Truth is under attack. Now, after the 2016 Presidential election, what the truth is has been attacked. Politicians have called mainstream news sources “fake news” for their benefit. These actions have consequences though, as for the first time what constitutes truth is now under question. It used to be that the truth came from reliable, tested sources and lies came from fringe conspiracy sites. However, after the last election more “fake news” is finding its way into mainstream sources, and consequently, many people can’t or don’t want to tell the difference. Not to mention with social media sites, fake news is easier than ever to spread. Some would say this is acceptable as truth doesn’t matter, and I agree to a point. I believe truth does not matter anymore, but should matter because of accountability, safety, and the lack of dialogue in our society.
Accountability of our politicians is one prime example of how truth doesn’t matter. The use of fake news and lies among politicians isn’t anything new. Even so, Donald Trump is one of the main reasons for the decline in the importance of truth in our society as he has taken it to a new level. This was reported in an NY Times piece by Sheryl Gay Stolberg. In her article she said, “But president Trump, historians, and consultants in both political parties agree, appears to have taken what the writer Hannah Arendt once called “the conflict between truth and politics” to an entirely new level” (Stolberg). Additionally, she pointed out how presidents don’t like to own up to their lies as it compromises their moral character. This way we can hold them accountable for the things they say. A prime example highlighted by the article is when Richard Nixon, who during the Watergate scandal, was accused of lying and obstructing justice. The public, disgusted, booted him out of office during the 1976 election (Stolberg). Back then truth mattered, but now, despite Trump’s many misleading statements, he was not only able to win the presidency, but he still makes them. Some would say the fact Trump has low favorability and opposition by a lot of people, shows truth does matter. Even now people fact-check and criticize Trump whenever he says things that are wrong. The problem with this is, that even when he is blatantly proven wrong, people still support him. Then there are the countless other politicians who lie and don’t see any consequence. So, while it may seem like truth may be on a comeback; in reality it just proves how much truth does not matter.
The lack of accountability of our politicians leads to the degradation of our safety. For those in power to keep us safe, they need reliable information. Likewise, people need to have honest, correct information in order to be properly informed. When people are not informed they resort to conspiracy theories, and some more unhinged sections of the population take matters into their own hands. Such is what happened in the unfortunate story known as “Pizza Gate;” a story by the BBC tells how the event unfolded. It started when WikiLeaks released emails that mentioned the owner of a Pizza place; from there the fringe conspiracy ridden places on the internet began constructing a lie that the store was a front for a “child sex ring.” These, of course, were lies, but soon the story was picked up by alt-right sites and soon went viral. This led to one individual, taking a gun and shooting up the place frequented by families, claiming he was doing his own investigation. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it does highlight how truth should matter, because without the truth dispelling these conspiracy theories, people will get the wrong idea. Still, truth doesn’t matter as when established news medias like the New York Times debunked the story, but it still held momentum (Wendling). The simple fact that conspiracy theories can still circulate despite being debunked, shows that truth does not currently matter.
Finally, lack of safety and accountability is accompanied by the lack of truthful dialogue. Time did an online article that tells by which means fake news spreads and goes viral. A main part of the article is that fake news is spread by bots on social media. Social media sites use algorithms to pick the stories and articles we are most likely to choose and share. On top of that, the fact that we tend to trust links from friends and family; we create social spheres where we are exposed to information that aligns with our ideologies and exclude those that conflict with those ideologies. This makes it harder for us to find the truth as the algorithms lead to one being exposed to partisan news (Menczer). This shows that the truth does not matter when our news reinforces what we agree with, we are fine with letting lies spread. We shouldn’t accept this, and we should actively seek out the truth. We the people, can do a lot to fix this, by looking at new points of view and analyzing the news sources we get to see if they are credible.
In conclusion, in today’s day and age, truth doesn’t matter. Areas defined by and reliant on the truth, the accountability of our politicians, the safety of the citizens, and dialogue are in complete shambles. It's sad, but the truth has been felled in the onslaught of fake news even though there are honest efforts to keep it alive, but the facts show; People are so used to fake news that they don’t care even when they are shown the facts. So, this is why I believe truth does not matter anymore, but should matter because of accountability, safety, and the lack of dialogue in our society.
Works Cited
Menczer, Filippo. “Why Fake News is so Incredibly Effective” Time, 28 Nov. 2016, http://time.com/4583475/fake-news-effective/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2018.
Stolberg, Sheryl. “Many Politicians Lie. But Trump has Elevated the Art of Fabrication.” The New York Times, 7 Aug. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/us/politics/lies-trump-obama-mislead.html. Accessed 24 Feb. 2018.
Wendling, Mike. “The Saga of 'Pizzagate': The Fake Story that Shows how Conspiracy Theories Spread” BBC Trending, 2 Dec. 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-38156985. Accessed 24 Feb. 2018.