Realfacts, Goodfacts and "Fake News"

In the episode aired as the finale to the fourth season of Babylon 5, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars," we got a look at the far future beyond the end of the series' story. In line with the Hegelian premise of the show there was a progressive movement within history--but on the way there Earth would see its share of further troubles, not least a period of rule by a totalitarian dictatorship evocative of Orwell's Oceania, with a government that distinguished between "realfact" and "goodfact." Realfacts are actual facts. Goodfacts may or may not be facts at all, but have the approval of those in power--and that government sees those and not the others as the relevant ones.

Hearing particular speakers rave about "fake news" in our time I have found myself wondering again and again whether the standard they have in mind for what is not "fake" is "realfact" or "goodfact." And as it turned out again and again it has been common for them to mean by "fake news" that news which does not align with the "goodfact"--as they demand that search engines, social media and the other infrastructure of contemporary information and discourse suppress what is inconsistent with their version of goodfact.

Beware those who pass off "goodfacts" as "realfacts"--and beware of those who call for censorship generally.