Post-Truth (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

Nice to know that I’m not going crazy. As an engineer, I had not been exposed to the literary mumbo jumbo of post modernism or social constructivism. I feel better now to at least understand where such ignorance (there are no objective facts?) comes from. No wonder we have flat earthers and climate change deniers in 2018.It’s sad that the methods used in the 50s and 60s by the tobacco industry to instill doubt about sound science (tobacco kills) still work well today. The earth is round. Anthropomorphic climate change is real. Our current POTUS is a serial liar.Okay, so this book did not lift my confidence in humanity, it did remind me that the fight to support science is always important and worth while. Very informative, and definitely worth the read.

The book starts promising. It talks about many of the features of the post-truth era that have been well-documented: information silos, blatant lies promoted as credible narratives. The book falls apart toward the end when McIntyre tries to lay the blame for all of this on professors who promoted Postmodernism during the 80s and 90s. McIntyre asserts that the Postmodernists shred the link between truth and reality and the conservatives just ran with it. His remedy is to for everyone to buy a subscription to the New York Times or the The Washington Post instead of getting news from Facebook and Google.Seriously. As someone who took graduate level cultural studies classes at the University of Chicago during the 90s, I can't emphasize how ridiculous this is. It is a childish and simplistic attempt to frame a set of very influential philosophical ideas. Moreover, anyone who took those classes had to stomach outlandish ideas that were counter-intuitive and difficult to understand. However, Postmodernism did not lead to a dystopia of untruth.McIntyre would be better off looking at relatively recent history like the rise of the Nazis in Germany or the Communists in the USSR to find a better model of how propaganda supplants truth and reason. If he looked at literary figures like George Orwell he would understand that the problem of "post-truth" begins long before anyone ever talked about Postmodernism. Philosophy is only a symptom and not the cause.Aside from being a simplistic and childish critique of Postmodernism, the book does little to advance a serious inquiry into the current social and political conditions in the world that eerily mirror the days before both the World Wars. Finding parallels to the conditions that caused political polarization during those times would probably be a more convincing explanation for why people seem to be lapping up propaganda in today's world.MIT should really be embarrassed to have published this book.

Why are "fake news" and "alternative facts" on the rise? Why is it that truth doesn't seem to matter any more? In this timely and thought-provoking book, Lee McIntyre examines the root causes of the "post-truth" phenomenon. Long before Donald Trump ran for president, long before Alex Jones or Fox and Friends, McIntyre saw this problem coming. In previous books, he tried to warn us; now, with careful research, a keen philosophical eye, and rare literary wit, McIntye gives us deep insight into why. Contemporary psychologists call our attention, time and again, to innate cognitive biases; McIntyre takes the diagnosis to the next level, reminding us that willful dishonesty and deliberate propaganda are also major parts of the story. He shows that our current predicament has roots in technical innovation (the internet), corporate propaganda (e.g. tobacco and climate denialism), postmodern evasion (truth is relative), and the religious impulse (pretending to know things we don't really know). A carefully researched and beautifully written treatment of an enormously important phenomenon. Highly recommended!

The author defines post-truth as the "Contention that feelings are more accurate than facts, for the purpose of the political subordination of reality." He uses the history of the cigarette industry as a pattern people employ to attack existing science: set up your own experts; use the idea that it is "controversial" to demand equal time to established facts; use the media; and do lobbying, funded by those with financial interests. He uses climate change as an example, although he mentions instances like the vaccine-autism controversy and intelligent design. He goes into some of the cognitive biases that make us susceptible to fake news, such as discomfort at believing two contradictory things at once; giving more weight to the information that agrees with our ideas; and the tendency to dig in further if our belief is challenged. One thing that was interesting to me was the "Dunning-Kruger effect," where our lack of ability in something causes us to overestimate our skill--and the people with the least ability tend to think they have the most skill! Another nugget was that conservatives' brains are more susceptible to conspiracy theories than liberals. Of course, he includes the information silos and the vast choice of (often unvetted) information available. Remedies he suggests are to attack untruth where it occurs (don't assume that people couldn't believe that, no matter how weird); flood with the truth (people have a tipping point where the facts sink in); and remember that graphs and pictures can be more persuasive than narrative. The writing style and the examples the author used made for interesting reading. He persuaded me that feeling that something is right can outweigh the facts. I FEEL IT!

A must read for our times, it is a wonderful short book with loads of references for those interested to follow up on the topic.

This book is interesting read simply because it sheds light on what is happening in the sphere of political and cultural chaos that has engulfed our societies.

All in all, Post-Truth is a well-organized description of the alternate reality that exists in our country today. It includes a concise explanation of the history and sources of post-truth as well as the psychological terminology and phenomena underpinning it. The style is to a certain degree that of an academic journal article – indeed the publisher is The MIT Press. Thankfully, McIntyre manages to infuse a passion for the urgency of truth into the work. There are two aspects of the book which might give some people pause. First is chapter 6, which deals with post-truth in relation to the academic and philosophical concept of postmodernism. For those who are not philosophically inclined, this chapter might muddy the waters or dull the appeal. The second aspect concerns the fact that there are practically no alternative facts or post-truth examples from the left side of the political spectrum. Right wing reviewers might be critical of this aspect of the book, but it would be unfounded. For better or worse, it is the political right that is most at fault regarding post-truth. If anyone from the right has any good examples, they should send them to McIntyre, so he can include them in a future edition. The chapter that I was hoping most to learn from was chapter 7, Fighting Post-Truth. McIntyre mentions several approaches in the book: using truth repetition, the vetting of news by media outlets, checking veracity ourselves, and teaching school children how to fact check. All good! What was lacking for me though was what the government could do, if anything, with regard to regulating social media and fake news broadcasts. What legislative or regulatory pressures can be brought to bear on media businesses by the government to insure truthfulness? Food, drug, and electrical product businesses must place truthful and accurate labels on their products regarding contents and warnings, so why not news outlets? Indeed, FaceBook and Twitter are, to some degree, engaged in doing this now. I would like to see a government information agency much like the Food and Drug Administration for the certification of news trustworthiness. Is such a thing viable?

Well written, worth the read especially when folks don't know how to tell the difference between fact & fantasy, information or propaganda.

Attenzione : era un regalo a mio nipote (non dato via per qualche motivo!!!). Mi ha riferito che le condizioni e l'aspetto sono OK. Amazon sempre perfetto nei tempi.