And A Couple of Opinions (and a fact)

The quote from Ron Suskind's article in the previous post, about those in power now determining what is real and what is not, is perhaps the most significant paragraph written in the twenty-first century about politics and policy.  The truth, evidence, facts, verification - we no longer base our political behavior and our understanding of policy on those things.  They are just tools to be manipulated.

Donald Trump was elected, both times, because the ground had been prepared.  Republican strategists - including the aide in the article - had been able to distract a large enough portion of the electorate from consideration of facts and evidence, and had helped them replace those verities with anger and outrage by replacing truth with fear.   There was no longer, as Arendt notes, a distinction between fact and fiction.  They were no longer needed.

And so we live in a post-truth world.  A fact:  The Oxford Dictionaries named "post-truth" the "Word of the Year" in - wait for it - 2016.  The Oxford Dictionaries are based in England, of course, and although America's struggle with the post-truth world could hardly have escaped their notice, you will remember that the Brexit vote was in 2016, as well.  

So, fourteen years after Suskind's conversation, the world, and its future, are fundamentally rocked twice by the truthful fact that truth and fact were over.