short paragraph does not take that long to do
Truth Decay
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After you have attended the NJVideo on alternate ways of knowing, offer a brief discussion of the following:
Below is an excerpt from an article in The Atlantic. Read it and then tell me which “alternate sources of knowledge” (as discussed in the text and the NJVideo) are being identified by Kavanagh and Rich as responsible for truth decay? [Be sure to justify your answer(s)–i.e. persuade me that you are right!]
“In a newly released report (Links to an external site.), the RAND Corporation addresses a phenomenon it calls “Truth Decay.†Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich define it as “a set of four related trends: increasing disagreement about facts and analytical interpretations of facts and data; a blurring of the line between opinion and fact; an increase in the relative volume, and resulting influence, of opinion and personal experience over fact; and declining trust in formerly respected sources of factual information.†From their perspective, the current status quo is the result of a long-term trend, not the creation of any one individual. President Trump is simply its apotheosis. As his frustration this weekend shows, truth decay can be a potent weapon for a politician unconcerned with honesty, but it is a weapon that, once deployed, can hurt the man who wields it just as it does his foes.”