Audiobook4 hours
Post-Truth
Written by Lee McIntyre
Narrated by Matthew Josdal
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
What, exactly, is post-truth? Is it wishful thinking, political spin, mass delusion, bold-faced lying? McIntyre analyzes recent examples-claims about inauguration crowd size, crime statistics, and the popular vote-and finds that post-truth is an assertion of ideological supremacy by which its practitioners try to compel someone to believe something regardless of the evidence. Yet post-truth didn't begin with the 2016 election; the denial of scientific facts about smoking, evolution, vaccines, and climate change offers a road map for more widespread fact denial. Add to this the wired-in cognitive biases that make us feel that our conclusions are based on good reasoning even when they are not, the decline of traditional media and the rise of social media, and the emergence of fake news as a political tool, and we have the ideal conditions for post-truth. McIntyre also argues provocatively that the right wing borrowed from postmodernism-specifically, the idea that there is no such thing as objective truth-in its attacks on science and facts.
McIntyre argues that we can fight post-truth, and that the first step in fighting post-truth is to understand it.
McIntyre argues that we can fight post-truth, and that the first step in fighting post-truth is to understand it.
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Reviews for Post-Truth
Rating: 4.220930241860465 out of 5 stars
4/5
43 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book. I read it because my son is reading it for his grade 12 English class and I have nothing to do since I am stuck in the house most days during the pandemic, but whatever, I read it and listened to it at the same time.
The concepts of the book are striking and it's, sadly, prophetic in places. He is talking about how our lackluster leadership is allowing death and mayhem to happen during global warming - try a pandemic! His arguments are even more weighty given the events that transpired since. He wrote the book in two years before our current health crisis. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating history of how intentional manipulation of cognitive biases, science denialism, and postmodernity have combined to bring us the era of "Pizzagate," "stolen elections," and "replacement theory."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm a huge fan of the Very Short Introductions series, and this new series by the MIT Press may be a worthy companion. This book definitely meets the standard of the best of the VSI books.McIntyre brings together the history and philosophy of truth. He then compares these historical benchmarks to the concept of post-truth that became a hot topic in Trump's America.The solutions offered are not revolutionary: vet the source and analyze it critically.Still, this is a good introduction to the series and I recommend it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent definitions. Cognitive theory types were explained. Social media is anti-truth. Analysis of postmodernism was a bit of a stretch. There are other cultural factors that explain feeling over fact mentality.