Title
Post-truth: Marcuse and New Forms of Social Control
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
4-2018
Department 1
Philosophy
Abstract
Post-truth political speech - the lies, disinformation, alternative facts, and propaganda that undermine rational discourse and political decision-making - operates to influence, obfuscate, and distract, executing messages and image content that allow for deniability, amplification, and distortion. Troll farms, targeted Facebook and Google ads, web brigades, Twitter bots, and other fake news production have proved able to disrupt elections, deliver votes on national referendums, accentuate social divisions, fuel racial animosity, and communicate fake news in coded speech that skillfully communications with targeted groups. As Malware does with its hostile software, fake news has its own executable code in viral contagion, video/audio manipulations, and active content that conceals intentionality and political will. In benign forms, fake news, coded memes, and image manipulation entertain- sharks swimming on flooded highways and Onion-like satire of political events- and blur the boundary of news and non-news.
ISBN/ISSN
9781440862731
Recommended Citation
Portmess, Lisa. "Post-truth: Marcuse and New Forms of Social Control." In America's Post-Truth Phenomenon: When Feelings and Opinions Trump Facts and Evidence, edited by C. G. Prado, 59-71. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2018.
Required Publisher's Statement
The full e-book can be purchased on the publisher's website: https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9781440862731/