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Michel Zaidan

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What is post-truth?

Today, the world's major news agencies are part of the war effort of expansionist governments.

What is post-truth? (Photo: Sputnik)

Today's text is dedicated to my interlocutor on this Facebook page, Priscilla M.

She said that the images of Russian government-sponsored bombings over Ukraine are irrefutable proof of Putin's military aggression against the Ukrainian civilian population. 

I asked her candidly if she believed those images.

For some time now, scholars of politics and propaganda have popularized the term "post-truth." It seems like something for those who were educated based on the opposition between lies and truth. Then I remembered that passage from George Orwell's book about the memory department, where the memory of the past is produced and constructed through the manipulation of newspaper headlines. That was in the 40s.

Now, today – in what has come to be called "postmodernity" – this ingenious and astute operation has been perfected millions of times over through methods of editing, collage, superimposition, and juxtaposition of images, places, people, and varied times. "Truth" is a product of the reporter's or journalist's editing. It is the work of the media studios. It is what the editor or their boss wants to prove. Only those unfamiliar with the famous "culture of simulacrum" fail to realize that we live in a kind of "videosphere" similar to Plato's cave, without the outer side where truth shines brightly. The nature of the sign in this society of simulacrum was discovered long ago. It is called "indexical," typical of languages ​​used for mass manipulation. Self-referential signs, devoid of any and all meaning. 

Today, the world's major news agencies are part of the war effort of expansionist governments. Independent war correspondents and critics like Hemingway, Malraux, or Maugham, who left behind masterpieces denouncing conflicts, were rare. What we have are reporters embedded within the combat troops, writing whatever is convenient or ordered by the warring governments. 

It wouldn't hurt this occasional Russophobia to have a more critical eye towards what happens in history and its discursive and rhetorical representations by the media. 

P.S. White is not black. War is not peace or a fight for freedom.

* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.