Everything is fake news

One of the biggest worries of the media in recent years is the so-called fake news phenomenon. Well, I have bad news for all of you. Everything is fake news.

Our sense of worth is fake news. Our relationships are fake news. But they seem very real, don’t they? It’s because, in a sense, they are. Let me explain.

We live in two realms. The realm of appearances and the realm of reality (which we can’t really grasp as I elucidate here). Most of the time—and, for lots of people, the whole time—we only live in the sphere of appearances. The catch is, the latter is just an illusion. Pure fake news. If there is no “I”, there’s only the unconditional absolute.

There’s an exercise that may help you visualise the separation. Just look at a mirror. The face you see there is the one who consumes and creates fake news every day. That reflection is what you usually think of as the ‘real’ you. However, when you reverse your view and point at yourself, you find only emptiness and clarity.1

Regardless, for the sake of argument, let’s forget about the absolute for a moment. Let’s embrace our illusory lives as if they’re the only ones we have. Are we really capable of experiencing unadulterated facts?

Especially today, in the era of social media, it’s easy to see how ‘reality’ is in the eye of the beholder. Depending on your genes, formation, parental influence and friendships, you will end up supporting a very specific worldview. A worldview that excludes, creates and moulds ‘facts’ at will.

In a dual world, there is no room for actuality, only interpretations. What seems the truth for a parcel of the population is fake news for many others—and vice-versa.

As El Duderino would say, take it easy, man. That’s my advice when dealing with the narrative. We are immersed in a world of illusions. The appearances seem real—but they are only brain constructs.

You keep saying the rug ties the room together, but let me tell you, there is no rug.2