The "Post-Truth" Generation

Oxford dictionary chose "post-truth" as the word of the year, in part because Trump's extravagant web of lies was mostly accepted and not challenged, and even when they were challenged it didn't seem to matter.

Also, apparently Facebook was a hotbed of made-up stories during the election; some adolescents got their jollies making up ridiculous stories to see if they could get something picked up by the alt-right media and apparently they succeeded. A lot.

So a whole generation is growing up with no respect for the truth or veracity, no feel for logic or reasonableness, no internal bullshit detectors.

This is worrying.

Think back to the Tonkin Incident. Think back to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Think back to Revere's midnight ride. Think back to any number of turning points in history, where accurate information (or lack thereof) had enormous consequences.

Now think about President Trump, who believes "truth" is a relative concept owned by he who speaks loudest and most forcefully.

"Trust me."

The only words more foreboding are, "Watch this."

The worst are, "We need to talk."

I'm having a discussion on Facebook with some guy who doesn't seem to be a rabid Trump fan, and admits that the Republicans have been trying to fix elections for many years. But he honestly seems to think that having no political experience is an advantage for Trump, and he also thinks that Trump is a good businessman, and that the country should be run like a business. My mind just sort of boggles on all these points. How can people develop such wrong-headed ideas? I mean, it should be obvious to pretty much anybody that Trump's idea of managing a business is to extract as much cash as possible as quickly as possible, then walk away while the company declares bankruptcy and everybody else involved gets screwed. You can't run the country that way.

Where do people get the idea that a government should be run like a business? They are antithetical in purpose.

Our first national bankruptcy, defaulting on treasury bonds, will be amusing.

Man with assault rifle enters Comet Ping Pong, victim of fake Clinton-trafficking story

This is all pretty funny, until somebody gets murdered.

Yeah, 'Pizzagate" is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are TONS of this shit out there and it appeals to individuals with a shaky sense of reality already.  NPR aired a story today about the Comet Pizza shooting, and the "expert" they had on said that fake news was all over the internet, Twitter, Facebook and social network sites.  

He failed to make the obvious (but perhaps dangerous) leap to Fox News.

The really sad part is, people who spew this nonsense do so under a false sense of "First Amendment rights" where nobody has the right to censor their spew.  I say this is unfortunate because the First Amendment does not give the right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater.  I would contend that some of these lies are no less dangerous and deceptive.

Hmmm, the courts disagree though.

Trump's Administration has signaled that it plans to make extravagant use of what it calls "alternative facts" -- where up is down, war is peace, ignorance is strength, and freedom is slavery. Fox News and Breitbart will be fact-checking the pronouncements, and anyone who disagrees is trying to delegitimize his presidency.

"Alternative facts" are a natural and comfortable concept for a man who starred in a reality TV show, and has built an empire on little more than the imagined "value of his name."  He campaigned on falsehoods, he accused the press of bias when they corrected his lies, and his whole appeal to the country was based on massive misunderstandings of what he stood for -- misunderstandings HE INTENTIONALLY FOSTERED.

I have a feeling the next four years are going to be very contentious as he tries to take control of the narrative and prevent "false facts" from overwhelming his own chosen view of reality.

His love of "alternative facts" is reminiscent of Karl Rove ("their have their math, we have ours"). What I see as a very large problem is that the man is childish. Calling a press briefing to cry about reporting the size of the crowd is what you would expect of a spoiled adolescent.

In a system where the person with the most votes wins the election, Trump would've lost the election to Hillary Clinton. There's an "alternative fact" for you.

I believe I have brought up this conundrum, only to have my concerns rejected.

No, Trump won the election -- under the present system. The "what if" speculation is just that, speculation.

NoCoPilot wrote:

In a system where the person with the most votes wins the election, Trump would've lost the election to Hillary Clinton.  There's an "alternative fact" for you.

That is most certainly NOT an alternative fact. It is a fact. Period.

NoCoPilot wrote:

The "what if" speculation is just that, speculation.

Exactly which "what if" speculation are you referring to? I don't see it here.

I was using the term "alternative" ironically. Of course under a straightforward voting system Hillary won.

Unfortunately, pointing out this fact doesn't change the election outcome, because our system is not straightforward.

Okay. I can go with ironically.

I wonder what the chances are that he will get impeached for some of his "alternative facts" re: Russia. His relationship with them is being investigated.

He will remain in office as long as he's useful to the Koch brothers, the Heritage Foundation, American Crossroads, Cato Institute, Discovery Institute and so forth.