![]() Rather than sit coolly outside the fray of political argument, facts are now one of the main rhetorical weapons within it. We place expectations on statistics and expert testimony that strains them to breaking point. ![]() The sense is widespread: We have entered an age of post-truth politics.Īs politics becomes more adversarial and dominated by television performances, the status of facts in public debate rises too high. PolitiFact has found that about 70 percent of Donald Trump’s “factual” statements actually fall into the categories of “mostly false,” “false” and “pants on fire” untruth.įor the Brexit referendum, Leave argued that European Union membership costs Britain 350 million pounds a week, but failed to account for the money received in return. Whenever democracy seems to be going awry, when voters are manipulated or politicians are ducking questions, we turn to facts for salvation.īut they seem to be losing their ability to support consensus. ![]() Facts hold a sacred place in Western liberal democracies.
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