Public Emergency in a Post-Truth Era
March 19th 2020
Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Mike Pence (Palácio do Planalto)
By Peter F. Crowley
The implications for a post-truth era are alarming, if not deadly: when a public health emergency hits, faces are Picassoan, looking bewildered in every direction.
Some laugh away the media ‘hype’ over the virus, others espouse anti-Chinese conspiracy theories, while others listen to public health officials and responsibly begin social distancing. Yet in the post-truth world, all are deemed equally valid.
For political ends, truth was disposed of in the obsessive questioning of Barack Obama’s religion and citizenship. Later, a chief proponent of the Birther conspiracy theory stepped into the White House and, within days, espoused ‘alternative facts’: Trump claimed that his inauguration crowd bested historic highs, despite being only half full. Subsequently, Trump lied about the path of Hurricane Dorian, incorrectly claiming it was heading towards Alabama; and despite professing to ‘love’ Dreamers, he terminated the DACA program that allowed them to stay in the country.
While these were troubling, they were often laughed off in the hopes that by 2021 there would be a new White House occupant who would not so flagrantly abuse truth. (It’s true all other presidents have lied – think Bush’s WMD in Iraq – but Trump outdoes them.)
But the post-truth mentality, which our current president helped instill, has now turned its most dangerous course. Recently, Trump claimed that anyone can get tested for the novel coronavirus – a clear untruth. Until only last Wednesday, he acted like the virus was no big deal; for instance, he urged people to go to work with the disease. Additionally, as the virus has spread over the past few months, the Trump administration did nothing to increase the testing kits of coronavirus until only this week. They even refused the World Health Organization’s coronavirus testing kit. The consequence is a case like Texas, a state of nearly 29 million, where only 26 patients can be tested per day. In a Friday press conference, Trump persisted with his alt-facts in cowardly ducking blame for disbanding the National Security Council pandemics office in 2018.
Most importantly, when Trump acted like ‘all is well’ until very recently, in hopes of maintaining the US economy, he instigated socially irresponsible behavior among the America public. Such ignorance was mimed this weekend by some of Trump’s GOP peons, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes and Oklahoma GOP Governor Kevin Stitt, who, respectively, encouraged people to “go to pubs” and bragged about eating at a packed restaurant. Such disinformation has help drive millions of Americans to continue with their lives as usual, changing little to nothing, causing the spread to over 600 new coronavirus cases each day.
A post-truth zeitgeist has taken a severe toll on the United States. The president, chief proponent of ‘alternative facts’, has – at minimum – helped throw fuel into the fire, if not acted as a primary instigator. Before, such falsehoods espoused by Trump may have seemed troubling and sometimes even amusing. But now, for many, it’s a case of life or death.
Yet, perhaps, there is a silver lining.
As Americans see how detrimental alt-facts and disinformation can be to public health, they may come to find them as repugnant. After suffering disease and death, Americans will most certainly emerge weary – whenever this thing ends. But they are also likely to be fundamentally shaken enough to demand political accountability and accurate information, far beyond the pre-Trump era.
In these troubled times, this may be something to hope for.
Peter F. Crowley is an independent writer and scholar with a M.S. in Conflict Resolution, Global Studies from Northeastern University. His writings can be found in Boston Literary Magazine, 34th Parallel Magazine, Counterpunch, Foreign Policy Journal, Work Literary Magazine, Znet, Opiate Magazine, Truthout, Antiwar.com, Peace Review (forthcoming) and several others. His poetry book "Those who hold up the earth" is scheduled for publication by Kelsay Books in the first half of 2020.