Thinking with others

Guadalupe Nogués & José María Perazzo (TRANSLATION)

This book is intended to be a starting point to break down post-truth into its main components through specific examples, as a way for us to be better prepared to identify the structures that foster post-truth and thus manage, together, to survive and prevail. Post-truth allows facts to become facts to the extent that they fit the desires of each group, each tribe. Each individual tribe develops its own narrative, with a language that privileges the ability to trigger emotions, and drives those emotions to create landscapes only accessible to those who share their way of looking at them. This discontinuity in the landscape is a threat to the existence and development of meaningful human bonds, to our coexistence as a species on this planet and, thus, to our very survival. This is why we consider post-truth as an important and urgent public health problem, and this book is our contribution to the goal of finding a solution together.

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Introduction

0.1.

Of words and things

The surface of the world rises and falls, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Mount Everest, in a single continuous line that we can follow without lifting our finger from the map. Between the darkest depths and the highest summit there is but a difference in height, and we can pass […]

How we know what we know

1.1.

The post-truth era

Facts, science and evidence

1.2.

From evidence to knowledge

OBSERVATIONS, EXPERIMENTS AND IMAGINATION

1.3.

How we know in medicine

EVIDENCE, EXPERIENCE AND CONTEXT

1.4.

Trust and consensus

UNCERTAINTIES, COMPLEXITY AND THEORIES

Unintentional post-truth

2.1.

Beliefs and emotions

FACTS, KNOWLEDGE AND FEELINGS

2.2.

Flawed thinking

BIASES, FALLACIES AND WORKSFORMEISM

2.3.

Us and them

TRIBES, TIES AND IDENTITY

2.4.

Knowing and knowing who knows

EXPERTS, BIASES AND DISTRUST

2.5.

The paths of information

MEDIA, NETWORKS AND ECHO CHAMBERS

Intentional post-truth

3.1.

Smoke gets in your eyes

TOBACCO, INDUSTRY AND MANIPULATION

3.2.

Sugar, sugar

SUGAR, COMPLEXITY AND CONFUSION

3.3.

Human warming

CLIMATE, SURVIVAL AND DISTORTIONS

3.4.

The post-truth factory

INFORMATION, CONTROL AND ADULTERATION

Fighting, surviving, prevailing

4.1.

Effective public policies

POLICIES, EVIDENCE AND CONTEXTS

4.2.

Common ground

COMMUNICATION, TRUTH AND BONDS

4.3.

In the same direction

COMMITMENT, EMPOWERMENT AND LOVE

Epilogue

5.1.

The cards on the table

In closing, I think it is time to explain why I put this book together as I did, what I intended with each decision, both with what I showed and what I did not show. It is time to lay my cards on the table in order to share the journey as completely as possible […]