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The Death of Truth
- Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
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Publisher's summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic comes an impassioned critique of America’s retreat from reason
We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.
How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America? This decline began decades ago, and in The Death of Truth, former New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani takes a penetrating look at the cultural forces that contributed to this gathering storm. In social media and literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the trends—originating on both the right and the left—that have combined to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values. And she returns us to the words of the great critics of authoritarianism, writers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt, whose work is newly and eerily relevant.
With remarkable erudition and insight, Kakutani offers a provocative diagnosis of our current condition and points toward a new path for our truth-challenged times.
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“Kakutani has written the first great book of the Trump administration. The Death of Truth is a fiery polemic against the president and should go down as essential reading. In nine exquisitely crafted broadsides, the Pulitzer winner calls upon her vast knowledge of literature, philosophy and politics to serve up a damning state of the union.” —Rolling Stone
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“This book is essential reading today.” —Walter Isaacson
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- Unabridged
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Today’s newsrooms are propagating radical ideas that were fringe as recently as a decade ago, including “antiracism,” intersectionality, open borders, and critical race theory. How did this come to be? It all has to do with who our news media is written by—and who it is written for. In Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy, Batya Ungar-Sargon reveals how American journalism underwent a status revolution over the twentieth century—from a blue-collar trade to an elite profession.
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Balanced, informative, and insightful
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Wingnuts
- How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America
- By: John P. Avlon, Tina Brown - foreword
- Narrated by: John P. Avlon, Tina Brown (foreword)
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
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Whats a wingnut? A wingnut is someone on the far-right or far-left wing of the political spectrum professional partisans, unhinged activists, and paranoid conspiracy theorists. Barack Obama campaigned as an antidote to the politics of polarization, promising to transcend the old divides of left and right, black and white, red states and blue. But in the first year of his presidency, he is presiding over an eruption of hate and hyper-partisanship that threatens to mock the promise upon which he was elected.
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Disturbingly disappointing
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The Enemy at Home
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- Narrated by: Lloyd James
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Dinesh D'Souza, the most original and controversial writer on politics and society in the U.S. today, uncovers the links between the spread of American pop culture, leftist ideas, and secular values and the rise of anti-Americanism throughout the world. In The Enemy at Home, D'Souza makes the startling claim that 9/11 and other terrorist acts can be directly traced to the ideas and attitudes perpetrated by America's cultural left.
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FINALLY, Someone gets it!!
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The Tyranny of Clichés
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- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
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According to Goldberg, if the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, the greatest trick liberals ever pulled was convincing themselves they’re not ideological. Today “objective” journalists and academics and “moderate” politicians peddle some of the most radical arguments by hiding them in homespun aphorisms.
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I enjoyed it...and I'm a Democrat!!
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By: Jonah Goldberg
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Behold, America
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In Behold, America, Sarah Churchwell offers a surprising account of 20th-century Americans' fierce battle for the nation's soul. It follows the stories of two phrases - the "American dream" and "America First" - that once embodied opposing visions for America. Starting as a Republican motto before becoming a hugely influential isolationist slogan during World War I, America First was always closely linked with authoritarianism and white supremacy. The American dream, meanwhile, initially represented a broad vision of democratic and economic equality.
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History we need to know
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Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
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Step Right This Way!
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For better or for worse, Google and social media - “Big Tech”, collectively - have become the new public square. Unfortunately, this public square has a watchful referee standing behind them, ready and waiting to blow the whistle if they veer too far from the preferred narrative. Americans have given these companies enormous power to select the information they read, share and discuss with their neighbors and friends.
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Good Content....Run 1.2x Speed or You'll Go Crazy
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Dog Whistle Politics
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In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney Lopez offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog-whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich.
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Narration like verbal water boarding
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Reappraisals
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The accelerating changes of the past generation have been accompanied by a similarly accelerated amnesia. The 20th century has become "history" at an unprecedented rate. The world of 2007 was so utterly unlike that of even 1987, much less any earlier time, that we have lost touch with our immediate past even before we have begun to make sense of it - and the results are proving calamitous.
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Superb. Insightful essays, Performance to match
- By Louis on 05-02-12
By: Tony Judt
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Makers and Takers
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In Makers and Takers, Peter Schweizer broadens his scope to examine the damaging effects of liberal philosophy on ordinary Americans. Drawing on national polls and academic studies, as well as the revealing testimony of liberals themselves, Schweizer shows that liberals are, on the whole, less honest, less generous, lazier, and more materialistic than their conservative counterparts.
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Excellent!
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Cowards
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As we approach the most important presidential election in America’s history, something has been lost among all of the debates, attack ads, and super- PACs - something that Americans used to hold in very high regard: THE TRUTH. The truth can no longer be something we hope for; it must be something we live. When courage prevails, cowards do not - and this book was written to ensure that’s exactly what happens.
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Guess what... Its by Glenn Beck!!
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By: Glenn Beck
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What listeners say about The Death of Truth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ronald
- 08-09-18
Useful but weak in spots
On the plus side--this book provides lots of background. Truth has been ailing for decades. Our current President wasn't the first to first decide on a course of action and then pick and choose the "facts" to support it. This trend is echoed in literature where personal experience and reflection now has higher regard than shared experience (which includes science). The author makes the case that Trump has pushed the regard for truth to new lows.
On the minus side--while many points are backed up with examples and citations, there were cases where the documentation was weak. It is not worse than many other analyses of politics, but when the issue is truth, I was expecting all of the arguments to be iron-clad. The other weakness for me was the proliferation of 25-cent words where 10-cent words were adequate. I heard "post-modernist" and "deconstructionist" too many times.
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- E in Atlanta
- 10-31-18
Another confusion of truth, lies, and viewpoint
Another writer confuses the postmodern viewpoint approach for a difference of truth and lies. Interrogating history through the lens of multiculturalism did not lead us down the path of relative truth. Learn what propaganda truly means before blaming postmodernism for Fox News.
Three stars because there were things that made me think in the work once I got past the other's blind spots listed above. It's a credit to the performer that I made it all the way through this.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Thomas St. Catherine
- 06-05-19
What is true?
Not to ground this book on a clear exposition of what the author considers the foundation for determining "what is true & what is not," is a glaring omission & significantly weakens the entire premise of the book. Some references to research, facts, scientific evidence are there, but pretty sure the foundation is fairly flimsy because the analysis of the problem of "the death of truth" is confusing & logically inconsistent in many places.
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- Boys4me
- 08-16-18
important points to be aware of
the narrator was a bit more dramatic than I would have preferred for the reading of an essay. But I got over it.
Good discussion of just how serious it is that Trump and his allies are destroying the concept of objective truth. I liked the discussion of the roots of this in postmodernism, although the author also distinguishes early postmodernism from the misuse of its frameworks by the politicians who use relativism to manipulate the population for their own ends.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Sams95
- 03-27-23
Scary Must Read/Listen
I find this writing a well researched statement of facts that I’ve witnessed. Thing only good thing about Trump is that he inspired me to research, learn history, and hone my critical things/reading/listening skills.
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- Bill
- 07-07-20
scary honesty
wonderful book written with a lot of spot on Research and clarity about how truth has been replaced with hype
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- Matthew Kaminski
- 09-13-18
Very good but depressing and short.
very good read but the topic of how we are sliding into an authoritarian regime is depressing. it kinda reads like a college essay. I wish it would have addressed more about... what can be done? what steps would have stopped the historical fascists cited?
still a good and quick read.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Brian Price
- 07-27-18
Prescient Account of the Mechanics of Tyranny
The author organizes and presents the recent history of disinformation practiced by fascists and other autocracies. She shows clearly how Trump and his abettors are a development from that tradition, and makes clear why the nation has diverged into bitterly opposed camps.
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8 people found this helpful
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- MR
- 08-17-18
So truthful
I feel this book is a great chronicle of how miss information has unfortunately infected our political system. To bad the people who really need to read this won’t. Her examples are very easy to verify and no one can accuse Ms Kautani of fabrication.
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- Toz
- 03-14-22
Inspiring book
I liked the author’s examples of how truth has been in decline, citing specific failures. Would liked to have had a chapter about how to know what the truth is or what can be done so get us there since so many people say they believe the last presidential election has been stolen, though demonstrably false.
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