Everyone is worried about the truth these days, but mostly about Donald Trump’s lack of that. The phrase “decay of truth” has emerged again during the national “King’s Day” protests.
Made by Land Corporation 2018 Reportthe term describes the crisis in public life in America. The phrase has become a meme and gained traction as a label for the issues that many people are currently watching. Beyond “fake news” or “misinformation,” we explain the broader systemic erosion of the role of fact.
Rand analysts identified four interlocking trends. It obscures the differences in opinions about objective facts, the lines between opinions and evidence, the explosion of sources that contain monetized anger, and the sudden decline in trust in the institutions that once mediated knowledge.
Of course, the concern is always about someone else’s true question. Few people ask how our own certainty amplifies noise, especially when we recognize ourselves as protecting someone else.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 and 2024 elections showed all trends at once. The slogan owned the data, and nostalgia rushed to fill the void for a simpler past. Rand called this unprecedented phenomenon, as technology amplifies all the slip. The algorithm presses headlines that match the belief. Cable Chaons treats speculation as news, while social feeds reward the rage over patience.
Svetlana Boim of Harvard, Indiana The Future of Nostalgiadistinguishing between “recovery” longings that try to rebuild a lost home and “reflexive” longings that remain in pain and ask what a longing reveals.
Reflective or “constructive” – ​​nostalgia embraces fragments of memory and turns them into criticism, sarcasm and creativity. The Bible’s patterns are similar. Israel remembers the bondage to be grateful and justly ahead. Even the commandments of the TEN preface the law of Thanksgiving: “I am the Lord of your God who brought you out of slavery” (Exodus 20:2) It is not “here the judge comes.” Biblical laws are not embracing, but rather calls for justice rooted in acts of memory and mercy.
Reflective nostalgia can be an orthodontic. It lives on the neglected narrative (Indigenue, immigration, opposed) of resilient nostalgia compiled. New right rhetoric-covered Trumpism arms nostalgia. The champion summons “timeless” natural laws and promises to “reclaim the Almighty” as if God needed a guardian of the partisans. Heritage’s Project 2025 claims to be a legitimate roadmap in the country.
The cry of the end of truth is preceded by liberal or conservative slogans. Constructive nostalgia answers humbly. Lincoln’s wartime reminder reminds us that “the Almighty has his own purpose” and rejects absolute certainty.
The civic form of this idea balances three virtues. It’s unrigid respect, memories that don’t keep up with difficult times, and loyalty that doesn’t exclude. George Washington warned against the “party spirit.” James Baldwin urged America to “do our first work again” and to stand up to the history “Plains.” Ronald Reagan imagined “a shining city” open to “all kinds of people.”
For Washington, loyalty to the Republic meant giving up power after two terms. Baldwin’s Frank’s prose exposes the mythical drug comforts, but his vision is hopeful. Honesty releases both the oppressed and the oppressed. Similarly, Reagan’s Philosopher argues that freedom only grows when the gates remain open. Whatever his record, Reagan’s voice resonated with the Americans who viewed the Statue of Liberty as our number one symbol.
Together, these virtues resist irony, idolatry, and tribalism. They ask to praise what is conveyed without mistakenly making it the whole story. They sift through nostalgia – protecting gold, abandoning pyrite (the fool’s gold) – and expanding rather than shrinking, rather than shrinking.
Boim warned that he would “bred monsters” without any nostalgia. It can create a homeland of a phantom ready to die or kill. Reflective nostalgia helps to gather strength for the future by bringing out the past.
The truth breaks down when reduced to taste and personal passions. What we inherit as a “blessed tradition” is not a doctrinal deposit, but a story rich enough to function in a variety of times and places.
The message from the past is not “Please repeat what we said!” But in our time, “Do what we did!”, we should turn to see and hear the truths our ancestors had glimpses of, but we were unable to store them for future use.
The form that must be assumed to be the “truth of immortality” depends on the details of historical time. As Martin Buber wrote, all great truths begin as visions, and all visions are true only when they are fulfilled new.
Face memes The collapse of truthSvetlana Boym might get a shrug: “We’re rehearsing this.”
Notes and reading
Svetlana Boym (1959–2015) was a cultural theorist, writer and professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Harvard University. Her book The Future of Nostalgia (2001) introduced the influential concept of restorative and reflective nostalgia.
“Memories that don’t follow difficult times” – In Boim’s terminology, this is consistent Reflective More than that Repair Nostalgia –Face Rather than rewriting history, it’s the discomfort of history.
Abraham Lincoln – Second first addressMarch 4, 1865. Looking back at civil war and God’s providence, Lincoln states that “the Almighty has his own purpose.” The complete context contrasts both the North and South prayers, highlighting the moral humility in the face of the suffering of the nation.
George Washington – Farewell addressSeptember 19, 1796: “…The general and continuous mischief of the party spirit is sufficient to discourage it and make it an interest and duty of wise people.“Complete address of the National Constitutional Centre. (Online)
James Baldwin – “Ticket Price” Ticket Price: Collected Non-Fiction 1948 – 1985 (1985), xix. Baldwin recalls a lesson from his childhood church: “We were occasionally counselled to redo our first work. Go back to where you started… Find it all out, travel your path again and tell the truth about it.“
Ronald Reagan – farewell speech to the countryJanuary 11, 1989. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library transcript: “…A city that is tall and proud of… It will be filled with all kinds of people living in harmony and peace. There was a door on the wall, and the door was open to anyone with the will and heart that would come here.“(online)
Martin Barber (1878–1965) – Between a man and a man,transformer. Ronald Gregor Smith (1965), 16. The Buber wrote: “All great truths begin as heresy or blasphemous asp, then sects, then schools, then doctrines, and finally superstitions. But in its origins, it was a vision. – Barber He was an Austrian-born Jewish thinker best known for his philosophy of dialogue, particularly for his concepts. Me – thank you relationship.
The art and science of certainty -Adam Kucharski (2025). The biggest obstacle to truth is not lies, it is trusting. Those who trust, and who A story of ideas that helped scientists and society identify between truth and falsehood and improve decision-making. Method problems. Kucharski It is a prominent authority on probability and reasoning. He is a professor at the London School of Hygiene.
These Truths: American History – Jill Repore (2023). It is widely appreciated, These truths praised by critics for “moral clarity and a sweep of story” New York Times, Washington POSt, and Guardian. About the country’s often tortured approach to political equality and natural rights, the truth that appears to be self-evident. Repore is an American historian and journalist (Harvard, New Yorker).
Tip #210 – Dance in the quicksand
Tip #209 -Author and Ancient Discussion
Approx. 2 + 2 = 5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
