ABSTRACT
'Post-truth', the new word of the year in 2016, has been defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as an adjective 'relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief'. 'Fake news' is taken to denote a more specific and conscious spreading of hoaxes and misinformation, most usually via the electronic media. Post-truth and 'fake news' tendencies are, of course, ubiquitous in human beings, organisations, cultures, and social institutions. In historic terms there have been both progressive and regressive forms of populism, and many of the achievements of liberal pluralist society were only achieved against the odds by populist pressure. Mair (2014) shows how changes in human subjectivity interact with globalisation; a decline in long-term commitments increased short-termism and volatility, an explosion of choice, and the assertion of personal taste and style, the establishing of voluntarist connections across social media, rather than identifications of class or locality.
