Media and the ‘Post-Truth’ Age

In the wake of last week’s nationally-televised debates, in which Romney and Obama peddled us sales pitches and marketing propaganda and ‘facts’ that were quickly tallied as punches landed against the opponent, one thing became clear to me after all was said and done and the fact checkers got to work: so much of it is bullshit.

Just pure, utter bullshit. Romney, despite handing Obama a stylistic can of whip-ass, seemed to bend the truth the most, telling enough lies so as to draw notice from pretty much everyone on the Internet. People are talking about it, but you know how?

In passing.

In passing like: “Romney kicked Obama’s ass.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t exactly truthful in what he was saying. He contradicted himself at least a dozen times.”

“Yeah, but so what? Obama probably did too. It all evens out and Romney still kicked his ass.”

Actual conversation.

People don’t care what is real anymore. If the lies they hear are congruent with what they already believe, then it doesn’t matter if it’s a lie. If the lie runs counter to what they believe, then of course it’s a national travesty, and how could you possibly vote for someone with such questionable character?

Politics in this country have become a team sport, a game of totally binary thinking. For someone who can see the plumbing of it all, it’s infuriating. As I said on Facebook, imagine Googling for something and getting only two links, one red, one blue.

I was sucked into the debates as much as the next guy. But afterwards, amidst all the spin and hype and fact checking, it hit me: we’re all wrapped up in some staged TV marketing-drama to determine which of two worthless fucks will lie to us the way we want.

→ The Atlantic