"But for all their cynicism, the spin doctors and political technologists were, at this point, still trying to pull off an illusion of the truth."

WHY WE’RE POST-FACT

https://granta.com/why-were-post-fact/

Peter Pomerantsev

"But for all their cynicism, the spin doctors and political technologists were, at this point, still trying to pull off an illusion of the truth. Their stories were meant to be coherent, even if they were low on facts. When reality caught up – the audience caught on to the illusion in Moscow and the stories about Iraq broke down and the stock market crashed – one reaction has been to double down, to deny that facts matter at all, to make a fetish out of not caring about them. This has many benefits for rulers – and is a relief for voters."