The Post-Truth world

I saw a phrase used the other day that neatly explains so much of the recent election of Donald Trump as US president (typing that out still feels like indulging in the worst sort of fan fiction).

It’s just two words: post truth. You could hyphenate it or capitalize it or both to make it look more official:

Post-Truth

It is a simple concept. Trump ran on a campaign built on fear, hate and unworkable, impractical promises. He would bring back manufacturing. He would revive the coal industry. He would force Apple to make their computers in America. He’d build a wall along the border and make Mexico pay for it. Muslims would be essentially banned from entering the country until he could “figure out what was going on.”And nearly 50 million believed enough of these promises/threats to see him elected.

The reality will be much different, of course. But it doesn’t matter because we are now living in the era of Post-Truth. Objective facts, reality itself–these things no longer matter to a large swath (or swatch, if you prefer) of the population. And this is not just a US-specific phenomena, it has just manifested most spectacularly there, with chilling results for the world at large.

Simply put, a lot of people do not care about reality anymore. They don’t care about facts or science. Reason and logic are meaningless. These people have retreated into the safety of the world as they perceive it, as they want it to be. These people are essentially unreachable through conventional means, whether you are seeking their vote or simply asking them to listen objectively to what you have to say.

They will not listen unless they hear what they want to hear.

The danger is a demagogue–like Trump–can manipulate these people and acquire power by telling them what they want to hear, then use that power to do terrible things. And when re-election comes, the people like Trump will deflect and again tell people what they want to hear. “It’s not my fault, I want these great things for you, but the system is against me.” And he will retain their support.

I don’t see an easy way to get past Post-Truth. Maybe everything must collapse before it can be rebuilt.

Climate change may very well provide the key to that.

So as people elect demagogues who placate them by telling them foolish lies they want to believe, the Earth undergoes dramatic transformation as the climate goes through significant warming. Millions, maybe even billions, will die as we collectively do too little and do it too late to help ameliorate the worst of the effects. It sounds like indulging in the worst sort of fan fiction again, but it could happen. All evidence points to it already having begun.

Well, that was depressing. At least we’ll have funny cats on the internet until it all comes crashing down. Promise us you won’t take away the kittens, Mr. Trump.

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