The politics of truth

In an era of technological access and sheer speed of knowledge transfer, ascertaining “truth” should theoretically be conducted with ease. After all, knowledge has become instantaneously available to us at the mere click of a button.

And yet, deciphering the truth has perhaps never been so indiscernible, contradictory and politicized. For a multiplicity of reasons, learning the truth may be perceptively inconvenient, uncomfortable or even threatening.

Through generating knowledge and new understandings of the world, our most cherished world views may be challenged, potentially uprooting our entire identities and belief systems.

Consequently, being confronted with the truth may yield a myriad of defensive responses, as many of us are simply unwilling to accept such unpleasant realities.

Mark Twain so eloquently encapsulated this observation through his famous remark, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

There are so many contrasting perspectives proliferating on the topics of climate change, election integrity, the tenets of democracy, media integrity, medical sciences, schooling, civic values and so forth. The viewpoints of academics and industry experts are being supplanted by social media influencers, charismatic lay thinkers, authoritative politicians and artificial intelligence.

As a public educator, I feel it is my civic responsibility to cultivate the introspective and critical thinking capacities of youth and my peers, so that we may all venture into the cosmos seeking truth, and learn to navigate the politics of knowledge production.

Cultivating knowledge is perhaps the most powerful vehicle for social transformation. And perhaps unsurprisingly, knowledge may be fostered for both altruistic and malevolent intentions.

It seems public education, academic and formal institutions are increasingly regulated in what knowledge may be publicly disseminated. We are not merely witnessing a “culture war” over these institutions. We are witnessing the politicization of truth.

There are ample examples of such politicization of knowledge in these contemporary times.

As we incrementally integrate artificial intelligence into our daily lives, we become increasingly reliant — and influenced — by its counsel. While many of our questions may be fairly benign (e.g., questions pertaining to basic carpentry skills), AI is also laden with assumptions and biases, designed at the behest of tech oligarchs to exert broader societal influence.

Elon Musk’s Grok is a stark example, an AI agent that has initially described CEO Musk as being “strikingly handsome” and possessing “genius”-level intellect rivalling Leonardo da Vinci. It would be naive to accept the political neutrality of artificial intelligence — at least, at this stage of its non-independent existence.

The quest for truth in our public education institutions is also incrementally being displaced by a yearning to consolidate political exertion. Although schools should be safe havens for scholarly discussion, they have become key political battlegrounds, both in the public and post-secondary sectors.

In American public schools, Texas youth are now legislatively mandated to learn Biblical stories — regardless of students’ diverse religious upbringings. Florida students are now required to learn the “vocational benefits” that slavery yielded. Various states now prohibit discussion of LGBTTQ+ topics and/or any other “anti-American” values.

The Trump administration is escalating its feuds with post-secondary institutions and professors’ academic freedoms. These range from the threatening lawsuits against prestigious institutions (such as Harvard University), slashing government grant funding, advancing regulatory parameters as to what research topics may be funded and penalizing instructors who continue to espouse their evidence-based positions.

These struggles are certainly not isolated and are similarly manifesting in Canada. The politicization of truth is materializing through residential school denialism, muzzling climate change topics while amplifying the “economic benefits” of oil and natural gas industries, and parental rights campaigns protesting gender-diverse perspectives. Lamentably, it seems we have become societally less interested in attaining truth as than in advancing our own parochial narratives.

Manitoba is uniquely positioned alongside these global developments. Yes, we may lack the collective capacity to ameliorate these broader existential challenges, but we do possess the agency to improve living conditions for our fellow citizens.

I relish the hope that our political leaders exalt truth over petty party differences; that teachers and professors are afforded professional autonomy and academic freedoms; that we exalt climate sciences and conservation efforts; and that medical authorities may exercise practice independent of political narrative.

Safeguarding the truth from politicization is a generational crisis, and our survival is dependent on valuing the perspectives of academics and evidence-based practices.

Jordan Laidlaw is a public school teacher and holds a PhD in educational administration.