Proof by Vigorous Assertion

A Dispatch from the Post-Truth Age

Once upon a time, persuasion required evidence. Facts, logic, coherence. Now, all it takes is volume, confidence, and an invocation of tribal agreement. Welcome to the age of Proof by Vigorous Assertion. Truth is whatever survives being shouted loudest, longest, and most repeatedly into the echo chamber.

This isn’t debate. It’s performative dominance. A psychological sleight-of-hand where the act of saying something, with enough chest-thumping conviction, begins to substitute for actually proving it. We’re not just dealing with misinformation. We’re dealing with disinformation theater, choreographed for clicks and cheered on by algorithms that don’t know or care what truth is.

In this world:

·       Citation is replaced by repetition.

·       Nuance is dismissed as weakness.

·       Doubt is rebranded as disloyalty.

·       The loud become leaders, the careful become invisible.

And the terrifying thing? It works.

Because fear is louder than reason.

Because anger is easier to weaponize than understanding.

Because we’ve been trained to scroll, not to sit with uncertainty.

We’re past the age of liars. Liars can be exposed.

We’re now contending with the performance of certainty itself. It’s an epistemic virus where style displaces substance, and volume becomes a metric for veracity.

You know it when you see it.

When someone says, “That’s just how it is,” and dares you to disagree.

When platforms amplify outrage but throttle correction.

When truth becomes an inconvenience like an old-fashioned speed bump slowing down your brand velocity.

This isn’t the erosion of truth.

It’s its burial beneath applause, algorithms, and the armor of the loud.