The Truth Crisis

I’m growing increasingly discouraged by the landscape of online discourse. I used to think that I can have some small positive influence focusing on truth-seeking, encouraging curiosity, non-tribelistic assessments of reality, and critical thought. But I may have been overly enthusiastic. I misjudged the public.

They claim to be interested in all of the above in general terms, but once we apply these lenses concretely, on something that aligns with their worldviews and interests, they shift into narrative protection mode.

Far fewer people genuinely care about the truth than profess to. They care about "their" truth and must defend it no matter what. When confronted with inconvenient facts, they dismiss them outright. The source is immediately deemed untrustworthy—often without any real engagement with the evidence (eg. not reading any of it for themselves)—or the facts are simply minimized as unimportant.

And they don’t particularly seem to care when those they follow—whether media pund…