The real origin of our post-truth politics

Next week will see the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States of America. Few could have predicted, even six months ago, that Mr Trump would defeat the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

In fact, I spent election results night at a party hosted by the wonderful US Ambassador to Ireland Kevin O’Malley. As the first results started to pour in, seasoned political analysts and veteran campaigners who were on hand to help us understand the process were cracking jokes about how ungracious Mr Trump was likely to be in defeat. Within a couple of hours, however, they stared in disbelief as Clinton staffers sent home the thousands of supporters at her victory rally.

Mrs Clinton was so inconsolable, we are led to believe, that she was unable to make a concession speech to those who had worked so hard to get her elected.

I can’t judge individual consciences – that’s for God. But Mr Trump appears to be a deeply-flawed man. Anyone who jokes – even claiming it to be no more than banter – about sexual assault is a loathsome individual. Truth be told, many voters saw Mrs Clinton as a deeply-flawed candidate too and opted for what they saw as the lesser of two evils.

Much of the post-election analysis has concentrated on what has been described as our ‘post-truth’ world. Commentators and pundits point to the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ (if it’s fake it’s not news and if it’s news it’s not fake) as being a decisive factor in the campaign. But, many of these self-same experts can’t point to the origins of the post-truth worldview.

Relativism

In April 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger offered some reflections on contemporary society when he said that “relativism, that is, letting oneself be tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine, seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times.

“We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognise anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires,” the soon-to-be Pope Benedict XVI said.

So, in fact, post-truth is really just another term for what philosophers call relativism: the belief that there is no absolute truth, that all truth is relative and one ‘truth’ is as good as the next. In short, since all ‘truths’ are valid and deserve to be treated equally, there is, ultimately, no truth – nothing that is absolutely true.

The ironic thing is that some of those shouting the loudest in protest at the post-truth worldview have spent most of their lives pushing a relativist approach to morality and the ultimate truth about the human person.

Meryl Streep at the golden globes: The veteran actress Meryl Streep used her speech at the Golden Globe ceremony at the weekend to launch a thinly-veiled attack on Mr Trump. She lamented the fact that she saw in Mr Trump a powerful person using his power to bully others.

Violence, she said, begets more violence. Ms Streep is correct, but likely fails to see that the surge in support for Mr Trump is the opposite side of the same coin. Many of the people – particularly blue collar workers – who voted for Mr Trump feel that they have spent years being bullied by powerful liberal elites for holding options that just a few years ago were not remotely controversial.

Take, for example, the case of Christian bakers in the US state of Colorado (like the McArthur family in Belfast) who were sued after they said they would not bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. The full force of law was brought to bear on them.

Bullying is a two-way street: until we all realise this, there will be little room for dialogue and common ground.

Some things are just not possible

Speaking of post-truth, the London-based online newspaper The Independent ran an article this week with the headline: ‘First man in UK to give birth finds sperm donor on Facebook after pausing transition to become father’.

But men can’t become pregnant, can they? At first, I thought it was a typo. Then I read the article and realised it was a woman suffering from gender dysphoria who believed that she is, in fact, a man who had become pregnant.

Gender dysphoria is a real thing and should be taken seriously. But, a more honest reporting of the story might be ‘Woman who believes she is a man gets pregnant’. It’s biologically impossible for men to get pregnant: that’s just a fact.