Wilful Construction of Ignorance: A Tale of Two Ontologies

From Iraq’s mythical weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to Donald Trump’s record of more than 10 daily false or misleading statements, deception and false claims have been an integral part of political discourse for quite some time. Nonetheless, Trump’s blatant disregard for the truth has given rise to much concern about the dawn of a “post-truth” era. I argue that there are striking differences between the tacit ontologies of truth underlying the WMD deception and Donald Trump’s false claims, respectively. Whereas the WMD campaign contested a single reality, Trump’s false claims often repudiate the very idea of external truths that exist independently of anyone’s opinion. I consider this ontological shift from realism to extreme constructivism to be the most critical aspect of the current “post-truth” malaise. I note that an extreme constructivist “truth” has formed an essential aspect of historical fascism and Nazism, as well as of contemporary populist movements, and that those conceptions are incompatible with liberal-democratic norms of truth-seeking. I conclude by pointing towards potential solutions of the “post-truth” crisis.