“Post-truth” has been declared the word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, because it’s 2016 and of course it has.
If there are two things you could say have defined 2016, it’s all your favourite celebrities being killed off, and objective facts becoming less important than people talking utter rubbish that appeals to the emotions.
With this being the year of Brexit and Trump, it’s not really a surprise that “post-truth” has seen a 2,000% rise in usage from last year.
After all, those campaigns were won on the motifs of “taking back control” and “making America great again” – two slogans that don’t actually mean or tell you anything, but sound impassioned and appeal to disenfranchised voters.
Image: Dan Kitwood / Getty
Oxford Dictionaries’ Casper Grathwohl said post-truth could become “one of the defining words of our time”.
He added: “Fuelled by the rise of social media as a news source and a growing distrust of facts offered up by the establishment, post-truth as a concept has been finding its linguistic footing for some time.”
Other words considered for 2016’s word of the year were “adulting” (doing responsible adult stuff), “alt-right” (a very right-wing ideology grounded in the internet), “Brexiteer” (someone who supported Brexit), “hygge” (a quality of cosiness that engenders well-being), and “woke” (awake to the injustice of society).
Here are a few other suggestions that might have been appropriate given how the year’s gone so far:
1. Misery
As in: The entire Earth is now just one sad ball of flaming misery.
2. Despair
As in: The only two emotions I have left are hunger and despair.
3. Regret
As in: America is going to intensely regret voting in an egotistical racist as its President.
4. Dead
As in: Prince, David Bowie and Alan Rickman are dead and I wish I was too.
5. Fuck
As in: Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
6. Trash
As in: Throw me in the trash, cover me in petrol and use me to burn another hole in the O-zone layer.
7. Void
As in: I keep on screaming but the only thing that can hear me is the void.
8. Help
As in: Help us, help us, please somebody help us.
9. *indistinguishable wail of anguish*
As in: Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhhaaaagggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
10. Shit
As in: Oh shit, Donald Trump’s just accidentally nuked the moon.
11. Apocalypse
As in: I am really looking forward to the apocalypse, I wonder what I should wear?
12. Swarm of deadly bees
As in: I would really like if one day I woke up and immediately got chased by a giant swarm of deadly bees. I’d outrun them for a while, but then I’d get tired, and they’d bear down on me and cover my body. They’d keep stinging me all over, stinging and stinging until I was screaming out in pain, before the poison seeped into my heart and brain and finally bringing the sweet release of death.
13. Everything is terrible please just kill me now
As in: Just finish this.
