Lies, Bullshit, or Propaganda?: Hannah Arendt, Deliberative Democracy, and the Fight against Post-Truth Politics
The notion of ‘Post-truth Politics’ and of the ‘Post-Factual’ are notoriously blurry. In this article, I distinguish the concepts of lies, bullshit, and propaganda. I argue that the post-factual displays elements of all three concepts, so that it can be either understood to be in continuity with usi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2022
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| In: |
Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
Year: 2022, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 52-66 |
| Further subjects: | B
post-truth politics
B public reason B Hannah Arendt B Deliberative Democracy B Propaganda B bullshit |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The notion of ‘Post-truth Politics’ and of the ‘Post-Factual’ are notoriously blurry. In this article, I distinguish the concepts of lies, bullshit, and propaganda. I argue that the post-factual displays elements of all three concepts, so that it can be either understood to be in continuity with using lies and bullshit as means of political discourse; or to discontinue the basic commitments of democracy by attacking the epistemic foundations. In a second step, I argue that the common orientation towards the ideal of public reason cannot be abandoned at will, so that any Post-truth Politics is bound to fail in the end. I defend a concept of deliberative democracy which has a robust understanding of the rationality of democratic deliberation. At the same time, I argue against the assumption that the solution to ‘post-factualism’ is a return to a fictitious ‘Age of Facts’ since there are not facts without interpretation. |
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| ISSN: | 2364-2807 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.30965/23642807-bja10031 |