Why Anti-Racism is the Antidote to the Post-Truth Era
The rise of the "post-truth" era has left societies grappling with a crisis of trust, truth, clarity and even identity. As facts become manufactured, opinions and preferences become tangled in webs of misinformation, disinformation and science scepticism. Alluring narratives become weaponised to serve political, economic and ideological aims, and the innate and inherent human ability to recognise truth is now under siege. Amid this turmoil, those who understand what is at the core of anti-racism, can recognise it as a crucial antidote to post-truthism —not merely as a societal reform but as a means to unlock and foster the capacity of individuals to discern for themselves truth and reality, and to act in alignment with their soul’s affinity for justice; a capacity we all have.
Prejudice: A Veil Over the Mind and Heart
“How is this so?”, some might be wondering. This is because at its core, prejudice is not just a matter of “personal preference” it is more accurately a form of intellectual blindness; prejudice acts as a veil—clouding our intellectual eyes and constraining the heart’s inherent capacity to recognise truth. If we do not acknowledge that we have an innate ability, or spiritual muscle, that when clear and clean, can guide us and drive us towards truth and away from falsehood, then we are truly and hopelessly lost.
Once we accept this fact, we can begin to recognise how prejudice (by its very definition) skews perception based on preconceived ideas, narrowing our worldview and making us more susceptible to comfortable falsehoods that conform with our feelings instead of hard truths that reflect intellect. The proliferation of prejudice is not only a social problem but a profound spiritual and intellectual one. Prejudice, whether it manifests as racism, sexism, classism, or any other form, diminishes our ability to engage with reality as it truly is. Consider the impact of prejudice on scientific enquiry, and then draw the parallel to effect it has on the individual capacity for the perception of reality.
Prejudice thrives on division, reinforcing biases and emotional attachments to subjective "truths" that align with personal or collective preferences. It perpetuates a state of intellectual blindness, obscuring the soul’s natural draw toward justice and fairness. Without addressing these barriers, no amount of information or evidence can persuade; facts become another battleground for contested meanings.
On the other hand, eliminating prejudice has the effect of removing veils, addressing intellectual blindness and fostering the individual’s capacity to see reality as it is; the reality of individuals, the reality of our collective society and the reality of scientific and metaphysical truths. By drawing attention to and helping to dismantle age-old prejudices, racial, religious, ethnic or otherwise, we nurture our capacity for truth, justice and the perception of reality.
Justice is a Capacity of the Soul
From the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh in the 1800s back to Plato’s The Republic, and perhaps from ages before, Justice has long been regarded not only as a virtue, but a capacity of the soul; an inherent capacity that all humankind has. Consider it like a muscle that can be exercised and strengthened, or a muscle that can be left to decay and atrophy if unused, but a muscle we all have nevertheless.
True justice is more than an external system of action and repercussions, and it is even greater than the modern conception of “social justice”; it is a profound capacity of the soul. It requires not only fairness in dealings but also an unrelenting pursuit and capacity to recognise truth, irrespective of convenience or conformity. Justice enables individuals to transcend self-interest, overcome personal biases, and weigh reality in the palm of their mind with clarity and compassion. It is the soul’s inclination toward integrity that forms the bedrock of meaningful societal progress.
When justice is cultivated within, it transforms perception. It enables individuals to pierce through propaganda, reject manipulative narratives, and hold themselves accountable to higher standards of truth and morality. This internalised justice is essential in combating the chaos of a post-truth world, where external measures alone falter.
Fighting Misinformation with Information Is Futile
A common response to misinformation is to combat it with “better” information—more facts, clearer evidence, louder counter-narratives, more emotional calls for moral ascendency. Yet this approach often fails because it does not address the root and underlying cause: the internal barriers that prevent people from recognising truth even when it is presented.
Misinformation thrives not because truth is inaccessible, but because biases, fears, and entrenched prejudices filter the reception of facts. The more facts clash with pre-existing beliefs in fact, the more defensive and entrenched individuals become. Efforts to control the means of distributing news, knowledge, or information will only exacerbate this issue, creating a power struggle that reinforces distrust and deepens divisions. In any case, the battleground of who controls narratives is far to big for individuals or even public institutions to engage in the battle when pitted against legacy media and billionaire social media moguls; and when they’re not feeding the problem with politicking and fear-mongering, politicians and even entire nation states are struggling to make any dent in the pernicious impact of misinformation and divisive narratives.
Thus, the solution cannot lie solely in external measures of more information, fact-checked information or even more media diversity. It requires a transformation of the individual, fostering the ability to critically evaluate claims and to approach truth with humility, curiosity, and courage. There is a burgeoning body of research that confirms that facts, or fact-checked news, or “better” information is unlikely to ever change the mind of a person emotionally attached to a personal truth, and often has the opposite to desired affect.
Removing the Barriers of Bias and Prejudice
The reason we claim the work of Anti-Racism to be the antidote to this, is because the most effective way to address the post-truth crisis is to cultivate the individual's capacity to discern truth from falsehood by removing the emotional and spiritual barriers caused by prejudice, bias, and personal opinion. This requires more than intellectual rigor—it demands a moral and spiritual awakening. It also requires a move away from the excessive focus on “personal truth” towards a view that is also tempered with collective and objective truth; this is already becoming a bit of a stretch for many societies whose populace have become drunk on the wine of individualism and personal “sovereignty”.
Anti-racism is relevant and in fact crucial here because at its core it is not about “lived experience” or privilege, or microscopic policy shift, or even redistribution of power because that is an inevitable eventual outcome; anti-racism at its core, the essence of it, is about the Elimination of Prejudice of all forms, and the Establishment of Justice.
Prejudice: Addressing racism and other forms of prejudice is foundational to restoring our immunity to mistruth, fear, hatred and misinformation. Prejudice warps perception and makes individuals susceptible to falsehoods that confirm their biases. Anti-racism seeks to shed light on these distortions, restoring clarity and enabling individuals to engage with truth in a more impartial and principled manner. Eventually, when we remove prejudice we recognise and establish justice, which in turn can lead us towards unity. This process cannot happen in any other order.
Bias: Recognising and countering cognitive and cultural biases requires humility and self-awareness. It involves fostering an openness to perspectives outside one’s own and a commitment to seek truth even when it challenges personal comfort or identity. Bias can be overt or unconscious, and both can be mitigated by eliminating internalised prejudice and developing the individual’s capacity to recognise justice.
A Call to Nurture the Soul’s Capacity for Truth
The post-truth era is a crisis not just of information, but of perception and moral clarity. Addressing it requires more than controlling media narratives or correcting misinformation; it necessitates cultivating the individual’s inherent capacity to recognise and align with truth. The dominance of subjective preferences over objective reality must be tempered. By prioritising truth and justice over personal inclinations, individuals can rise above the noise of opinion-driven discourse and focus on principles that benefit humanity as a whole.
Anti-racism is central to this endeavour because by challenging the veils of prejudice, it liberates the mind and heart, enabling individuals to perceive reality with greater clarity and equanimity. It fosters the soul’s capacity for justice, which is not only the cornerstone of societal harmony but the key to transcending the power struggles that fuel misinformation and division.
In the struggle against post-truth, the fight is not merely political. It is moral and spiritual, and begins within—by cultivating justice as a capacity of the soul and committing to the elimination of prejudice in all its forms. Only then can humanity move toward a world where truth, justice, and unity prevail.
