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Post-truth /
Are we living in a post-truth world, where "alternative facts" replace actual facts, and where feelings have more weight than evidence? How did we get here? In this volume, the author traces the development of the post-truth phenomenon from science denial through the rise of "fake new...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Cambridge :
MIT Press,
[2018]
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| Colección: | MIT Press essential knowledge series.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
| Sumario: | Are we living in a post-truth world, where "alternative facts" replace actual facts, and where feelings have more weight than evidence? How did we get here? In this volume, the author traces the development of the post-truth phenomenon from science denial through the rise of "fake news," from our psychological blind spots to the public's retreat into information silos. What, exactly, is post-truth? Is it wishful thinking, political spin, mass delusion, bold-faced lying? The author analyzes examples from the late 2010s - claims about the crowd size at the 2017 presidential inauguration, crime statistics, and the popular vote - and finds that post-truth is an assertion of ideological supremacy by which its practitioners try to compel their audience 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 - factors that create the ideal conditions for post-truth. The author 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. The author ultimately argues that we can fight post-truth, and that the first step in fighting post-truth is to understand it.--adapted from publisher's description. |
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| Descripción Física: | 1 online resource (xvi, 216 pages) |
| Bibliografía: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780262345972 0262345978 9780262345989 0262345986 |