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Post-truth politics as discursive violence: Online abuse, the public sphere and the figure of ‘the expert’
Galpin, Charlotte Vernon, Patrick
Galpin, Charlotte
Vernon, Patrick
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2023-10-10
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Alternative
Abstract
‘Post-truth politics’ indicates a contemporary state of public distrust around the legitimacy of knowledge, shaped by the hybrid media landscape. In the present moment, women, LGBTQ+ and racialised individuals also receive unprecedented levels of online abuse. Scholars have attributed responsibility for disinformation to social media and linked post-truth discourse to angry accusations of lying and dishonesty. Yet, online abuse of experts/academics has not been conceptually or empirically connected to post-truth. We analyse Facebook comments on right-wing news articles that question the expertise of academics during Brexit. Using queer theory, we argue that online abuse of experts staged by newspapers is a form of post-truth communication involving a process of bordering through which gendered, sexualised or racialised bodies are considered incompatible with academic expertise. This process legitimises extraordinary abuse including threats of sexual violence. Only by asking intentional questions about gender, sexuality and race can we fully understand the post-truth condition.
Citation
Galpin, C., and Vernon, P. (2024) Post-truth politics as discursive violence: Online abuse, the public sphere and the figure of ‘the expert’. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 26(2), pp. 423–443.
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Journal article
Language
en
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© 2025 The Authors, published by Springer. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence.
The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1177/136914812312026
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1369-1481
EISSN
1467-856X
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This article is published with the support of the Erasmus + programme of the European Union. It is part of the Jean Monnet Networks project ‘Post-Truth Politics, Nationalism and the (De)Legitimation of European Integration’.