How do we make the case for “knowledge democracy” in the face of the growing influence of right-wing figures and movements that denounce experts and expertise? While the threats to knowledge posed by these movements are real, it would be a mistake to return to a classic intellectual strategy––the politics of demarcation––in the face of this danger. Examining practical proposals for combatting fake news and opinion manipulation on the Internet, namely so-called "fact-checking" tools and services, I argue that they threaten to enroll us in a problematic normative project, one that aims to re-establish a hierarchy between knowledge and its presumed opposite, non-knowledge, or anti-knowledge. I list a number of shortcomings of this strategy. Most importantly, it distracts us from the role of technology in the crisis of public evidence in today's computationally-intensive societies. Social media are a truth-less public sphere by design. A politics of demarcation also puts us at risk of forgetting a key insight from the previous century that remains valid today: knowledge democracy is a re-constructive practice and an ideal. Instead of consolidating hierarchies of knowledge through facts that derive their authority form outside the public sphere, we need to recover the central role in public life of experimental facts: statements whose truth value is unstable. The experimental validation of public knowledge must happen in the public domain.

中文翻译：

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为什么我们无法收回事实

面对右翼人物和运动不断发展的影响专家和专门知识的影响，我们如何为“知识民主”辩护？尽管这些运动对知识构成的威胁是真实的，但面对这种危险，回到经典的智力策略-分界政治-将是一个错误。我审查了有关打击互联网上虚假新闻和舆论操纵的实用建议，即所谓的“事实核对”工具和服务，认为它们威胁着我们加入一个有问题的规范项目，该项目旨在重新建立层次结构在知识与其假定的对立，非知识或反知识之间。我列出了此策略的一些缺点。最重要的是，在当今计算密集型社会中，它使我们无法关注技术在公开证据危机中的作用。从设计上来说，社交媒体是一个无真理的公共领域。划界的政治也使我们有可能忘记上一世纪直到今天仍然有效的重要见解：知识民主是一种重构性的实践和理想。与其通过从公共领域之外获得权威的事实来巩固知识等级，我们需要恢复实验性事实在公共生活中的核心作用：真理价值不稳定的陈述。对公共知识的实验验证必须在公共领域进行。划界的政治也使我们有可能忘记上一世纪直到今天仍然有效的重要见解：知识民主是一种重构性的实践和理想。与其通过从公共领域之外获得权威的事实来巩固知识等级，我们需要恢复实验性事实在公共生活中的核心作用：真理价值不稳定的陈述。对公共知识的实验验证必须在公共领域进行。划界的政治也使我们有可能忘记上一世纪直到今天仍然有效的重要见解：知识民主是一种重构性的实践和理想。与其通过从公共领域之外获得权威的事实来巩固知识等级，我们需要恢复实验性事实在公共生活中的核心作用：真理价值不稳定的陈述。公共知识的实验验证必须在公共领域进行。真值不稳定的语句。公共知识的实验验证必须在公共领域进行。真值不稳定的语句。公共知识的实验验证必须在公共领域进行。