[OPINION] The coronavirus truth bomb

For a moment there – even if it felt like a lengthy purgatorial sentence – much of the global population lived in what came to be known as the “post-truth” world. “Alternative facts” and “fake news” have acquired a state of quasi-reality, thanks to enough people saying enough lies enough times, that they were eventually taken for truth. It was the wild, wild west of spin. (READ: Disinformation producers get paid P30M for 3-month campaigns – expert)

This world favored sound byte over science, and was hostile to fact-checking and expertise. It drowned out credible voices in multiple ways: maliciously by powerful actors with vested interests; ignorantly by our individual blind spots; and systematically by socio-political institutions that left large swathes of the population undereducated or disenfranchised. 

This was the kind of world where leaders could lie – documented, sometimes multiple times a day – without repercussions. Here, sensationalist talking heads had larger political platforms than journalists. A couple of hours on Google made you a better expert on vaccines than doctors too, apparently. This was the world of paid trolls and paid hacks, peddling opinions that somehow became more valuable than sound scientific and economic recommendations on pandemics, climate change, labor rights, or universal healthcare. (READ: How young doctors are fighting online misinformation on novel coronavirus)

When fabrications were caught, penalties were slim and apologies almost none. Why bother? Yesterday’s lie can be overshadowed by today’s. But a Ponzi scheme, pyramid of lies can only last as long as a crisis is small enough to be contained away from large parts of the population. The coronavirus pandemic is not that type of crisis. It is showing us the world we live in is a hackable construct and that some powerful actors have indeed, already hijacked it.

Certain Chinese authorities tried to silence virus whistleblowers, but controlling the narrative meant nothing once the sick started filling the hospitals and the bodies started to pile up. Pro-government trolls in the Philippines tried to package calls for closed borders as xenophobia, but then the number of cases started to rise. President Duterte cursed and threatened to (figuratively, one hopes) slap the virus, until it slapped him back with an epidemic. President Trump tried to underplay the situation and overplay his preparedness, but now the world’s biggest outbreak is on his lap and people are discussing the merits of risking the lives of grandparents for the sake of saving the economy.

The truth – that this was a serious situation demanding serious people and serious solutions – tried knocking on each of their doors. China had whistleblowers from Wuhan. The Philippines, the United States, and many other countries were not only warned by health experts, they could practically watch the example of countries like Italy suffer in real time. They had weeks to prepare. But instead of listening, these governments silenced. Instead of focusing on the problem, they distracted themselves and the public. They spun narratives and tossed around accusations and threats.  

But half-truths, as the philosophers say, are whole lies. Fake news, as common sense once went, is actually fiction. Alternative facts are not facts. Truth tried knocking politely, until it had to tear down the doors and could no longer be denied. Now it’s clear: you can’t contain a virus by containing your critics. You can’t control an epidemic by controlling the narrative. There is no such thing as revisionism in real-time.

From an ivory tower, one can call the virus an avenger of truth. 

Deny the facts on the ground, silence the witnesses, accuse the media and opposition, bring out a dog and pony show as much as you want. But when billions around the globe are stuck at home, when their loved ones die off, when the hospital beds and emergency rooms are full, when the medicine, the equipment, the food, and god forbid the TP run out, when the jobs and the money dry up, when crime rises out of desperation…the constructed realities of macho threats, magic cures, and other false claims revert to what they were all along: a big nothing. (READ: Half of humanity in virus confinement)

But that is romanticizing things. The brutal fact is this – the virus isn’t vindictive. It’s indiscriminate. It won’t go after only the purveyor of lies or those who had willingly or unwillingly subscribed to them. As if life was one big joke, after all that our political beliefs have polarized us, we are all finally forced into one boat together. 

One could call the virus cruel in that way but that is inaccurate too. The virus isn’t cruel, it’s mindless. It has no intention. It is plain, neutral, reality. We cannot deny it exists, nor can we deny the other facts it has since exposed: there are plans – and there are people – who are working to solve it. It is also becoming clear there are people who are either useless, or making things worse. 

It’s a brutal collective lesson, and it will cost us for a long time. And yet if we do not get our act together and start valuing knowledge, expertise and plain competence again, it will only be the first salvo of truth bombs that will hit us. Vaccinations. Climate change. A flawed healthcare system, systemic inequality…the chickens will come home to roost for these too.

The era that should follow post-truth politics is, simply, truth. 

The world as we know it has stopped. For us to survive to see the other side, all the nauseating spin must stop too. Governments need to quit it with the nonsense. People are done with drama. Everyone should just listen to the proper experts, keep their heads down, and get to real, honest work. – Rappler.com

Isabel Lacson-Estrada is a freelance writer with a Master of Science Degree in Global Affairs from New York Univeristy. She is a stay-at-home mom and is underqualified but lucky to have the best job in the world.