Narayan Prasad Ghimire

We are in a networked age where we are bombarded with oodles of information. It is difficult to sift which information is right and which is wrong. The information is spiralled in a way that many of us are bound to believe the information spread via social media irrespective of their veracity. Falling victims of news items that invoke emotion such as fear, excessive praise, hatred, conspiracy, and making opinion based on them has increasingly become a trend. With mis/use of data, the users of social media were targeted and mislead with false information. This age of technological disruption was exploited by the populist leaders to reach the power and post who continuously assault truth. In the regime of an informed society, the reason/knowledge is systematically threatened; a wave of the new narrative is created which not only contradicts the established truth, verified data, scientific study, research and investigation but also continuously denies the facts.
With this, there emerged fake news, misinformation, and disinformation. The traditional media faced a tough time before the social networking sites became the largest distributor of news. The Web 2.0 radically impacted the production, consumption and distribution of legacy news media.
The political events unfolded unexpectedly and unimaginably, and this changed scenario took every aware person of the world by surprise. After the Brexit and election of Donald Trump as US President in 2016 not only began the age of protectionism but also it paved the way for pulling out of climate change issue by severing ties with global organisations. As the western democracies themselves went through such unexpected political events, some other countries too followed the suit.
On these developments, there is a marvellous book 'Post Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back' by a noted journalist Matthew D'ancona.
The writer finely brings references from various texts, philosophers, thinkers and observers and makes the book quite riveting. How the US people are misguided with the spiralling flow of fake news, misinformation disinformation, and ill-intended information is vividly written. The age of falsehood, the weaponisation of fake news, the top leaders resorting to falsehood to retain power and sway the public and its impact on democratic values can be read in this book.
Post Truth is the time where public opinions are made not after the established facts and study but by mere emotional impression and personal beliefs. Denial of facts, the spread of conspiracy, hatred of other race, culture, the collapse of trust, 'truth out and emotion in' are thriving in this age. The writer argues that the roots of Post Truth must be studied well.
In addition to the vivisection of false tweets by Donald Trump after he became US President, the book has many other relevant references. An example- 'The power of charismatic leadership to derail science is a familiar phenomenon. Thabo Mbeki, the former President of South Africa, gave immense emotional force to the bogus claim that HIV does cause AIDS- and to the appalling epidemic in his country that remains a crisis to this day.' This substantiates the claim that political leadership can derail scientific facts and assault truth, which however is detrimental to the country and people. Trump often denied facts by discrediting media and denying their reports as he said the reports of the New York Times were 'fake news'. It was a sheer denial of facts.
Writer D'ancona also informs how anti-semitism and Holocaust denial spread in the digital age. The opportunists take advantage of this situation. In this age of digital conspiracy, anyone speaking and advocating truth is not only disgraced but also tortured. Filing of a libel case against a writer by a far-Right, David Irving, and the defeat of Irving in the legal case is worth sharing- the court said 'Irving falsified the historical record'. Another writer had said Irving was a 'Holocaust denier' and against which Irving had sued her.
As a student of English literature, it was pleasing to read the 'good and bad' of the postmodernism explored in this book. The writer has mentioned the positive sides of postmodernism- inclusivity, pluralism, diversity. However at the same time, a kind of base is created for Post Truth by the postmodernism that in the postmodernism principle, no truth is final truth; no interpretation is final; it is the time of deconstruction, de-centering, disruption, deviation, and distraction. One can argue that the uncertainty of ideas, disarray in belief in the postmodernism can be traced as inciting factor to Post Truth. It is however one among others. The book gives a glimpse to this aspect.
The writer makes recommendations to curb misinformation and fight the Post Truth age. He suggests collaboration, cooperation among diverse sectors to protect the truth and veracity. The protection of truth is the respect of science and study, research and exploration; it is imperative for the informed society. D'ancona says, "If Post Truth is to be defied and defeated, the endeavour must be collective, sustained and stubborn." The active role of citizen, media and policymakers are sought to defy the Post Truth. He further says, "In many (perhaps most), contexts, facts need to be communicated in a way that recognises emotional as well as rational imperatives." He underscores the 'rationality', 'reason', 'knowledge' to reach the truth. Moreover, he urges the technology to heal itself, encourages media house to continue fact-checking, appeals to people to question, recommends policymakers and educators to teach children how to select and discriminate from the digital torrent. According to him, "Information overload means that we must all become editors: sifting, checking, assessing what we read." Arguing that Post Truth thrives in alienation, dislocation and stultified science, the writer strongly advises all to fill the gaps, and end passivity.
I wonder if the book was written later in the present age of 'infodemics', how succinctly it could present the severe blows to science by leaderships across the globe. I wonder with the defeat of Donald Trump, will the age of Post Truth subside? The book published by Penguin Radom House UK is also available in Nepali bookstore.
I would like to conclude with another observation of the writer: 'If digital technology is the hardware, Post Truth has been proven to be a mighty software'. Isn't it a wakeup call?