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Oxford Dictionaries has declared "post-truth" as its 2016 international word of the year, reflecting what it called a "highly-charged" political 12 months. It is defined as an adjective relating to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals. Its selection follows June's Brexit vote [in the UK], and the US presidential election. Post-truth, which has become associated with the phrase "post-truth politics", was chosen ahead of other political terms, including "Brexiteer" and "alt-right".
[...] Oxford Dictionaries says post-truth is thought to have been first used in 1992. However, it says the frequency of its usage increased by 2,000% in 2016 compared with last year.
Mr Grathwohl said: "Fuelled by the rise of social media as a news source and a growing distrust of facts offered up by the establishment, post-truth as a concept has been finding its linguistic footing for some time," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37995600
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016
Would you have chosen something different?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday November 17 2016, @06:37PM
Once upon a time, a politician would resign if found to have lied outright ... in England or Japan.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Thursday November 17 2016, @06:49PM
That doesn't mean they were put into that place for other than emotion. Didn't they used to kill themselves in Japan for failure?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @07:50PM
> That doesn't mean they were put into that place for other than emotion.
Lying isn't binary. That's being exploited by people to equate all lies, regardless of intent or severity as equal. Its like we've been reduced to a 3rd grade level of understanding because thinking is too hard.
And that creates an inevitable rush to the bottom because nobody, not even the pope or snowden is 100% factual. So if everybody is a liar, then nobody is better than anyone else. Every sinner is a saint. Stalin is the same as Gandhi. Dr King is the same as David Duke. That is how you destroy a civilization.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Friday November 18 2016, @08:38AM
It's the natural evolution of the feeling people had that all politicians are liars. If they all lie, then claiming to tell the truth is not going to work. Instead, be like the Brexit leave campaign, be like Donald Trump. Just lie outrageously. The voters know you are lying. You know that they know you are lying. They know that you know that they know. It doesn't matter, because your message is about feelings, not an objective evaluation of the world.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday November 17 2016, @10:29PM
No, they didn't kill themselves for failure, IIRC. I think that was only the Samurai and their practice of seppuku. Falling on your own sword may not have applied to the population at large, but may have applied to state actors in the various periods, as they were also quite often warriors themselves.
I'm not sure if China had such rituals, but it was an honor to die by beheading in China. Not the same as seppuku exactly, but involved an honorable death nonetheless.
Suicide in Japan is a touchy subject to begin with as it is the option apparently chosen all too often. IIRC, it was as much as 70 suicides a day, and over 60% higher than global averages.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 18 2016, @02:07AM
If my Chichen-Itza memory serves me well, it was the greatest honor to get sacrificed to the gods after you won an Aztec ball game.
It's a good way to keep suspense in your championship: kill the best players after each game.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday November 18 2016, @02:28AM
LOL, if only we could apply that to this election :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday November 17 2016, @08:49PM
Once upon a time, a politician would resign if found to have lied outright
Lying was ok. Getting caught was not. It was hard to get caught. The lie would have to be a real doozy in order for that to happen.