The Slow Decline of Truth: How Social Media Turns Facts into Fiction
May 09, 2025
On social media, the veracity of facts dissolves in a sea of misinformation. Algorithms prioritize engagement over accuracy, and users share narratives that confirm their beliefs, not reality. Over time, the distinction between truth and lies fades, and facts become negotiable, shaped by those who dominate the discourse. The consequence? A society that does not debate ideas, but rather convenient versions of reality, where lies, when repeated, become "truth" through sheer saturation.
Today, information falsification goes beyond primitive bots,it involves sophisticated networks of fake profiles, created to simulate credibility and influence opinions. These "digital actors" replicate discourses, inflame debates and distort perceptions, making it impossible to distinguish reality from fabrication. Platforms try to block fake accounts, but the disinformation industry always adapts, using deepfakes, coordinated narratives, and even hacking real accounts. The result is an ecosystem where truth is a rare commodity, and lies are a mass commodity.
Just as in the cryptocurrency market, where rugpulls (scams in which projects are abandoned after profits) are almost expected, dishonesty has become the norm in other spheres. Capitalist dynamics celebrate the “winner,” regardless of how they got there, while the loser is discarded. Trading rugpulls has become a game of musical chairs: people know they can be fooled, but they bet anyway, hoping to be the next to profit. Fraud is no longer a deviation,it is part of the system, and those who report it are accused of “not understanding the game.”
We live in a world where ideological falsehood is normalized, and meritocracy serves only to justify exploitation. Those who rise, celebrate; those who fall, are blamed for their own defeat. This perverse logic transforms society into a cult of the winner, where the means do not matter,only the results. Meanwhile, disinformation, scams and manipulation continue as tools of power. The question remains: when lies become the rule, how can we rebuild trust? Or has humanity already accepted that, in this game, the truth is just another disposable piece?
It is not difficult to see parallels between today’s cult of the winner and the gladiatorial spectacles of the Empire, where the crowd cheered the blood spilled in the arena, celebrating the triumph of the strongest and forgetting the fallen. Modern football reproduces this same dynamic: fans idolize the champions and ignore the losers, while clubs and athletes are consumed by the logic of results at any cost,even if it involves corruption, billion-dollar debts or match-fixing. In Ancient Rome as in today’s stadiums and markets, what matters is the spectacle, not ethics. And while we applaud the winners, we justify their trickery as “strategy,” perpetuating a cycle in which victory, not honesty, is the only truth that survives.
A psychotic break occurs when a person loses touch with reality due to a decline in their mental well-being. It could either be a sign of an underlying medical condition or occur due to a stressful or traumatic event. It's also referred to as psychosis or a psychotic episode.