“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
Former US Senator and original Neo-Con, Daniel P. Moynihan
ARE WE LIVING IN AN AGE OF POST-TRUTH?
Lee MacIntyre tells us that we are living in a post-Truth era. But is he right? If he is right, what does the concept mean? Even if we are not totally in the “post” stage, what has happened in modern democracies–and in the US, in particular–that has made Truthtelling a problematic and controversial endeavor?
In the spirit of Moynihan’s observation about facts, we might hope that no one should have the power to make their opinions trump the pursuit of Truth. From what we know about human psychology, however, it is not completely surprising that people should assign truth claims to their feelings. Confusion about the pursuit of truth is everywhere in the US, both today and historically from our catastrophically slow response to the Coronavirus pandemic to the denial of basic facts about issues, such as global climate change, racial inequality, and even the simplest scientific principles.
In this section, we will consider contending explanations of our contemporary crisis of Truth. It is not surprising that Truth has many pretenders who claim to be its parents. Yet, just like our relationships with family members, we are stuck with the people–and facts–that shape the quality of our lives.
11. Tuesday, February 18: Are we in age of post-Truth? If so, what does a post-Truth age entail for people’s behavior?
Lee MacIntyre begins the discussion of post-Truth with the following types of questions: Is post-Truth wishful thinking, political spin, mass delusion, bold-faced lying? Is it now possible to 
believe absolutely anything?
Lee MacIntyre, Post-Truth Read: Chapters 1 and 2
Jonathan Haidt, “Why it feels like everything is going haywire,” The Atlantic, November 12, 2019: PRINT AND READ
Who is responsible for contemporary Posttruth-thinking? One argument, which I find partly persuasive, is that the case for Posttruth was spawned by left-leaning intellectuals and the humanities departments of modern universities.
Andrew Calcutt, “The surprising origins of post-truth and how it was spawned by the liberal left” READ
Consider the philosopher René Girard’s condemnation of the denigration of truth-telling in humanities departments:
“We live in a world today, especially in the humanities, where the very notion of truth has become the enemy. The idea is you must have plurality. So, today, the interest of plurality takes precedence over the search for truth. You have to say ahead of time that you don’t believe in the truth. In most of the circles in which I move, decency is equated with a skepticism verging on nihilism”
– – Philosopher René Girard
No one has a monopoly on Truth denial. Despite some scholars’ dismissal of the idea that some things are indisputably true, left-leaning humanities departments are hardly bastions of right-wing thinking! However, ironically, many right-wing thinkers have adopted the same attitudes without recognizing that they share the same approaches as people they despise. They, too, treat those who defend factual truth as the enemy.
12. Thursday, February 20: Who’s to blame for this mess? Politicians, Damn Politicians!
Discussion Theme: The wave of populist politics that has swept across the liberal democratic world in recent years has many causes. One of the most prominent is the collision between elite domination and the demand for popular participation. Establishment elites and ordinary citizens distrust and dislike each other with equal fervor. One of the primary manifestations of this conflict is the battle over Truth—what it is, who determines it, and whether it even matters in the pursuit of the good society.
Think Machiavelli! In his cynical approach to politics, was he on the money where our more idealistic thinkers failed?
Sophia Rosenfeld, Democracy and Truth A Short History, Chapter III
Andrew Higgens, “The Art of the Lie,” New York Times, January 10, 2010 PRINT AND READ
Also, for related ideas, look back at Lee MacIntyre, Post-Truth Read: Chapters 1 and 2.
13. Tuesday, February 25
Who’s to blame for this mess? Human beings, darn it!
In discussing the human contribution to Untruthtelling, let’s avoid the sin of presentism. As easy as it might seem to explain everything in terms of our currently polarized political climate, human beings have always had a tenuous relationship with the Truth. Regardless of the time or place, why do people persist in their denial of simple facts and refuse to recognize clear contradictions in their own experiences. One possibility is that human beings are wired this way. Today, we will consider scientific theories about the psychological roots of denial.
The following articles draw upon arguments that are both similar and dissimilar. Which of the arguments are essentially the same? Which are different? (Most of the articles as well as the quotation are short).
Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth READ: Chapter 3
Albert Camus, “The Plague” (there are only two paragraphs, but read them closely since there’s a lot there) READ AND PRINT
Rebecca Solnit, “Why Republicans Keep Falling for Trump’s Lies” PRINT AND READ I was initially disinclined to use this article because of the partisan title. However, when I read it, I couldn’t identify any inaccurate factual claims. If you disagree, please let me know what you think.
Daniel Dale, “We Like the President’s Lies,” The Star, March 26, 2017 PRINT AND READ An important argument since it suggests that Truth-deniers are not necessarily dumb.
Thomas Edsall, “Why millions of Americans think it is Trump who cannot lie” PRINT AND READ
Recommended: Sara Garofalo, “The Psychology Behind Irrational Decisions” WATCH, AND READ AND PRINT The text of this Ted Talk is on the right side of the page.
Recommended: John Jerrim, et al., “Bullshitters: Who are they and what do we know about their lives?” Institute of Labor Economics, LOOK AT THE AUTHORS’ MAJOR FUNDINGS (don’t worry about the details).
Trust is an essential precondition in democracies. It means that politics is not only about the use of force. In contrast, in dictatorships, force acts as the substitute for force. The classic example of this dictatorial model was the Berlin Wall–no force, no East Germany–which I experienced intimately for 16 years before it’s fall on November 9, 1989.
Think about about the implications of Untruthtelling for our ability to build trust with others: How can you trust someone if you suspect they are lying to you? Because Trust is such an important factor in the realization of the Good Life, this reliance on Untruth seems illogical. Still, it is quite common. Is this because trust isn’t necessarily based upon factual claims. If so, what is it based on? And will hard-cold facts ever be sufficient to build the trust we need?
“Birds aren’t real, or are they? READ Some people are saying that fake “birds” are patrolling the Notre Dame campus. Just like the drones over New Jersey, I don’t know if it’s absolutely true. But it’s something we should look into.”
Another nefarious plot? HERE (Listen from 32:39 to 36:00)
14. Thursday, February 27:
Who’s else can we blame for this mess? The Corporate Merchants of Doubt!
Today, Truth-denial takes many forms, including the dismissal of the dangers of both global climate change and the Coronavirus. When I was growing up, Truth-denial took the form of denying the causal relationship between smoking and cancer. The tobacco industry played the central role in propagating the myth that the “verdict was still out” on the connection—even though, its own scientists knew that the verdict was already in. Tens of millions of people died as result of a cause of cancer that we now recognize as self-evident.
Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Chapters 1 and 6 PRINT AND READ
Exxon scientists correctly predicted global warming decades ago but the heads of their corporations told the public otherwise:
“Assessing ExxonMobil’s Global Warming Projections”
Read as much of the article as you like. Make sure you look at the internal documents that Exxon scientists produced (and that the company hid and lied about)
And there are also other “merchants of lies.” Lying on the screen can be good for business:
Jeremy Peters and Katie Robertson, “Rupert Murdoch admits FOX news hosts endorsed election fraud lies”: READ
15. Tuesday, March 4:
And who else? It’s Americans and their strange attitudes about scientists and science.
A final source of our Truth crisis may be quintessentially American. For reasons related to the social, cultural, and religious conditions of our nation’s founding, we, as Americans, may be culturally wired to resist scientific and intellectual authority.
Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Read Chapter 3 and Chapter 6. They are both available on our Course Reserve site in Hesburgh Library PRINT AND READ
Steven Hahn, “The Deep, Tangled Roots of American Illiberalism” PRINT AND READ
Is Vivek Ramaswamy’s “Sputnik moment” the solution to the American tradition of anti-elitism that Hofstadter decries? Or does Ramaswamy have something different in mind? PRINT AND READ
Nathan Gotsch, “People say, wow, that’s super extreme. No, it’s not: What Micah Beckwith is telling GOP delegates to win them over” PRINT AND READ
Beckwith is now Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor, despite the fact that Governor Mike Brown openly opposed having him on the ticket. Before assuming office, Beckwith created some controversy when he attacked an independently-funded student newspaper at IU Bloomington. This led to an interesting dispute over the relationship between the freedom of the press and state funding for the university. Read HERE
More about Americans’ attitudes about science: Does the earth really revolve around the sun? Evidently, it depends on whom you ask: READ The Catholic church has long rejected the geocentric pseudoscience that led it to condemn people like Galileo. Yet some Catholics–and many more Protestants–disagree. HERE
16. Thursday, March 6
TBA
MID-TERM BREAK
MarcH 8 – March 16
*
OFFICE HOURS
Tuesdays 11-12:00
Wednesdays 2:00 – 4:00
2080 Nanovic Hall
Visit me!
CONTACT ME
amcadams@nd.edu
MY INTERESTS
Here