Alternative facts are a rejection of factual authority, not a rival claim

Evidence

An iconic exchange from January 22, 2017, crystallizes the conspiracist assault on knowledge. On NBC’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd asked presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway why the White House press secretary had repeated Donald Trump’s demonstrably false claim that the National Park Service had doctored photographs to diminish the size of the crowd at his inauguration. Conway said, “You’re saying it’s a falsehood.… And our press secretary gave alternative facts to that.” Todd responded, “Wait a minute, alternative facts? Alternative facts.… Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.” The conspiracist response is not to try to validate the “alternative fact” but rather to reject facts and deny the authority of institutions that produce them. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 236

Categorization

• DEFINE: The exchange defines ‘alternative facts’ as a move against the authority of fact-producing institutions, not as an attempt to win an evidentiary argument.
• XREF: Ties to the learned-notes library on knowledge-claims versus institutional authority in other books. — connects to: Public detachment from facts is misdiagnosed as misinformation rather than speculative trust. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 342; Some political falsehoods aim at affirmation of authority, not belief — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 164; Discourse exceeds ideology by refusing the true-false distinction about facts (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Some political falsehoods aim at affirmation of authority, not belief #corroborates (0.90) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 164
• Performing assent to authority’s claims is a form of submission, not belief. #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 165
• Public detachment from facts is misdiagnosed as misinformation rather than speculative trust. #expands (0.82) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 342
• Discourse exceeds ideology by refusing the true-false distinction about facts #corroborates (0.78)
• Totalitarianism’s ideal subject cannot distinguish fact from fiction or true from false #complicates (0.75)