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Fake News is a Consequence of Rationality

  • Before the triumph of the scientific method, debates were settled based on religious books or pure rhetoric (or violence)
  • Science is forcing everybody to use facts and logic: collect the facts, and then use logic to derive conclusions
  • Now everybody is rational: given the same facts, we would all reach the same conclusions
  • The only way to force a different conclusion from the logical one is to change the facts
  • Therefore now there is a new business: the business of fabricating the facts
  • Politicians have always twisted the facts to push their agendas, but now it is becoming the only way to push an agenda through an increasingly rational audience
  • The most important factor is no longer what the Bible says, nor how impressive the speaker is: people increasingly base their judgment on cold reasoning
  • The only thing that can alter their conclusions is changing the facts
  • Fake news are a consequence of the triumph of rationality and science