reality itself as ideological. 1 If, before, we used the tools of reality
to compare the facts, today it becomes extremely difficult to do so,
not only because there is an ideologized (and of course, polarized)
version of reality but also because our reality is full of facts that
are not true and that have been artificially created to support an
ideologized version of reality. We are in a world that goes beyond
deliberate falsehood or lies as conceived by the critical theory of
Hannah Arendt, who defined:
“The deliberate falsehood deals with contingent facts; that is,
with matters that carry no inherent truth within themselves,
no necessity to be as they are. Factual truths are never
compellingly true. The historian knows how vulnerable is the
whole texture of facts in which we spend our daily life; it is
always in danger of being perforated by single lies or torn to
shreds by the organized lying of groups, nations, or classes,
or denied and distorted, often carefully covered up by reams
of falsehoods or simply allowed to fall into oblivion.” 2
For Žižek, the problem with this ideologized version of reality is
that it goes beyond deliberate falsehood or simple lies. The
individual is fully aware they are transforming the outside world
through their actions. That is why we speak of cynicism as the
replacement for morality in the actions of the post-truth world.
Fake news or the use of pseudo science end up becoming the tools
to build this new version. The obvious, conscious, and deliberate
lie finds a central role, where it is not condemned, but rather
amplified, shared and “viralized." In the world of Arendt and critical
theory, massive technological applications did not yet exist, nor did
social networks. Deliberate falsehood was constructed in a more
uniform and less "collaborative" process. Today, in the world of
Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, reality is built
collaboratively, with the different users contributing to “piercing”
Žižek, Slavoj. The Parallax View. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006Žižek, Slavoj. “Between Symbolic Fiction and
Fantasmatic Spectre: Towards a LacanianTheory of Ideology”, en R. Buttler and S. Stephens (Eds.). SlavojŽižek,
Interrogating the Real. LondonandNew York: Continuum, 2005:249-270. Žižek, Slavoj. “Introduction”, en S. Žižek
(Ed.). Mapping Ideology. London and New York:Verso, 1994:1-33. Žižek, Slavoj.The Sublime Object of
Ideology.London: Verso, 1989.
2
Arendt, Hannah (1972). Crises of the Republic; lying in politics, civil disobedience on violence, thoughts on politics,
and revolution. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 4
1