Fake News in Contemporary Science and Politics

This chapter delves into the problem of climate change denial that is preventing global society from taking action in defense of an imperiled planet in the Anthropocene/Technocene. Specifically, this discussion demonstrates that the unholy alliance of Big Carbon, the Alt-Right media ecosystem, including the Murdoch empire, the corporate consolidation of news networks tied to the profit motive, far-right populist leaders, and the extremism within evangelical culture has generated an ecocidal, parallel universe of simulation. The competing truth claims within disinformational silos, which suggest that global warming either has been greatly exaggerated or is a hoax, are deadly post-factual metanarratives that have obfuscated the scientific consensus about the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Owing to the pervasiveness of anti-science, post-factual rhetoric, the battle against fake news almost seems impossible at times. Nonetheless, the implementation of what contemporary psychologists refer to as “inoculation theory” in classrooms and the success of environmental literacy programs for children offer a glimmer of hope that the struggle against conspiracy theories about climate change is not in vain. Moreover, the international collaboration across borders to close the ozone hole and to decrease the deleterious impact of acid rain provide a basis for cautious optimism.

In the conclusion, I reiterate the utility of postmodern thought for shedding light on the crisis of fake news in contemporary scientific and political discourse. Although the strong version of Baudrillard’s theory of “integral reality” and Debord’s concept of the “integrated spectacle” are perhaps a step too far, the representational crisis to which they refer is all too real. One of the greatest challenges in the twenty-first century, which is inextricably linked to every other crisis examined in this book, including anthropogenic climate change, is how to respond to and mitigate the nefarious effects of the infodemic. The predicament in which we find ourselves may sometimes seem too heavy to bear, but some people such as the members of the bipartisan “Keep our Republic” commission designed to combat the erosion of democratic norms in the United States linked to alternative facts refuse to give up. There are disturbing trends, including the decision to hold the Republican Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference in Hungary, a country ruled by an autocratic leader that appears to be backsliding into a dictatorship, but we have no choice but to fight against the new face of obscurantism in the shape of fake news to save democracy and the planet.