The affective grounding of post-truth: pedagogical risks and transformative possibilities in countering post-truth claims

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to map a line of theorizing affect and its entanglement with post-truth, and use this theorization to think about what it could mean for the role of educators—that is, what can be done in education to respond critically to the affective infrastructures of post-truth politics? This question arises at a historical juncture of widespread views that post-truth politics create an urgency for reframing post-truth experiences as productive pedagogical engagements. The paper draws on affect theory to show how the affective grounding of post-truth claims works to govern our subjectivities and how emotions matter in constructing certain truths that reproduce social and political evils such as racism, sexism and xenophobia. The analysis shows how this nuanced understanding of affect, governmentality and post-truth can be helpful in educational settings to respond critically to post-truth politics, while paying attention to risks emerging from moralization or indoctrination.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-truth
• affect theory
• governmentality
• strategic empathy
• suffering
• pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I am indebted to one of the anonymous reviewers for making this observation.