Don T Lie: The Deception Of Truth In Politics

The truth can be ugly, so as a politician, it is not always beneficial to tell the truth. Knowing this, some politicians manipulate the truth, to make it more beautiful. In recent years, this manipulation has become so pervasive, that the concept of truth is beginning to resemble the concept of beauty. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. In a world where truth is synonymous with opinion, how can a democracy survive? After all, the idea of self-government is entirely dependent on an educated electorate making decisions based on facts, not cherry-picking facts based on decisions. As the debate about a “post-truth” society rages around the world, The Economist published an article on this subject in September of 2016. Entitled Yes, I’d Lie to

Although deception is an inevitability in politics, the article contends that the way politicians lie has changed. Before, honesty and the truth had power. Now, politicians don’t argue with facts, but insinuations. The age of information has drowned the average voter in so many so-called facts, that they are now faced with the tedium of assessing what is true and what is false. This has made truth harder to find, and therefore discouraged people from seeking it. Additionally, there is a distrust in politicians the media, and even scientific research. One example is the debate on climate change, where Republican politicians have mercilessly denigrated the entire scientific establishment. By impugning climate change research, these politicians managed to convince large swaths of the American populous that climate change is a hoax, and that the scientific institutions that promote it as truth ought not to be trusted. In addition to growing contempt for the traditional authorities on

The internet age has led to the creation of numerous reputable organizations and databases devoted to political fact checking, making it easier than ever to find to identify debunked statements. However, these organizations’ credibility is being actively undermined by the politicians they try to hold to account, and the growing anti-institutional sentiment amongst voters is causing an unsettling number of people to fall for the fallacies of conspiracy theorists over the word of institutional authorities. While some argue that social media is the next great enabler of democracy, allowing a global forum for open debate with a tremendous diversity of people and ideas, it has instead become an echo chamber in where people can isolate themselves from opposing viewpoints. I believe this isolationist use of social media will lead to increasingly radical, emotional and polarizing politics in years to come. Although I hope the algorithms that control the flow of information can be reworked to reignite the debate of ideas, I fear that “post-truth” politics will be the norm for the foreseeable