Introduction: The Post-Truth Plight

The loss of truth in the public common language is no longer a philosophical issue, but it has become a characteristic political crisis of the twenty-first century. A diverse range of academics explores the way the phenomenon of post-truth, a political culture or society where emotion and personal conviction take precedence over factual and empirical evidence, has radically transformed the state and global governing processes in the edited volume Global Politics in a Post-Truth Age (2022).

The book places the present-day events in the wider context of history and theory to suggest that the current crisis is no abrupt departure but the outcome of the structural transformations in the way societies communicate and legitimize reality that occurred over a period of time.

The Emergence of Post-Truth and Its Era

The main assumption of the volume is the 2016 post-truth watershed, which was a year of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald Trump in the United States. These incidents are the main case studies that can be used to comprehend the extent to which fabricated narratives can prevail over factual information. The contributors attribute this change to the difference between rational truth and factual truth, a notion that was discussed by Hannah Arendt.

In a post-truth world, factual truth, which enables a community to exist, is substituted with so-called fabricated realities. Such faked myths are especially successful when it comes to economically and socially displaced and marginalized populations, as social cohesion is lost and the population is now more susceptible to leaders who are more focused on emotional appeal than on the objective truth.

President Trump and the Psychology of Post-Truth

The emergence of the so-called “Trumpism” is an excellent illustration of this ontological crisis. Global Politics in a Post-Truth Age........

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