Post-Truth

the people reading the debunks are not only far fewer in number, but also nothing like the same people who read the initial false claim.

how just the right dose of bullshit – coupled with a credulous media response – helped some narratives run for weeks, while others withered on the vine.

The ‘sponsored links’ present at the foot or side of posts on almost every major site give the outlet a small amount of revenue for each click, but almost universally link to fake or hyped news. Traditional media boosts and profits from fake news, even as it tries to fight it.

The easier and more lucrative alternative is to write up the original claim, unchecked, within minutes, followed by any angry reaction to it, alongside rebuttals.

Given that most of us are friends with people with a broadly similar worldview to ours, we see more and more unchecked news we’re predisposed to agree with.

already think, and we’ll rarely try to fact-check a story that suits our preconceptions.

routinely called the ‘filter bubble’. In short, we tend to click on things that suit what we

‘The real problem with the internet is that everything written on it is true,’ he wrote in 1995.14 ‘Or rather, there is no real way of discerning truth from lies. The net is a repository of facts, statistics, data: unless anything is palpably wrong, we tend to give all facts on our computer screens equal weight.’

bullshitter will say what works to get the outcome they want, and care little whether it’s true or not

He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.