As you may or may not have heard, the Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2016 is "post-truth".
[quote][url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/post-truth][b]post-truth[/b][/url]
Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief:[/quote]
As I would like to think most people would agree, typically, when someone posits an argument based on emotion, when there is relevant objective data available, the gold-standard of rebuttal is to make an argument based on what the data says.
However, in this post-truth world we live in now, where people are too easily swayed by what merely [i]sounds[/i] good, how best should we respond?
Do we stand our ground and continue to assert the facts?
Do we meet them on their level with similar material of what [i]sounds[/i] good?
Do we bend the truth, misrepresent the facts, and falsify information if it helps achieve our goals, even if those goals are noble causes; is the ends beginning to justify the means?
I'd be curious to hear about any other stories you have of post-truths and how, if you did, respond to them.
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"You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering." ~Doctor Who.