Post-truth is a choice of response to reality, not a fixed condition

Evidence

It is a sophism to claim that Epimenides should be enclosed within the concept of Cretan and all Cretans within the concept of liar: it is not a mysterious essence that dictates good or bad faith to men and women; it is their situation that disposes them to seek the truth to a greater or lesser extent. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 63 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Even when we revert to traditional roles, these are choices now rather than absolute truths imposed at birth. As the great clinician of identity, Erik Erikson, once described it, “The patient of today suffers most under the problem of what he should believe and who he should—or… might—be or become; while the patient of early psychoanalysis suffered most under inhibitions which prevented him from being what and who he thought he knew he was.” This new mentality has been most pronounced in wealthier countries, but research shows significant pluralities of second-modernity individuals in nearly every region of the world. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 112 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Nietzsche’s nihilism, Sluga writes “is not one in which there are no values at all; nihilism is not a condition of anomie; it is rather a state in which the values we possess have become unanchored. This will show itself in a multiplication of values, in the production of ever new values, but also in their ever-continuing devaluation, in their constantly being discarded and replaced. Values themselves have thus lost their value; and there are, consequence, no higher or lower values; all values are equal; they have become fashions that come and go all equally trivial. In this condition, no greatness is possible anymore; triviality itself becomes one of our values. One sign of this form of nihilism is the dissolution of the distinction between true and false, the moment when we can no longer discriminate between real and fake news.” — Wendy Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, 657 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Some post-truth speech is magical thinking rather than mere lying — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 343; Brexit and Trump’s election resulted from rather than caused post-truth — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 53; Situation rather than essence determines one’s capacity for truth-seeking. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 63 (+5 more)

Related

• Situation rather than essence determines one’s capacity for truth-seeking. (similarity 0.83)
• Post-truth predates 2016 with roots in cognitive bias, philosophy, and media change (similarity 0.81)
• Post-truth roots lie in ancient cognitive bias, academic relativism, and media change (similarity 0.80)
• Cognitive biases alone cannot explain post-truth without later media factors (similarity 0.79)
• People can choose how to react to attempts to manipulate truth (similarity 0.79)
• Postmodernism holds that truth claims are really bids for political power (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Situation rather than essence determines one’s capacity for truth-seeking. #corroborates (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 63
• Identity is now a matter of choice rather than inherited absolute truth #exemplifies (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 112
• Nihilism is value-unmooring, not value-absence, dissolving truth and fake news distinctions #qualifies (0.75) — Wendy Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, 657
• Modern truth is underwritten by intersubjective control rather than given social status #expands (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 217