Politicians will respect, rather than manipulate, reality only if the public cares about the truth and punishes politicians when it catches them in deliber­ate deception. And the public should care about the truth because deception misleads people in choosing their representatives, distorts policy choices, undermines ac­countability, and destroys trust in democracy.
我们需要为政治对话引入新的规则。这些规则无法与科学方法相同，但是它们在性质上应该近似，即把追求真相作为判断政治观点的标准。只有在公众关心真相并且在发现政坛人物故意欺骗的时候惩罚他们，政坛人物们才会尊重、而不是操纵真相。而公众应当关心真相，因为欺骗在人们选择代表的时候误导人民，歪曲政策选择，破坏责任制度并且摧毁民主国家中的信任，所以，公众应当关心真相。