The Death of Truth, Steven Brill

 

The Death of Truth:  How social media and the internet gave snake oil salesman and demagogues the weapons they needed to destroy truth and polarize the world--and what we can do about it by Steven Brill

Started: August 23, 2024
Completed: August 26, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

A fair portion of this book is Brill defending his company.  That is less than satisfying.  It seems like it is a decent company with good intent.  It also seems like the company is having a hard time finding customers in an environment where it should probably have lots of customers.  OK.  Tell me once.  It also seems like the GOP has tried to eliminate the non-partisan company.  That completely sucks.  Tell me once.

The idea that there should be a single objective truth, is not controversial.  Brill makes the argument well, that everyone wants "their truth" instead of "the truth."  He argues this on several levels and the arguments are compelling.  Understanding at least a little bit about what people are able to accept helps guides his methods to fixing this problem.  I have to admit that I don't think that the fixes he offers are going to work, but clearly I'm not the expert.