Don't Confuse me with the Facts. No Longer just One Political Party's Mission Statement.

It's often stated, with a grizzled level of accuracy, that America is living in a post-factual age. This has been noted for a few years, when the concept of "truththiness" and the claim by political operatives that they could create their own false reality by repeating planks of perjury.

It is also been frequently observed that when post-factual fabualists are confronted with facts they react in an utterly counterintuitively manner. Rather than act like a rational, thinking sentient organism (like a maze mouse receiving a shock on the nose and changing paths), they double down on dumbness. Alternate facts aren't even enough for these idiotlogues. We are dealing with chuks that are not intelligent enough to operate the electric eye flush sensor in a nursing home restroom.

New research provides more evidence of this anti-reality cognitive reinforcement mechanism. In "There's an intriguing sociological reason so many Americans are ignoring facts lately" http://www.businessinsider.com/sociology-alternative-facts-2017-2, researchers demonstrate that people with hardened political beliefs are even less likely to correct their misconceptions when presented with the truth. The researchers stated:

Nyhan and Reifler found that how people responded to the factual corrections in the articles they read varied systematically by how ideologically committed they already were to the beliefs that such facts supported. Among those who believed the popular misinformation in the first place, more information and actual facts challenging those beliefs did not cause a change of opinion—in fact, it often had the effect of strengthening those ideologically grounded beliefs.  

 DON'T MAKE ME HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS...

One simple example was provided. The rates of violent crime and property crime have plummeted since 1993. Yet the percent of Americans that believe that the current year's crime rate is higher that last year's is consistently high, ranging from 84% in 1989 to 72% in 2016. 

So whether it is estimating crowds at presidential events or fear mongering about terrorist refugees coming to put super glue on VFW bar stools, don't bother with truth when lying might get you another Gallup point or two.

DEMOCRACY WILL DO WELL IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL. NOT SO WELL IN THE DESERT OF THE POST-KNOWLEDGE AGE UNDESIRABLES. (You've Been Warned. Many Times.)