3. Article Dump

I guess it would be beneficial to dump some of the articles, podcasts and talks I have started off with during the research period in a convenient place. So….

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/29/fake-news-echo-chamber-ethics-infosphere-internet-digital

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/12/how-technology-disrupted-the-truth

https://backchannel.com/facebook-published-a-big-new-study-on-the-filter-bubble-here-s-what-it-says-ef31a292da95#.wc6ewsn2r

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/07/german-police-quash-breitbart-story-of-mob-setting-fire-to-dortmund-church

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/16/not-post-truth-simpler-words-lies-aleppo-trump-mainstream

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/post-truth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04m7zrs

2. A Vague Philosophy for the Post Truth-er.

Welcome to a confused philosophy. My attempt to understand post truth as a concept began with a scribble full of confusion and contradiction (see above). I guess a reflection of the general mood and atmosphere that I feel surrounds the western world today in light of the recent shifts in politics and society.

My observation is that people are enlightened yet ignorant due to an overload of information…often a mixture of inaccurate information, decontextualised information, dramatised or just plain fabricated information. Wading through source upon source of contradictory dross can leave you in a state of disillusion and I feel we are living in times of not only post-truth but also post-belief.

What I mean by post-belief is that it is increasingly hard to believe any information you are given is true. Trust in governments, politicians, media, corporation is hard to find and in my cynical way I am of the assumption that we are always being lied to. With that a strange sense of acceptance prevails leaving me feeling like nothing we do or say can change what is happening in our society, in other words we are in a constant state of powerlessness and no matter what side of the “other” coin you belong to you will always feel like you are being shafted.

A good example of this idea of politically organised confusion is a deliberate trick used by Vladislav Surkov advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin. With a background in theatre directing, Surkov has used ideas from the stage and spliced them with international politics with the aim of confusing and subverting peoples perceptions of the world, so they never really know what is happening. He has done this by publicly sponsoring polar extreme political groups such as neo-Nazi organisations to left-wing human rights groups and even funding political parties who were in direct opposition to Putin. The genius stroke is the brazen obviousness of these actions which leaves the public and the opposition uncertain of what is real or fake, a power strategy that keeps everyone in a constant state of confusion with destabilised perceptions. In theory making a nation easier to manipulate and control.

Undoubtedly this clever trickery has found its way the western politics with a constant stream of contradictory politics and journalism currently trending, examples including the war in Iraq and the hunt for weapons of mass-destruction and crimes committed by bankers which resulted in the financial crisis in 2008 where the “truth” has been overturned so many times it makes you dizzy, like being blindfolded and spun around and around and around until you don’t know where the hell you are. The political stage has become an elaborate and well funded pantomime…a really nauseating pantomime.

With all this in mind we find ourselves living with a very individualist attitude. We are disconnected or disinterested in the issues facing big society and focus on or filter the information that somehow relates to us personally. We are consumed by social media. When we do express our thoughts and feelings of concern and distaste of what is going in the world we tell Twitter or Facebook which only feds us our own half-baked mostly ill-informed opinions back to us through a narrow algorithmic tube making us feel righteous and knowledgeable. And with that we are left believing only our own “truth”, the sheer amount of contradictory and confused information has left us reaching for intuition and personal belief to shape our opinions rather than objective fact.

It is really hard to trust the integrity of the forces that rule our nations even the word truth has suffered a hugely diminished status. In saying that the majority of words used on the political stage having become a grey meaningless jargon-y sludge. The have transcended to enigma like status, almost like when you say a word over and over until it loses its meaning.

#brexittrumpimmigrationausterityjobscapitalismtoriespoliticspovertygentrificationpoliticallycorrectprogresscutsbenefitstruthactivismleftringrightwingextremismaltrightaltleftfundamentalistterroristfearsurveillianceandtherest

1. Sounds To Set The Mood

Onset by Gil.

A piece of music that happened to come on the radio whilst researching post truth.

I think it sets the mood nicely..