Post Truth is a periodizing concept referring to transnational historically specific empirically observable public truth claims and authority to be a legitimate public truth- teller it also refers to the theories about the historically specific converging causes that have produced it's communication forms and effects . The term garnered widespread popularity in the form of post truth politics in the period around the 2016 United States presidential election and the Brexit referendum . It was named word of the year in 2016 by the Oxford Dictionary where it is defined as relating to or denoting cricumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief post truth is often used as an adjective for a distinctive kind of politics post truth politics.
Politics Post Truth :
Political post truth is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored.
Post - truth politics is a subset of the broader term post truth which has historical roots prior to the recent focus on political events post truth differs from traditional contesting and falsifying of facts by relegating facts and expert opinions to be of to appeal to emotion. While this has been described as a contemporary problem some observers have described it as a long standing part of political life that was less notable before the advent of the internet and related social changes.
History :
According to Oxford Dictionaries the Serbian American playwright Steve Tesich first' used the term post truth in a 1992 essay in the nation . Tesich write that following the shameful truth of Watergate more assuaging coverage of the Iran contra scandal and Persian gulf war demonstrates that we as a free people have freely decided that' we want to live in some post truth' world.
Examples :
Post truth politics has been applied as a political buzzword to a wide range of political cultures one articale in the economist identified post truth politics in Germany, North Korea , Poland , Russia , Turkey , the United Kingdom and United States.
India :
Amulya Gopalakrishnan columnist for the Times of India identified similarities between the Trump and Brexit compaigns on the one hand and hot button issues in india such as the Ishrat Jahan case and the ongoing case against Teesta Setalvad on the other where accusation of forged evidence and historical revisionism have resulted in an ideological impasse.
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