Alt-Right, Alt-Facts, Alt-America: An Investigation into Public Amnesia and Political Exploitation in Trump\u27s America

The concept of the ‘truth’ is always something of a contested phenomenon, however, recently it appears as if the current American Presidential Administration shows more disregard for the idea of ‘truth’ in comparison to other democratic, Western countries. Examining specifically the way in which the Canadian mosque shooting that took place in January 2017 was taken up by American politicians and news media, this paper examines the way in which members of President Trump’s administration (such as Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway) take advantage of both collective trauma and public amnesia in order to further their own political goals. This paper ultimately considers the very real danger that manifests itself when ‘alternative facts’ are circulated by both politicians and news media alike, and why it is essential that the public become critically engaged with current events