In 2016, we lost legends like Muhammad Ali, Sharon Jones, John Glenn, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and Gwen Ifill. We even lost Abe Vigoda, who in recent years was perhaps most famous for being the subject of IsAbeVigodaDead.com. And yet, as sad as it is to not have these luminaries with us, what I miss most in 2016 is the loss of trust.
Trust has been eroding for years, but 2016 felt like the tsunami that wiped away whatever was left. Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” as its international word of the year, and it seems fitting that the word itself sounds like it has no meaning. The counterpart to “post-truth” is “fake news,” and yet there are no repercussions to sharing “fake news” (or, as it was previously known, “lies,” or “propaganda”).
