Not on the Same Page

Photo: Canva.com

PolitiFact, a fact checking organisation, labelled 2025 as “the Year of the Lies” due to the volume of misinformation in circulation and what they called an “up is down” narrative that constantly calls into question “established” facts. As Rudy Jiuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, once said, “truth isn’t truth”. The rise of AI has been a major contributor to this process of fragmenting truth as it can generate thousands of new and often contradictory narratives way faster than people can fact check them.

If lies were a major feature of 2025, what is to come in 2026? There is no shortage of predictions. The one that caught my attention was by Erica Orange under the title “Society enters a state of psychosocial freefall”.  She suggests that we could be faced with a loss of shared reality as traditional arbiters of truth (the news media, Government and Churches) lose power and influence. When this happens society fragments into tribes as people look to likeminded people and groups for validation of their experiences, perceptions and feelings. 

Corbin K Barthold reviewing Invisible Rulers, a book by Renee DiResta included two telling quotes. DiResta comments that “those who know how to talk persuasively drown out those who know what they are taking about”. She contends that “a new system of persuasion” - a convergence of the influencers, the algorithms that give them visibility, and the online crowds that follow and support them—is transforming society”.

There have always been a variety of perceptions, perspectives and experiences. History as told by colonising nations differs markedly from that of the indigenous people who were conquered and controlled by them. There are very different narratives about what is happening in Ukraine or Gaza depending on who is telling the story. In the past there was some neutral ground outside these various perspectives from which one could evaluate what was true and what was not in them. It is this common ground, a shared sense of reality, that is rapidly disappearing.  It is suggested that this loss poses the greatest existential threat to humanity. Cooperation and effective action depend on people being on the same page. When they are not the result is chaos and disharmony. If we can’t agree on what is happening it becomes increasingly difficult, if not impossible,to find remedies that will work.  

Creating doubt and confusion seems to be a deliberate tactic.   The ones who benefit from this seems to be those seeking authoritarian rule as it creates a situation which will draw likeminded people and groups to their side while all others are dismissed as not just as wrong but dangerous (the enemy). There are many examples of this kind of rule in our world where opposition parties are banned, their leaders imprisoned or killed, freedom of the press is restricted and the independence of justice system compromised. One commentary mentioned that in a democracy the police are on the street to protect citizens but under authoritarian rule they are there to protect those in power against its citizens. There is no common ground - just them and us and God help you if you are on a different page from those with power.  

Fr Pat O'Shea, lives and works in Aotearoa/New Zealand