptic Michael Shermer argues that reports of truth’s death are greatly exaggerated. In his forthcoming book, Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters, he shows that while our species is susceptible to self-deception, we’re not condemned to it. Imagine you’re at work, Shermer writes, and you get a call from your neighbor warning that suspicious-looking people seem to be casing your house. You call the police. They say they don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then your neighbor calls again to say there’s a moving truck in your driveway. Again, the police assure you that they don’t see anything. Then your neighbor calls a third time, this time frantic because he sees people inside your home. What do you do? Most people, Shermer notes, would rush home. Even if your neighbor was lying or mistaken, acting on the belief that your neighbor was telling the truth “would be a rational response …