Have we always lived in a post truth, alternative fact World or is this just a new phenomenon?

Question

Okay when did this whole "opinions = facts" thing start. I vaguely remember debating people about it with certain topics. Like people who said Obama was a Muslim and they'd say "that's just your opinion. and my opinion is that he's Muslim so I'll stick with mine and you stick with yours." 
But now I feel like this is people's response to EVERYTHING. 
2+2=4. And that's a fact. And had more validity than an opinion. 
Is this just new to the trump era or has it always been this prevalent but I never noticed.

Answer

There's a long history of false facts getting reported, see the entire history of "yellow journalism" as an example, or the propaganda under any dictator. 
The difference today is the availability of accurate information, that we can fact check in real time. While human error is understandable, there's no excuse for the perpetuation of things like, "alternative facts". That's new and it's terrible.

Answer

I don’t remember it being said much before Trump. Especially in CC. It seems like every Trump supporters favorite line is “Well that’s your opinion and I have the right to mine”.

Answer

It's been around forever with different names. Alternative facts, fake news, gossip, propaganda, myths, lies, etc. 
   
Hitler won an election and destroyed a country and hundreds of thousands of lives based on alternative facts. 
   
Religion could be said to contain many alternative facts. 
   
When you speak about facts, you want to use things that are peer reviewed with as little bias as possible.
   
Also an engineer pointed out to me this... 
Believe it or not, sometimes 2 + 2 does not equal 4. It depends on what type of measurement scale you are using. There are four types of measurement scales – nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Only in the last two categories does 2 + 2 = 4.

Answer

There's a loooonnnggggg history of spreading false information, especially when it comes to pushing an agenda and spreading propaganda. Its why drugs were made illegal, African Americans were/are feared, etc. Its not a new thing at all. And I'm sure people have always valued their opinion over fact. I'll admit that when I first got here, I did it until I realized how much of an idiot it made me look.

Answer

People have always been that way, sometimes they just need that one asshole to make them feel brave enough to be vocal about it 😌

Answer

A lot of people want to think their opinion is fact when it's not. They just can't handle a differing opinion.

Answer

The thing is.. a lot of people have opinions and they are based on a series of facts OR feelings. 
Facts are something that are proven. 
But facts are always changing. Especially in science and healthcare and really, everywhere. 
In 10 years, we will learn something we knew as true was actually proven false because xyz. 
So they can still have an opinion thats "wrong" and no I don't believe the earth is flat but maybe there's a genuine reason why people think it could be. Or maybe they think dinosaurs never existed even though we can prove it did.. 
Everything we know is based on some type of theory.. what if that theory is wrong And we just haven't found exceptions. 
This is mainly on science.. which science you can PROOVE. And believe me, I love science but you learn how much "facts" change.    
Most of the time,facts are accurate. But remember that they can be disproven one day.

Answer

It’s always been that way, but I think some of the things people are avoiding facts on in the modern day are more ridiculous and ignorance isn’t really an excuse anymore. In the past there wasn’t access to information at your fingertips, so believing what you were told was the norm and whoever told you was either spreading truth or an opinion. But now information is accessible to everyone so really there’s no excuse to not be in the know about what’s real and what’s not.

Have we always lived in a post truth, alternative fact World or is this just a new phenomenon?

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