In the centuries that followed, accounting was joined by statistics, economics, surveys and a range of other numerical methods. Poovey argued, was that it presented a type of truth that could apparently stand alone, without requiring any interpretation or faith on the part of the person reading it. What was new about merchant bookkeeping, Dr. The problem is the oversupply of facts in the 21st century: There are too many sources, too many methods, with varying levels of credibility, depending on who funded a given study and how the eye-catching number was selected.ДЄccording to the cultural historian Mary Poovey, the tendency to represent society in terms of facts first arose in late medieval times with the birth of accounting. Newspapers might provide resistance to the excesses of populist demagogy, but not to the broader crisis of facts.

Individuals have growing opportunities to shape their media consumption around their own opinions and prejudices, and populist leaders are ready to encourage them.Д«ut to focus on recent, more egregious abuses of facts is to overlook the ways in which the authority of facts has been in decline for quite some time. The combination of populist movements with social media is often held responsible for post-truth politics. If you really want to find an expert willing to endorse a fact, and have sufficient money or political clout behind you, you probably can. How can we still be speaking of вЂњfactsвЂќ when they no longer provide us with a reality that we all agree on? The problem is that the experts and agencies involved in producing facts have multiplied, and many are now for hire. 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.ДЄs 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 TrumpвЂ™s вЂњfactualвЂќ statements actually fall into the categories of вЂњmostly false,вЂќ вЂњfalseвЂќ and вЂњpants on fireвЂќ untruth.ДЇor 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.Д«ut they seem to be losing their ability to support consensus.

Facts hold a sacred place in Western liberal democracies.

Post truth politics definition