Post-truth spans distinct attitudes from bullshitting to delusive self-deception.

Evidence

There are other interesting relationships one can have with truth. In his delightfully brash yet rigorous book On Bullshit, philosopher Harry Frankfurt makes the case that when one is bullshitting, one is not necessarily lying but instead may just be demonstrating a careless indifference toward what is true. Is that what Trump is doing? And there are other, more partisan, attitudes that one can have toward truth as well. When Gingrich claims that how we feel about the murder rate is more important than FBI statistics, one suspects he is just being cynical; he is a kind of enabler for post-truth. Those political shills who “spin” the truth most favorably to their advantage, knowing full well (along with most everyone else) that this is what they are doing, are not just bullshitting, for there is clear intent to influence others. Yet post-truth also exists in an even more virulent form. This is when self-deception and delusion are involved and someone actually believes an untruth that virtually all credible sources would dispute. In its purest form, post-truth is when one thinks that the crowd’s reaction actually does change the facts about a lie. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 46

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes bullshitting (indifference), spin (intent to deceive), cynicism, and delusion as the spectrum under the post-truth umbrella.
• XREF: connects to: Belief in misinformation ranges from automatic to deliberative along a continuum. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 157; Post-truth spans a spectrum from bullshit and spin to self-deception and delusion — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 46; Some post-truth speech is magical thinking rather than mere lying — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 343 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Post-truth spans a spectrum from bullshit and spin to self-deception and delusion #exemplifies (0.95) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 46
• Serial falsehood complicates the lie-truth distinction when speakers believe their claims #expands (0.85) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 310
• Some post-truth speech is magical thinking rather than mere lying #expands (0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 343