Due to the seemingly rampant proliferation of false beliefs, itB次元官网网址檚 been claimed that weB次元官网网址檙e living in a B次元官网网址淕olden Age of Conspiracy TheoriesB次元官网网址� or that we are suffering from mass delusion. I suggest that neither is true.

Truth decay hasnB次元官网网址檛 occurred because of individual mental illness, but rather because we live in a sick society and an ailing democracy.

Just what is it that weB次元官网网址檙e sick from? We suffer from the twin maladies of mistrust and misinformation. Over the course of most of our lifetimes, mistrust in traditional institutions of informational authority B次元官网网址� of government leaders, our ideological opponents, and even our neighbours and family members B次元官网网址� has never been so low.

WeB次元官网网址檙e mired in profound epistemic mistrust B次元官网网址� that is, mistrust of information and a shared sense of whatB次元官网网址檚 true B次元官网网址� to the point of living in a state that has become a tale of two alternative realities where people have become more divided than united.

When we no longer trust informational sources and objective news, we become vulnerable to misinformation thatB次元官网网址檚 ubiquitous today, with facts and opinions and actual news and fake news sitting alongside each other so that many of us canB次元官网网址檛 tell the difference. Fake news travels farther and faster than the truth within the flea market of opinion and the disinformation food chain.

Those sitting atop the disinformation food chain are masters of exploiting the normal cognitive machinery that we use to process information, taking full advantage of our propensity for confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and motivated reasoning that all act in the service of preserving a stable sense of self where ideology and identity are fused.

If we are to avoid civil war, we have to win over hearts and minds by steering people away from the stubborn insistence that weB次元官网网址檙e right and everyone else is wrong and instead promote the Holy Trinity of Truth, which includes cognitive flexibility, intellectual humility, and analytical thinking. We must also help institutions of authority regain the publicB次元官网网址檚 trust through honesty, transparency, and public engagement while coming together as a society and finding leaders who promote communal values like truth, justice, and a better tomorrow.

William Perry

Victoria