What, exactly, is post-truth? Could it be wishful thinking, political spin, mass delusion, bold-faced lying? McIntyre analyzes recent examples-claims about inauguration group size, crime statistics, and the favorite vote-and finds that post-truth is an assertion of ideological supremacy by which its practitioners make an effort to compel you to definitely believe something whatever the proof. Yet post-truth didn’t begin with the 2016 election; the denial of technological facts about smoking cigarettes, progression, vaccines, about Post-Truth and weather change provides a road map to get more wide-spread fact denial. Increase this the wired-in cognitive biases that make us feel that our conclusions derive from good reasoning even though they are not, the decrease of traditional press and the rise of social networking, and the emergence of fake information as a politics tool, and we have the ideal circumstances for post-truth. McIntyre also argues provocatively that the proper wing lent from postmodernism-specifically, the theory that there is no such matter as objective truth-in its episodes on technology and facts.

McIntyre argues that people can combat post-truth, which the first step in fighting with each other post-truth is to understand it.