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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: 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.