The Dilemma of Hindering the Development of Chinese National Community Consciousness in the Post-Truth Era and Proposed Countermeasures

Abstract

The formation of Chinese national community consciousness requires accumulating individual perceptual understanding and deepening rational comprehension. In the post-truth era, the gradual infiltration of various erroneous ideologies into the social sphere, coupled with the rise of national public opinion, has led to a shift towards extremism in individuals' perceptual and rational understanding of the existence, development, and evolution of ethnic groups within a communal framework. This trend obstructs cultivating a positive, proactive, and healthy sense of the Chinese national community. The root cause of this challenge lies in the "weak facts, strong emotions" environment of public opinion, which has facilitated the spread of historical nihilism, network populism, cyber-nationalism, and postmodernism, undermining the cognitive foundation required for fostering a shared consciousness of the Chinese national community. To address this issue, the Party and the government must resolutely uphold the authority to interpret historical truths, promote the narrative power of the Chinese national story, and simultaneously build a more comprehensive emotional recognition mechanism within the public opinion sphere. Additionally, they should establish a broader ideological network to enhance the ideological influence of the Chinese national community, curbing the spread of harmful national public opinion and countering the erosion caused by the "post-truth" phenomenon.