Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Post Truth - Coggle Diagram
Post Truth
Post-truth refers to a situation in contemporary politics where facts have lost their significance in public discourse. It is characterised by the prioritisation of personal beliefs over factual accuracy.
Post-truth politics disregards the importance of truth and instead focuses on appealing to emotions for political gain. This can be seen in any occurrence of "fake news", created for a specific agenda
This phenomenon gained attention during events such as the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump, where campaigns relied on emotive and often false statements to sway voters.
Brexit Referendum
-
-
Impact: Despite fact-checks, this slogan on the side of a red bus became iconic and emotionally persuasive.
-
-
The concept is not so much used to suggest that the truth does not exist, but that facts have become secondary to our political point of view.
1984 - George Orwell
Even though it was written in 1949, its themes align eerily well with the dynamics we see in today’s political landscape.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.”
This line hits at the core of post-truth: the idea that truth is whatever those in power say it is, regardless of objective reality. In 1984, the Party controls facts.
Today, in post-truth politics, leaders may deny facts and replace them with emotionally charged or politically convenient falsehoods — and their base often accepts it.
The Ministry of Truth
In 1984, this ironically named institution is responsible for rewriting history, erasing inconvenient facts, and constantly altering records so that the Party is always right.
In post-truth politics, we see something similar: Politicians make contradictory claims over time, information is reframed or erased, and "alternative facts” become a thing (remember that term from the Trump era?).
Doublethink - Orwell defines doublethink as the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time and accept both as true.
In post-truth environments, you’ll see people believing that the media can’t be trusted, but also citing it when it supports their side, and that something is fake news… unless it confirms their beliefs.
-
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.”
Connection: This represents ultimate power — not just to lie, but to force people to believe the lie. In post-truth politics, it's not always about being believed by everyone, but about dominating the narrative so completely that truth itself becomes irrelevant.
-
Bo Burnham's 'Inside'
-
The song “Welcome to the Internet” - Burnham sings about the overload of information, clickbait, and the constant battle for attention online. He presents the internet as a space where “the truth” is constantly manipulated and commodified, much like how truth is twisted in post-truth politics.
Lyrics: "Welcome to the internet, have a look at the sights / You can find what you want, but you’ll find that it’s just a lie."
Inside emphasizes how emotional manipulation is the currency of the internet and how algorithms amplify content based on emotional response rather than factual accuracy. This mirrors the way post-truth politics thrives on emotion, not reason.
The song “White Woman’s Instagram” mocks how social media culture prioritizes surface-level, aesthetic emotions and self-expression over deeper, nuanced truths. Burnham satirizes the performative aspect of social media, where emotions are commodified.
The sequence where Burnham is trapped in his own head and shows his mental breakdown can be seen as a metaphor for the cognitive dissonance created by the internet and social media. There’s a tension between wanting to "perform" (to fit into a narrative or echo chamber) and the crushing weight of knowing it’s all fake.
In the song “All Eyes on Me,” Burnham sings about the pressure to constantly perform, where the audience’s expectations (or social media demands) dictate behavior, regardless of personal truth.