Metaphor, literacy and ‘fake news’

Desautels Professor Reuven Brenner writes in a recent Asia Times op-ed that, as societies become literate, earlier metaphors become codified as literal truths, much to the detriment of those societies and the cultures that exist within them. There are parallels between the “fake news” of today and analogues in early societies, where one people’s superstitions about another group could bring the two into conflict.”

Though we tend to see ourselves as having developed past our ancient and medieval forebears, the fact is that the forces of tribalism persist, and still prime us for mobilization by fake news against a culture or class — or the imagined perpetrator of whatever false abuse is being bandied about on any given day.

Read full article: Asia Times