Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby

Wednesday 16 November 2016

Post-truth : word of the year

How depressing.

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, coinciding with the EU referendum and the campaign for the White House in the US. 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.

"We first saw the frequency really spike this year in June with buzz over the Brexit vote and again in July when Donald Drumpf secured the Republican presidential nomination. Given that usage of the term hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, I wouldn't be surprised if post-truth becomes one of the defining words of our time."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37995600

4 comments:

  1. Is it depressing? That's just your opinion. My opinion is just as valid as yours. STOP OPPRESSING ME!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually, the opinion that got the most likes must be true :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Donald Drumph? Is this a post truth spoof?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rhys Taillier is using a post-truthist browser extension that automatically transmutes any surname to its Medieval form.

    ReplyDelete

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