The theme of this book---the death of truth, expertise, and accepting objective knowledge--- is much discussed these days. What is unique about this discussion is that it is written by a book reviewer who can make reference to a broad selection of her reading.
The ideal subject of totalitarianism are people who cannot distinguish between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false. P. 11
There is not a direct line between the 1930's and today, but there is a connection between the disregard for facts, the replacement of reason by emotion, and the corrosion of language. P. 12
Truth and reason are endangered. P. 15
Red State America and Blue State America have a hard time agreeing on a basic set of facts. P. 17
The Rashomon Effect: The point of view that everything depends on your point of view. P. 18
There is such a thing as objective truth. Politicians who ignore this fact must be held accountable. P. 20.
Mr. Lincoln's cold, calculated, unimpassioned reason. P. 22
Hofstadter's 1963 classic in response to McCarthyism. P. 24
Ignorance is now fashionable. P. 35
The 1970's: Lasch's "culture of narcissism" and Wolfe's "me-decade."
Latch saw narcissism as a defensive reaction to social change and instability---looking out for number 1 in a hostile, threatening world. In his 1979 book, The Culture of Narcissism, he argued that a cynical "ethic of self-preservation and psychic survival" had come to afflict America---a symptom of a country grappling with defeat in Viet Nam, a growing mood of pessimism, a mass media culture centered on celebrity and fame, and centrifugal forces that were shrinking the role families played in the transmission of culture.
Features of this self-absorbed age: "intense feelings of rage," a "sense of inner emptiness," and fantasies of omnipotence. P. 61-62
Trump's mendacity is so extreme that people make a habit of presenting longs lists of his lies. He demands allegiance not to the Constitution and the rule of but to himself. P. 94.
Lies to assert power over truth. P. 96
History is continually rewritten just as in 1984. P. 97
A cavalier disregard for facts, accuracy, details, and precision. P. 100
From Umberto Eco. An appeal to nationalism. A rejection of science and rational discourse. An invocation of tradition and the past. A proclivity of equating disagreement with treason. P. 102
Like GWB Trump strictly plays to his base. P. 108
In 2016 HRC wrote off the white working class vote? P. 109
Hannah Arendt on gas lighting in Nazi Germany: It got to the point that everybody believed nothing and everybody believed everything. Everything was possible and nothing was true. P. 140
Gas lighting exhausts the people. P. 141
Cranking up the fog machine. P. 143
Nothing is true and everything is possible. P. 144
Think of the Buchanans in The Great Gatsby. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy, who smashed things and people and left the mess for other people to clean up as they retreated back into their money. P. 155
The truth is trashed in a sea of irrelevance. P. 166
Washington's warnings in his farewell address. P. 169-170
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