The post-truth problem’s roots trace directly to academic postmodernism
Evidence
So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot. … Some have proposed that the solution to post-truth is to turn to academics, who have for years been thinking about standards of evidence, critical thinking, skepticism, cognitive bias, and so on. It is therefore embarrassing to admit that one of the saddest roots of the post-truth phenomenon seems to have come directly out of colleges and universities. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 241
Categorization
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: which specific academic doctrines and lineages does McIntyre credit with seeding post-truth, and is the causal claim defensible or rhetorical?
- XREF: connects to: Post-truth roots lie in ancient cognitive bias, academic relativism, and media change; Postmodernist premises applied to politics yield post-truth reality denial — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 292; Postmodernism abandons ideology critique for cynical reason — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 21 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Postmodernist premises applied to politics yield post-truth reality denial
#corroborates(0.90) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 292 - Post-truth roots lie in ancient cognitive bias, academic relativism, and media change
#qualifies(0.85) - Postmodernism abandons ideology critique for cynical reason
#expands(0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 21 - Postmodernity is defined by the delegitimation of metanarratives
#complicates(0.75) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 65 - False equivalence between sides is itself a hallmark of post-truth
#expands(0.75) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 15