In this age of AI and Trump, the fundamental question of our brave new reality has become — how do we know what’s real? AI generates data that gives us a version of reality, but we know AI containsbiases and its answers are not always reliable. Our President has become an amusement-park-mirror version of AI. He intentionally distorts reality by lying so frequently that it’s impossible to know the truth. For example, he has said:
That he doesn’t know the people he pardons. That he doesn’t use his office to profit personally.That he’s not forming a personal army. That he treats women with respect. That he protects freespeech. That he’s won elections that he’s lost.
How do his lies affect our understanding of this brave new reality?
Since I couldn’t trust AI’s answers, I looked for experts to explain how lies impact our perception of reality. When I couldn’t find any intelligent experts, I called R and D. I use their initials due to their fearof retribution for critiquing the President — a real consequence in this brave new reality. I started by asking:
He knows that when he controls the flow of information it is easier for him to convince people tobelieve what he says. Do the multiple restrictions he puts on the press influence what we think is real?
R. It doesn’t matter. He lies to the press anyway.
D. He’s just put the “investigative” back into “investigative journalism.”
Has his militarization of America, as evidenced by his military parades, become an integral part of our brave new reality?
R. Don’t our soldiers have other things that they should be doing?
D. We’re supposed to stand up to dictators, not imitate them.
With no proof, he still claims he won the 2020 election. Is he just ignoring facts or is he delusional? Either way, how does that distort reality?
R. His manufactured lies have no expiration date.
D. He is a seven-year-old playing war games in his head, and he always wins.
He pardons a crypto billionaire who then helps his family make millions of dollars. Has he madeignoring conflicts of interest part of the brave new reality?
R. He doesn’t ignore conflicts of interest, he exploits them.
D. He thinks The Trump Presidency is a brand he can sell.
He defends Tucker Carlson’s right to have a white supremacist on his show by saying, “You can’t tell him who to interview,” but he attacks Seth Meyer’s jokes as “anti-Trump material” and says they’re“probably illegal.” Is he saying that we live in a world in which he can arrest comedians if he doesn’t like their jokes?
R. What’s next? he forces them to become court jesters?
D. If you start arresting comedians, you make free speech a joke.
How do his omnipresent misogynistic attitudes — such as calling professional female reporters “piggy,” “ugly,” and “stupid” — affect our brave new reality?
R. It’s scary to be a woman in this country right now because he has so much power over us.
D. The scariest part is that he says he’s protecting women.
The National Guard is training a Rapid Deployment Force which will be under his direct command. How dangerous is this in any reality?
R. Green Berets are acceptable. Brown Shirts are not.
D. He created, and controls, this new group of trained gunmen — there are no restrictions to what he can tell them to do — and the man has no self-restraint.
Some people in this country call the “Right Wing” the “Reich Wing.” Is this a joke or an accuratereflection of the extreme divisions in this brave new reality?
R. & D. (Laughing) Our leaders haven’t told us what to say about that.
Though he denies he’s implementing this strategy, he is weaponizing the DOJ to silence his critics. In this brave new reality, will this exponentially expand the number of people who are justifiably afraid of him?
R. …
D. …
Finally, considering our dependence on AI’s unreliable information and having our leader calling things he doesn’t agree with “fake news”, how are we supposed to know what is fake and what is real?
R. …
D. …
