Truth Be Told

In Truth Be Told, Laura Elliot Tetreault challenges the idea that the “post-truth” present is a novel crisis brought about by contemporary right-wing and digital media. Instead, the political control of “truth” has always been central to intersecting systems of oppression including white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy. Arguing that liberal counter-disinformation strategies based in a racialized ideal of civility are insufficient, the book advocates for centering the lived knowledge of oppressed communities to develop resistance and survival strategies for a disinformation environment.

Taking a critical disinformation studies approach, Tetreault analyzes post-truth political messaging in the US after 2016. Using racial rhetorical criticism combined with a queer lens, they focus on how contemporary antiracist, queer, and feminist activists used various forms of cultural production to work against disinformation and its circulation, enacting refusal and insisting on the validity of their own knowledges as a form of community care. Tetreault ultimately argues that it’s not just the truth that academics must advocate for; they must question whose truth and how that truth is mediated and circulated.