The Illusion of Truth
How a single image can trigger the exact opposite reactions, and what than means for politics, history, and the media.
“Supposing that truth is a woman — what then?” asks Nietzsche at the beginning of Beyond Good and Evil. His point, however misogynist, was that objective reality, at least as defined by Kant’s synthetic a priori, might be fickle, after all — and if so, then all of Western philosophy needs a reboot.
The satirical image above has been construed as crass, insensitive, and tasteless. But what fascinates me about the graphic is how it triggers people from each side of the Israel-Hamas War, equally and in diametrically opposite ways. As such, I see it as a metaphor for the conflict itself.
People sympathetic to Palestine interpret the image as a symbol of Israel’s war crimes. The IDF has recklessly and excessively bombed Gaza to the point of turning most of the enclave into rubble. Thousands of civilians have died, half of them children. The image is anti-Israel and pro-ceasefire.
People sympathetic to Israel interpret the image as Hamas getting what they deserve. More than 1,400 Israeli civilians were butchered ISIS-style, and hundreds of hostages taken. Leveling Gaza is the perpetrators getting what they deserve, with more destruction justifiably on the way.
People from either side who are repulsed by this image take the satire personally. Palestinian sympathizers feel as though their pain in Gaza is being mocked, while Israeli sympathizers feel as though they are being blamed for war crimes. They believe this humor is vile and inappropriate.
In summary, those from either side who laugh at and like this image tend to do so because they feel it mocks their enemy. Conversely, people who are upset by this image tend to be repulsed because they feel it mocks them and their suffering, or it is blaming them for the suffering of others.
What fascinates me is that nearly every image and video you see from the war zone now elicits these same kinds of responses. Same image, same video, yet equal and opposite responses, essentially for the reasons cited above. Stimuli either reinforce your beliefs, or make you defensive.
For example, I’ve seen posts of this GoPro video taken by a Hamas invader from Oct 7th who is shot and killed in real time. The clip was shared by both Palestinian and Israeli sympathizers, yet with the opposite intent and message. In one he’s a martyr, in the other he got what he deserved.
Apply this same filter to everything you see. The exercise is useful to come to grips with one’s own biases, both implicit and explicit. The realization that any and all content can be interpreted in such radically different ways illustrates both the power of propaganda, and the elusiveness of the truth.
As the war rages, bad news getting worse, the need for clear, unambiguous, and unbiased data proportionally increases. But as we’ve just seen, that goal is not only difficult, but impossible. Humans interpret everything, each in their own way. Quantum theoreticians think we not only interpret reality, but create it. Good luck being “right,” whatever that even means.
Same rules apply to our domestic politics. Trump has 91 active indictments, but so what? Each and every one is “on brand” for a political anarchist, boosting his poll numbers. Up is down, down is up, as the human condition is one of perception over reality, and passion over critical thinking.
