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Extraterrestrials, dead people, dinosaurs, or zombies: which invasion would be the worse?

In this new era of post-truth, when it is said that the truth no longer exists, or is unknowable or unattainable, the truth has become so irrelevant that everything simultaneously becomes true and a lie, without (apparently) anyone caring to examine his/her own life to stop deceiving themselves, which is why all "knowledge" is diluted into mere opinions.

As the tango Cambalache (“Second-Hand Store”) anticipated: “An ignorant and a great teacher are the same”. 

In this context, post-truth manifests itself in unexpected places, that is, those places previously dedicated precisely to a search (serious search, I would add) for the truth, however it was previously understood or practiced.

For example, I recently tuned into a radio program that I listen to with some frequency because of the constant presence of scientists talking about new discoveries and the new future. In this case, it was someone who was going to speak about the intersection of quantum physics and modern medicine.

Almost immediately at the beginning of the interview, the interviewee indicated that she was born on a distant planet where everything is always pink (literally) and where the inhabitants are so wise and intelligent that they get bored because they know everything. Because of that boredom, she said, she decided to come to earth. (All this said in a program supposedly dedicated to "science".)

Then, in a podcast where people are interviewed because they have interesting stories to share, the guest was a retired spy who was going to share some details of his work for the CIA. But what he really shared was that he communicated with the dead and that the dead gave him information that he later shared with the CIA.

And in a popular science magazine (it seems that’s no longer the case), an article was published on the subject of the possibility of time travel, announcing that a new way of doing it had been discovered. The article in question, without giving further details, "revealed" that three teenagers used a T-Rex egg to open a portal and travel through time. (I don’t have enough imagination to make that up.)

Since I have neither the knowledge nor the tools to disprove the existence of beings born on a pink planet, or communication with the dead, or a time portal created from dinosaur eggs, I cannot claim or deny their existence. But I can say that all this looks more like entertainment and fun than serious dialogue. 

And the reason it looks like (and in fact is) entertainment is precisely because it cannot be disproved. At the same time, the ability to refute an idea or (supposed) knowledge is the basis of both critical thinking and modern science. Suddenly, opinions and conspiracies are truer than any truth. 

But at the time of the zombification of Western culture (and perhaps of global culture), there is little interest is any glimpse of truth. Un-forgetfulness (aletheia) is impossible when we have forgotten that we have forgotten, including who we really are. 

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