Are we living in a world of “Alternative Facts”?

Is truth plain and simple?

No, not anymore, it’s abused and distorted now.

Some people say, there is NO truth, only OPINIONS!

The free press is exposing more and more of what goes on in the corridors of power, making us aware of how much we are deceived!

The World of Post-Truth is characterised by lots of mis-information and politicians that have no shame.

Lets define Post-Truth–objective, hard facts are not used in the shaping of public opinion.

Appeals are made to the emotions which are more potent.

Fake news and outright lies!

There was once TRUTH, but the powers that be have abandoned it in favour of fake facts and lies that appeal to people’s emotional biases.

Post-Truth is embedded in humans. For centuries fiction was spread about the world. No one questioned the factual truth of the Bible.

People are used to fictions to explain things.

When a thousand people believe in something for one month, that’s fake news.

When a couple of billion believe it for thousands of years, that’s religion.

The good that came out of Biblical fictions is that humans became more compassionate, courageous and creative.

Politicians know that if you stick to the truth, few people will follow you. It’s a sad story!

Humans prefer POWER to TRUTH.

We spend far more time and effort on trying to control things as trying to understand things.

But even when we understand things, we only do so because we hope through understanding, the world will be easier to control!

What are the things that characterise a Post-Truth world?

People tend to be too credulous, believing almost anything that is repeated enough.

Also, some tend to be too cautious, disregarding evidence and expert opinion.

These tendencies emerge when emotions are aroused.

People tend to TRUST powerful people less in a Post-Truth world.

What is to be done to eliminate fake news?

We need to cultivate better ideas and habits.

Better leaders are needed who don’t gloss over the truth.

We need an environment and educational system that teaches cautious scepticism and open mindedness. Also people should analyse things closer to uncover the facts.

What dissolves the fictions we believe?

Science shows us, constantly, much of what we think about the world is false.

Also, the world has shrunk through globalisation and we wonder what we think in our culture is so, or just emotional bias in our area.

What is the effect of this Post-Truth era?

People feel like they cannot distinguish truth from lies, so they choose leaders on more emotional factors.

We’ve lost trust in our intellect, so we go with our gut feelings instead.

Authoritive Truths–There are many areas of life that we don’t know much about so we defer to the authority of experts. But some charlatans pretend to be experts.

Who to trust?

Do we trust our gut or expert opinion.

It’s a balance of our judgements and the expertise of others.

We have to analyse the evidence so as to take care of whom we grant authority to and on what basis.

Truths that are likely to be understood by only a small number of people with specialised knowledge is called esoteric truth. Another form of esoteric truth is truth that is hidden.

Conspiracy theories arise because people believe the truth has been hidden.

Are people today governed by reason and truth?

No, because this is the era of fake, post-truth.

What are Empirical Truths?

These are truths based on observation and experience alone.

They have no regard for theory.

But experience alone leaves us with uncertainty.

So Empirical Truth is always open to scrutiny, revision and rejection.

What can we use as a GUIDE TO THE TRUTH?

Think for yourself and do the research.

Be sceptical.

Ask questions, especially of people in power, such as:

Who benefits from this version of the “truth”?

So, in conclusion:

When you are wandering through the maze of knowledge, you will find many isms, such as   idealism, pragmatism, scepticism, etc.

If you invent your own “ism” you might become famous!!!

Remember that TRUTH is liable to CHANGE!

Truth is conditional and conditions change.

Collect observations as they pass through your present moments.

Just maybe you will stumble on a new truth OR POST-TRUTH!!!