Democracy and Post-Truth Politics in the United States: The Social Construction of Political Knowledge

The United States is on the brink of political crisis and one of the manifestations of the current situation is the rise of “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and the politics of “post-truth.” It is a situation that undercuts the very foundation of democratic politics in the country. This paper examines how this came about—the collapse of the political culture, the shift from political parties to political tribes, and the role of the media, in particular social media. While the standard solution to the problem is seen to be found in better fact-checking, this paper argues that the politics of post-truth is much deeper and more complex. Although post-modern and post-positivist perspectives have been blamed by some for fostering a climate conducive to post-truth, the paper argues, to the contrary, that the political dynamics of this controversy can best be understood from a post-positivist social constructivist perspective. It seeks to illustrate how an adequate understanding of this politics of knowledge requires a more critical epistemological conceptualization of political knowledge. As the politics of climate denial has doubtless been the most prominent policy issue to confront post-truth politics, the case is used to illustrate the social construction of alternative facts and the politics of argumentation to which it gives rise. Finally, the paper suggests measures that can help repair a fractured democratic political culture and points to the kinds knowledge that need to be a part of such a renewal.