Dear Editor,
Every year Germany selects an "Unwort" (unword) of the year. This broadly refers to whichever term turns out to be (or describe) an "abomination". In 2008 this was "notleidende Banken" (the "suffering" banks). This year it is "postfaktisch" (post-factual), often used to describe the "reality" which Donald Trump repeatedly invented during his campaign.
As it was, I was listening to Justin Trudeau's interview with The Guardian where he "recognises" people's fear of globalisation. But whilst he smiled angelically, I could not help thinking that he too has moved into his own post-factual world: He mentioned a.) that Canada is "well positioned" on environmental issues (whilst, in reality, they are busy extracting tar-sands, felling primordial forest for bio-fuel and "tooling-up" to ravage the Arctic) and; b.) that he understands peoples concerns about globalisation (when, in fact, the ink on the Ceta treaty is barely dry). Yes, Mr Trudeau is also definitely "post-factual".
Then there is Theresa May who said she has a "/vision of a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us/" when now wage inequality is hitting all-time highs. That's post-factual! And Germany, which regularly trumpets its climate credentials whilst (for example) massively expanding a terribly damaging and polluting, open-cast lignite (brown-coal) extraction and burning operation to the west of Cologne ... literally under the noses of the UN environmental agency in Bonn!
Donald trump is definitely "post-factual". But, before we start throwing stones, we should take a good, hard look around our own glass house. As the Germans might say: "Es lebe das Unwort", long live the abomination!
Regards
