The Constitutive Discourse on Disinformation as a Postmodern Challenge

The constitutive discourse on disinformation and fake news reflects the fundamental crisis of the understanding of truth in the age of postmodern anti-realism. In Baudrillard's conception of hyperreality, the 'real' increasingly disappears behind a flood of images that no longer have any reference to an original reality.

This development is particularly evident in the current media landscape, where the 'tyranny of real-time' replaces reflective thinking with constant stimulation. The omnipresence of disinformation and fake news illustrates Baudrillard's thesis of the 'precession of simulacra,' according to which media representations can be more powerful than empirical facts.

However, the critique of New Realism highlights the limits of this postmodern perspective. Instead of a radical constructivism that denies the possibility of objective reality, New Realism emphasizes the existence of a reality independent of the subject. This enables a critical and reflective process for obtaining realistic truths as the foundation of societal discourses.

Thinking as a radical act offers a pragmatic approach here by pursuing an 'open, critical, and constructive engagement with openly carried-out deliberations.' It is about a systematic and conceptual engagement with truthfulness. This serves as a conscious strategy to oppose the post-factual and obvious manipulations.