Resisting Post‐truth Politics, a Primer: Or, How Not to Think about Human Mobility and the Global Environment
| Author | Pinar Bilgin |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12411 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
Resisting Post-truth Politics, a Primer: Or, How
Not to Think about Human Mobility and the
Global Environment
Pinar Bilgin
Bilkent University
Abstract
In recent years, students of world politics have been shaken to the core by the ascent of post-truth politics, which is a particu-
lar style of ‘doing politics’by politicians and pundits –a style that strategically relies on misrepresentations at best, and at
worst, lies. The so-called post-truth world has had consequences beyond those who are in the business of doing politics. The
pervasiveness of presumed causal linkages between environmental degradation, violent conflict and human mobility has been
utilized by policy makers and pundits to shape public opinion about the predicament of the Syrian refugees, the human tra-
gedy of this decade in the Northern hemisphere. On the one hand, scholarly research shows that the relationship between
environmental degradation, violent conflict and irregular mobility is far too complex to be understood in terms of causal link-
ages. On the other hand, in a post-truth world, it is politicians and pundits who repeat falsehoods that have shaped public
opinion about the Syrian refugees. It is in the spirit of engaging with post-truth politics as such that I present what follows as
a primer: how not to think about human mobility and the global environment.
Post-truth has been declared as word of the year by Oxford
English Dictionaries (OED, the qualifier ‘in the English-speak-
ing world’is implied but not always spelled out). Here is
how OED defines post-truth:
relating to or denoting circumstances in which
objective facts are less influential in shaping public
opinion than appeals to emotion and personal
belief (OED 2016).
Post-truth politics is a particular style of ‘doing politics’by
politicians and pundits –a style that strategically relies on
misrepresentations at best, and at worst, lies. Finally, post-
truth world is a state in which ‘blatant lies’become ‘routine
across the society’, the implication being that ‘politicians
can lie without condemnation’(Higgins 2016: 9).
According to philosopher Katherine Higgins, it is impor-
tant to distinguish the rise of a post-truth world from every-
day practices of politicians and pundits who may be
economical with the truth or bend it as they see fit. Higgins
writes:
This is different from the clich
e that all politicians
lie and make promises they have no intention of
keeping –this still expects honesty to be the
default position. In a post-truth world, this expecta-
tion no longer holds (Higgins 2016: 9).
Ironically, notes Higgins, ‘politicians who benefit from post-
truth tendencies rely on truth, too’. This is ‘not because they
adhere to it’. Rather, politicians who bend the truth also ‘de-
pend on most people’s good-natured tendency to trust that
others are telling the truth, at least the vast majority of the
time’(Higgins 2016: 9).
Yet, such irony offers little reprieve for the students of
world politics who are shaken to the core by the ascent of
post-truth politics. For, the post-truth world has had conse-
quences beyond those who are in the business of doing
politics. The pervasiveness of presumed causal linkages
between environmental degradation, violent conflict and
human mobility has been utilized by policy makers and
pundits to shape public opinion about the predicament of
refugees in general and the Syrian refugees in particular.
Such utilization of presumed linkages by policy makers and
pundits have imposed limits on potential policy responses,
thereby worsening the predicament of Syrians on the move
from their temporary abode in Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey to
somewhere in Western Europe or beyond. On the one hand,
scholarly research shows that the relationship between envi-
ronmental degradation, violent conflict and irregular mobil-
ity is far too complex to be understood in terms of causal
linkages. On the other hand, in a post-truth world, it is
politicians and pundits who repeat falsehoods that have
shaped public opinion about the Syrian refugees, our under-
standing of their reasons for leaving home, and the poten-
tial implications of their arrival for the threat of so-called
homegrown terrorism. As such, people’s responsiveness to
humanitarian calls for offering sanctuary to Syrian refugees
was limited. Not surprisingly, the calls for going beyond
mere humanitarian action were drowned out.
The point being that resisting post-truth politics, as it has
shaped policy making vis-
a-vis human mobility and the
Global Policy (2017) 8:Suppl.1 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12411 ©2017 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 8 . Supplement 1 . February 2017 55
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