"The Oxford English Dictionaries named 'post-truth' its
word of the year in November 2016, right before the U.S. election.
"Citing a 2,000 percent spike in usage – due to Brexit
and the American presidential campaign – they defined post-truth as 'relating
to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping
public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.'
"Ideology, in other words, takes precedence over
reality.
"When an individual believes their thoughts can
influence reality, we call it 'magical thinking' and might worry about their
mental health. When a government official uses ideology to trump reality, it’s
more like propaganda, and it puts us on the road to fascism.
"As Yale philosopher Jason Stanley argues, 'The key
thing is that fascist politics is about identifying enemies, appealing to the
in-group (usually the majority group), and smashing truth and replacing it with
power.'"
— Prof. Lee McIntyre
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