Grappling with Postmodernism in a Post-Trump America
“...modernism is the assertion that truth can be known definitively. Postmodernism is the assertion that truth can never be known definitively; it can only be guessed at and approximated, at best.” - Mark Manson
Remember, back in the good old days before the country elected the most improbably unelectable bully with the propensity to lie about, well, fucking everything, when Stephen Colbert made the satirical argument about “truthiness”? How we all laughed?
Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.
At the time this was Colbert’s comic take on postmodernism. It is now not quite so funny because those on the fringes of our body politic are full-on postmodernists without the wink of isn’t this kind of ridiculous?
The entire Trump strategy of contesting the election is postmodernist. “We believe there was voter fraud so it must be there.” Never mind a lack of evidence. That predisposed intuition is enough to launch investigations and lawsuits and, whether any evidence is found, the gut assertion will be embedded.
Modernism came around during the Enlightenment. Modernists argued that our understanding of reality could be improved upon through experimentation, observation, and reason. It arose as a response to the superstitions and control of the Church and placed science and quantifiable data as a replacement for faith.
Postmodernism was faith fighting back. Absent of a tether to a god or religious dogma, it simply posited that nothing was really true and that science is merely a tool for subjective focus. Tear down science and collected data and all you have left is faith.
The 75 million plus who voted Blue in this election are socialist.
The 71 million plus who voted Red in this election are racist.
Joe Biden is a Trojan horse for the Extreme Left.
Donald Trump was a dictator.
Zoomers just live in their parents’ basements and loot at any chance.
Boomers are greedy, angry supporters of caging immigrant children.
All white people are racist.
All black people are violent.
All men are fundamentally misogynist.
All women are fundamentally misandrist.
Twitter is an accurate reflection of the vast plurality of opinions.
None of these statements is rooted in fact. All smack of ‘truthiness.’
The #NotAll_____ responses to postmodern hashtags are not an agreement to the contrary but a another way of saying Generalizations are mostly bullshit.
In a recent Literate ApeCast, with guest Peter Kremidas, the question was whether or not politics are fundamentally emotional. Of course, I argued that it should not be but failed to recognize that, in a postmodernist view, politics has to be based upon emotion and lived experience. In a postmodernist worldview, emotion and political activism are irrevocably intertwined.
Donald Trump should’ve been repudiated but he most certainly was not. He lost the election but by a slim margin (four million votes equals a whopping 1.25% of the population which ain’t much no matter how you slice it and definitely not a repudiation). Trumpism is still alive and well and the only aspect of our cultural and political climate equal in postmodern practice to that is the Woke Cult. Both truck in ‘lived experience,’ anecdotal evidence over data, and a belief that their belief is enough to be their truth as opposed to the truth.
Both rely almost entirely in suspension of rationality for the raw emotion so easily fooled.
“Stop the count except for the states I’m ahead in” is only slightly different logic than “White people who deny their racism are too fragile to acknowledge it.”
Sure, social media has exacerbated this postmodern truthiness but we’re mostly grown ass adults and are wholly responsible for our own perspectives.
I remember in the early days of the pandemic (what was that — last week?) when those predisposed to believe the whole thing was a hoax and eagerly lapping up the cat vomit of faux scientists claiming it to be so. When asked why I thought it was real, I always answered exactly the same way: “I listen to the consensus of credible scientists on the matter. That consensus of credible scientists indicates the pandemic is real and will have real consequences should we ignore it.”
I think, after staring in awe at what I used to label mouthbreathing stupidity, I understand the rise of this adherence to postmodern thought: it feels like religion without a deity. One can feel virtuous, understood, and supported by a community of like-minded believers by buying into the self affirmation that one need not listen to expertise but ‘go with your gut’ and let the chips fall.
The postmodernist wants to believe that a Trump voter is racist and sexist. A modernist looks at the data, sees that prior to the 2016 election four million manufacturing jobs were eliminated in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan to be replaced by industrial automation. And those voters cast their ballots for the candidate who want to “Make America Great” rather than the one who told them “America is already great.”
A postmodernist boils whole systems and groups into easily digestible categories. A modernist understands how complicated people are and does some research to find context. Context is the garlic to the postmodernist vampire.
I know our education system needs attention and so many of us are reticent to do any sort of homework but in a media landscape where one can type in “Weight Loss Techniques” into a search field and receive hundreds of thousands of conflicting, contradictory ideas, maybe some homework is exactly what is necessary.
A couple of rules of thumb I’ve learned to follow in the past four or five years:
If I read it on social media, best to assume it’s bullshit.
If the belief is not backed up by data, it’s bullshit.
If a politician says it without supporting evidence, it’s bullshit.
If it’s full of ‘buzzwords’ (intersectionality, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, TERF, fragility), it’s bullshit.
Anything boiled down to a hashtag carries sacks of bullshit in it’s wake.
Example: This week Secretary of State Pompeo was asked about the transition from Trump to Biden. His exact words were:
‘There Will Be a Smooth Transition…to a Second Trump Administration’
Of course, the media went apeshit. It was another example of corruption, of evil, of obstruction. So I went and watched the video. He was obviously making a joke. Not a great joke given the circumstances but it’s very apparent his comment was tongue-in-cheek.
I’m a modernist. Why not join me and stop being lead by your emotional need for faith? To grapple with postmodernism one must acknowledge what a crock of bullshit it is and then recognize the signs that you are following that perspective like the lunatic fringe.
Then do some fucking research. Christ, we have the most sophisticated information technology in history, so you have no excuse.
