unavailableto thepublic at large.
Thereareotherlesssubtleways
of withholding truth,of course,cen-
sorshipandself-censorshipof those
whowriteandbroadcastintheme-
dia.IntheU.S.,eventheso-called
liberalmediaarenotorious forwith-
holding thetruthaboutwhat the
Americangovernment anditsallies
aredoingallovertheworld.And,of
course, thereisneveranyfunda-
mental critiqueof capitalismbythis
liberalmedia.In Indiatoo,themedia
areabjectlysubservientin recent
yearstopowerandprivilege.Anda
lotof people, [Noam]Chomskyand
[EdwardS.]Herman,mostextens-
ively,have demonstratedhowmuch
of this owes to the corporate
stranglehold onthemediainliberal
democracies.
And,of course,a different kindof
stranglehold(more directlybythe
state)existsincountrieswithother
formsof government. All this is
widely known and hardly bears
repeating.
Inventing“truth”is notjustkeep-
ingvitalinformation(information
thatis necessaryfortheelectorateto
voteknowledgeably)outof thepub-
licsphereandtherebyreducing the
prospects ofa substantial demo-
cracy.It is a moreaggressiveinter-
vention,andittoohasalso been
aroundforsometime,oftencalled
spin in previous times. (For an
earlierexampleof it, justtakea look
at theexcellentfilmInsideJobto see
howmuchspinorinventionof truth
high-ranking economistsfromHar-
vardandmyownuniversityperpet-
ratedin order to discourage the
regulationneededto avoid the 2008
financialcrash.)Butit hasbecome
muchmorea topicofdiscussionin
thepresent,especiallyintheU.S.,
partlydueto theunprecedentedhigh
jinx of a careening President
(someonelike[Silvio]Berlusconi,a
comparableearlierfigureinsome
ways,isnothinglikethescaleof
Trumpin thisregard)andpartlydue
tothecynicaluseof socialmediato
influenceelectoralpoliticsandthe
ethosof politics.It is thesemorere-
centthingsthatpost-truth wasspe-
cifically coined todescribe.Andto
theextentthatit hasstartedoccur-
ringin othercountriestoo,theterm
is getting widerapplication.TRUMP& TRUTH-TELLINGDoyouthinksomeonelikeTrump
completelydisregardsthetruthin
alltheliesheis caughtoutin telling
bypeoplewhocheckthefacts
againsthisstatements?
That’sa goodquestion,subtlerthan
it mightseem onthesurface.Yousee,
thereis a bigdifference between
someone whodisregardstruthand
someone, liketheliar, whodisreg-
ardstruth-telling, astheliardoes.
Someonewholiesdisregardstruth-
telling.Buttheliarholdstruthin
regardandthatis whyhewantsto
inventit.Someonewhodisregards
truthis quitedifferentfromtheliar:
he usually doesn’t care whether
somethingistrueornot,andhis
goal,unliketheliar’s,is notdecep-
tion.Hejustwantstospeakforthe
sakeof other goals:likeshowingoff
or making animpression, or,in
Trump’s case,to scorepointsagainst
opponentsandcome outontop,
showthemwho’s boss,as if it wasall
a game.Butthereis noregardfor
truth.Justa moveina game. The
liar’sgoal, bycontrast,is deception.
Inorderto deceive,hehastorepres-
enthimselfas believingwhathesays
eventhough hedoesn’t believeit.
WhenTrumpspeakssomething
thatis manifestly false,it is notreallyevenintendedalwaysto deceive, so it
is nota lie.Hisconstituency mayvery
wellknowthathedoesn’treallyeven
believewhatheis saying.So,unlike
theliar,hedoesnotevenwantto
comeoffas believingwhatheis say-
ing.Rather,heisbasicallygetting
somethingacrossto hisconstituency
of whiteworking[-class]peopleand
someotheranti-elitist groups,some-
thinglike“See,I justscored,I just
wonthisgame,I justthumbedmy
noseat thosecoastalliberalelitesyet
again.Theycan’treallytouchme
withalltheirsuperior,smugput-
downs.”
Anda goallikethatis quitedif-
ferentfromthegoaloftheliar.(Of
course, while there is all this
trumped-up,pardonthecrasspun,
gameplayingandpoint scoring,heis
behind thesmokescreen of these
antics,doinghorriblethingslikecut-
tingtaxesontherich,dismantling
healthcare, underminingenviron-
mentalregulations—allthethings
thattheRepublicanParty’sortho-
doxyapplauds,evenastheydescry
Trump’sbad-boybehaviour;afterall
heis carryingtheiragendafarfur-
therthantheyhad,whilepretending
to hisconstituencythatheisfighting
theorthodoxyof hispartyandreally
doinggoodthingsforthem, for the
workingpeople.)
I’mnotsuggestingthatTrump
neverliesordeceives. Sometimeshe
does.Butoftenit is nota lie,it is this
otherthing that disregards truth
ratherthantruth-telling.Infact,if
youaskme,I think thetermpost-
truthshould beusedto describea
politicalethosin whichoneis never
reallysurewhichoneis being perpet-
rated:liesor thisotherthing.Oneis
neverreallysurewhetherit is disreg-
ardof truth-tellingor disregard of
truth(whichis a totallackof interest
ineithertruthorfalsity).I think
post-truth is a goodtermto describe
thisethos,thisconfusionin thepolit-
icalairwhereone can’teventell
whichformof inventionof truthis
goingon,theliar’sor thisothersortof
publicverbalgame-player’s. There,
I’vegivenyoua characterisationof
whatpost-truth asa termshould be
usedtodescribe.Andsadtosay,
politicsin theU.S.is verymuchbeing“Thereis a big
difference
between
someone who
disregardstruth
andsomeone...
whodisregards
truth-telling,as
theliardoes.”