Summary
Before Covid-19 hit, the latest research showed we were more polarised than ever. We broadly agree on the issues - it's the emotions where things get tricky. If someone is part of the other tribe then we want little to do with them.
And the more polarised we are, the more prone we are to what philosophers call 'knowledge resistance' - rejecting information that doesn't fit our worldview.
If we're in a situation where identity trumps truth, is there anything that can pull us back to reality?
Peter Pomerantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, looks at whether Covid-19 could bring us back towards a sense of shared reality - or whether it might push us further apart.
Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev Producer: Ant Adeane Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:38.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello, thanks for listening to Analysis, the podcast that looks at podcasts. will bring us together or push us further apart. |
| 0:53.0 | Two months ago I caught the coronavirus. |
| 0:57.0 | Or at least, I think it was the coronavirus. |
| 1:05.0 | With testing difficult to come by, I could only guess at what my symptoms meant. |
| 1:10.0 | Was my vice clamp of a headache, a sign of COVID-19? Was my sweat-drenched fever? Just the flu? |
| 1:17.0 | As my fever worsened, so did my delirium. |
| 1:21.0 | News reports from the outside world mixed with hallucinations from my childhood. |
| 1:27.0 | The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades and this country is not alone. |
| 1:34.0 | And as coronavirus pulled me further from my sense of reality, |
| 1:38.0 | it seemed as though something similar was happening across the world. |
| 1:42.0 | It's going to disappear one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear. |
| 1:46.0 | In America, President Trump downplayed the threat of the virus, |
| 1:50.0 | all while giving credence to harmful health misinformation. |
... |
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