The current state of public and political discourse is in disarray. Politicians lie with impunity. Traditional news organizations amplify fact-free assertions, while outright fake news stories circulate on social media. Public trust in the media, science, and expert opinion has fallen, while segregation into like-minded communities has risen. …
The result has been a called a post-truth age, in which evidence, scientific understanding, or even just logical consistency have become increasingly irrelevant to political argumentation. Indeed, a flagrant disregard for consistency and evidence may even be interpreted as a demonstration of power: the power to create one’s own reality. …
One way to view the recent presidential campaign — and its aftermath — is as an all-out assault by the winning side on traditional sources of legitimacy. Scientists, experts, elites, government agencies, and the media have all been attacked not with fact-based rebuttals of specific claims, but rather with broad and sweeping innuendo.
What is to be done? CONT.
Duncan Watts & David Rothschild, Microsoft Research