Oxford Dictionary’s Word Of The Year Is ‘Post-Truth’

Word of the year. PICTURE POSED BY MODEL. File photo dated 14/03/07 of a man reading a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English. "Post-truth" has been named as Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year after a ... Word of the year. PICTURE POSED BY MODEL. File photo dated 14/03/07 of a man reading a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English. "Post-truth" has been named as Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year after a spike in its use around the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's presidential bid. Issue date: Wednesday November 16, 2016. Usage of the adjective, which describes circumstances where emotions and personal beliefs are more influential than facts, increased by around 2,000% since last year, the dictionary's research showed. See PA story SOCIAL PostTruth. Photo credit should read: Ian Nicholson/PA Wire URN:29191433 MORE LESS

November 16, 2016 9:36 a.m.

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LONDON (AP) — Oxford dictionary editors have chosen their word of the year: “post-truth,” a term sometimes used to describe the current political climate.

Oxford Dictionaries said Wednesday that use of the term rose 2,000 percent between 2015 and 2016, often in discussions of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the campaign of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

It’s often used in the phrase “post-truth politics” and is defined as belonging to a time in which truth has become irrelevant.

Each year, Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that reflects the mood of the year.

Runners-up for 2016 include “Brexiteer,” an advocate of the U.K. leaving the EU; the extreme conservative movement known as the “alt-right”; and “hygge,” the Danish concept of domestic coziness.

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Associated Press

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Stunning perspective on the events that presaged the rise of the Post-Truth Era we are living in.

Some excerpts:

Responsibility for the "post-truth" era lies with the middle-class professionals who prepared the runway for its recent take-off. Those responsible include academics, journalists, "creatives," and financial traders; even the centre-left politicians who have now been hit hard by the rise of the anti-factual.

More than 30 years ago, academics started to discredit "truth" as one of the "grand narratives" which clever people could no longer bring themselves to believe in. Instead of "the truth," which was to be rejected as naïve and/or repressive, a new intellectual orthodoxy permitted only "truths"—always plural, frequently personalised, inevitably relativised.

By the mid-1990s, journalists were following academics in rejecting "objectivity" as nothing more than a professional ritual.

In the second half of the 1990s, branding comprised the core business of the newly categorised "creative industries." Bright young things generated fast-growing revenues by creating a magical system of mythical thinking known in shorthand as "the brand."

By the turn of the century, government was already less about the "truth" than about how "truths" could be spun. So-called "spin doctors" took centre stage; it was government by PR—and the Iraq War was a prime example. Facts, apparently, took a back seat.

As the protagonists neared the role of a priest or pop star in their near-mythical performances, so the Clinton-Blair-Obama triad has moved politics further away from truth and closer to the realm of the imagination. Meanwhile, in the hands of managerialists what was left of the truth—"the evidence base"—was soon recognised by the wider population as a tool for use in social engineering, and largely discredited as a result—hence the mounting hostility towards experts...

Such as Hillary Clinton.

So much of this article has a ring of… ahem, truth to it. From recalling the denunciation of stereotyping by 1960’s hippies, who now lead in the development of stereotypes — see: Baby Boom, Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials — to the certainty of the 80’s that “perception is reality,” we have indeed built a culture, an industry, and now with Trump and the conservative movement, a government unmoored from facts and reality.

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Notable Replies

clauscph says:

November 16, 2016

I wish it was ‘Post-Trump’…
rockgolf says:

November 16, 2016

America is gettin’ hygge with post-truth alt-right Brexiteerism.
tiowally says:

November 16, 2016

Brave New World.
rev says:

November 16, 2016

Was “truthiness” (a la Colbert) The Word just a few years ago? Though perhaps that wasn’t the Oxford venue.
fiftygigs says:

November 25, 2016

Stunning perspective on the events that presaged the rise of the Post-Truth Era we are living in.

The Conversation

The surprising origins of 'post-truth' – and how it was spawned by the...

Brexit and Trump aren't to blame. The rise of 'post-truth' is rooted in the middle-classes, not the masses.

Some excerpts:

Responsibility for the "post-truth" era lies with the middle-class professionals who prepared the runway for its recent take-off. Those responsible include academics, journalists, "creatives," and financial traders; even the centre-left politicians who have now been hit hard by the rise of the anti-factual.
More than 30 years ago, academics started to discredit "truth" as one of the "grand narratives" which clever people could no longer bring themselves to believe in. Instead of "the truth," which was to be rejected as naïve and/or repressive, a new intellectual orthodoxy permitted only "truths"—always plural, frequently personalised, inevitably relativised.
By the mid-1990s, journalists were following academics in rejecting "objectivity" as nothing more than a professional ritual.
In the second half of the 1990s, branding comprised the core business of the newly categorised "creative industries." Bright young things generated fast-growing revenues by creating a magical system of mythical thinking known in shorthand as "the brand."
By the turn of the century, government was already less about the "truth" than about how "truths" could be spun. So-called "spin doctors" took centre stage; it was government by PR—and the Iraq War was a prime example. Facts, apparently, took a back seat.
As the protagonists neared the role of a priest or pop star in their near-mythical performances, so the Clinton-Blair-Obama triad has moved politics further away from truth and closer to the realm of the imagination. Meanwhile, in the hands of managerialists what was left of the truth—"the evidence base"—was soon recognised by the wider population as a tool for use in social engineering, and largely discredited as a result—hence the mounting hostility towards experts...
Such as Hillary Clinton.

So much of this article has a ring of… ahem, truth to it. From recalling the denunciation of stereotyping by 1960’s hippies, who now lead in the development of stereotypes — see: Baby Boom, Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials — to the certainty of the 80’s that “perception is reality,” we have indeed built a culture, an industry, and now with Trump and the conservative movement, a government unmoored from facts and reality.

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