The term “alternative facts” was coined in 2017 by Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway. She was defending an irritating statement by Trump spokesman Sean Spicer about the number of people at Trump’s inauguration. Spicer did not tell an untruth, but rather presented “alternative facts”. A relabeling of a lie? But “alternative facts” are not just lies. More like Harry Frankfurt’s Bullshit on a Special Mission. Since Conway’s creation of the word, the nature of alternative facts and their role in society has been intensively discussed in the social science literature, although the term is often only used as a fighting term to deny the reality of a claim.
The Bremen sociologist Nils Kumkar has now presented a treatise “Alternative Facts” in the edition suhrkamp, 333 pages long, originally 18 euros in bookstores, but recently available for 4.50 euros from the Federal Agency for Civic Education. The 7-line review is completely free.