What is truth? Read <The Post-Truth Era>

The truth is a mirror scattered into countless fragments, and everyone believes that the small piece he sees is the complete truth. - Richard Burton <Kassida of Haji Abdul-Yazdi>

I've been reading "The Post-Truth Era" by British author Hector MacDonald these days. During the epidemic, I spent a lot of time and energy at home watching various news every day, and I gradually learned from the initial information explosion that I couldn't filter it out. Categorize different sources of information and verify the reliability of the information in various ways. The book "Post-Truth Era" points out that in many cases, the information given by the information transmitter is not a lie, but because of its different narrative methods and techniques , it can give the public completely different feelings and perceptions. Therefore, in addition to being vigilant against false information, we must also pay attention to whether we are being misled by carefully selected and processed truths.

Taking the recently widely discussed AstraZeneca vaccine causing blood clots as an example, also from UK statistics, we can see several expressions:

1. 79 people developed blood clots

2. More than 20 million doses have been vaccinated, and 79 people have developed blood clots

3. The chance of developing a blood clot after vaccination is about 4 in 1 million

4. The chance of developing a blood clot after vaccination is about 4 in 100,000, compared to about 5 in 1 million in the general population

All of the above are facts, but expressed in different ways, the reader will feel completely different, and the public's assessment of the risk and the choice of whether to receive the AZ vaccine will also be greatly affected. After < In The Age of Truth, the author refers to this situation as "competing truth", that is, any set of facts can usually yield more than one truth, and in many cases, we can describe a person in many ways, An event, a thing, or a policy, and these descriptions may be equally true. Competing truths affect our thinking patterns and, in turn, our choices and actions.

The author divides competing truths into four categories in the book: partial truths, subjective truths, artificial truths, and partial truths. For me the first part of the deconstruction of partial truths is the most instructive. Most of the information we receive is perhaps True, but they do not convey the full truth, because even common topics are complex narratives. The complexity of affairs forces us to express partial truths, and the messenger can choose the part that supports the individual's intentions The truth affects reality. From this point of view, we should be wary of the media, politicians, critics and social activists, because they will definitely present the part that is beneficial to them, rather than showing us the whole picture. The understanding of a topic is often affected by history, background, figures, and storytelling. However, history can be partially ignored and selectively narrated. Many communicators can create sensational news by omitting important background, figures Individual stories can appear larger or smaller because of their different presentations, and individual stories can also be used by misguided people as truths to prove a general opinion.

Of course, when we ourselves are the communicators of information, it is impossible to tell every aspect of the truth in every detail. Here the author gives three ethical standards for communication: First, it is in fact Correct; secondly, it is to achieve a constructive outcome that is supported by the public; thirdly, it does not mislead the public into doing harm to themselves. In conclusion, when receiving information, we should consider different aspects of important issues in a balanced manner To evaluate and adopt different viewpoints. When disseminating information, we can choose the truth that supports our viewpoint and ignore some details to make the subject clear, but make sure not to distort the original facts and mislead the audience.