Welcome to the post-truth presidency

[workinclasszero]

By Ruth Marcus Columnist December 2 at 7:08 PM

Welcome to — brace yourself for — the post-truth presidency.

“Facts are stubborn things,” said John Adams in 1770, defending British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre, “and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

Or so we thought, until we elected to the presidency a man consistently heedless of truth and impervious to fact-checking.

The practice of post-truth — untrue assertion piled on untrue assertion — helped get Donald Trump to the White House. The more untruths he told, the more supporters rewarded him for, as they saw it, telling it like it is.

Of course, Trump is not the first truth-impaired president. Ronald Reagan famously insisted on repeating tall tales; he conflated Hollywood with reality. “If you tell the same story five times it’s true,” said White House press secretary Larry Speakes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/welcome-to-the-post-truth-presidency/2016/12/02/baaf630a-b8cd-11e6-b994-f45a208f7a73_story.html?utm_term=.16fa8ac5997d

[gulliver]

1. It's more like evolutionary mimicry and predation.

Everyone does it. I think the rise of lying in the Republican Party (and its fellow entities) even in the presence of fact-checking shows us the upsurge in priority of survival/gain vs. truth. The environment is driving the adaptation.

[world wide wally]

2. Scarey thought;

I would almost bet that if it were put to a vote right now, most Trump voters would vote to abolish democracy and install dictatorship if it was worded to insure Trump be "leader for life"

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. K&R