The Truth
The denizens of Ankh-Morpork fancy they've seen just about everything. But then comes the Ankh-Morpork Times, struggling scribe William de Worde's upper-crust, newsletter turned Discworld's first paper of record.An ethical joulnalist, de Worde has a proclivity for investigating stories -- a nasty habit that soon creates powerful enemies eager to stop his presses. And what better way than to start the Inquirer, a titillating (well, what else would it be?) tabloid that conveniently interchanges what's real for what sells.But de Worde's got an inside line on the hot story concerning Ankh-Morpork's leading patrician Lord Vetinari. The facts say Vetinari is guilty. But as William de Worde learns, facts don't always tell the whole story. There's that pesky little thing called the truth...
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17mentions
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2009–2026years
6% recommend94% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you want something a little different, "The Truth" and "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett both capture a sense of startupness.
- > what they are buying is the justice
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett, with particular emphasis on the book's footnote.
> William’s family and everyone they knew also had a mental map of the city that was divided into parts where you found upstanding citizens, and other parts where you found criminals. It had come a shock to them... no, he corrected himself, it had come as a an affront to learn that [police chief] Vimes operated on a different map. Apparently he'd instructed his men to use the front door when calling on any building, even in broad daylight, when sheer common sense said that they should use the back, just like any other servant. [0]
> [0] William’s class understood that justice was like coal or potatoes. You ordered it when you needed it.
- I'm re-reading The Truth, from Terry Pratchett, and Lord de Worde's definition of criminal is really fitting here: to him, a criminal is a poor person, belonging to the criminal social class. For the elite, justice is to be served if they need it, and when they order it.
- > users don't care
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett, on a similar dilemma between pursuing the (journalistic) public-good versus satisfying the immediate desire of the average public:
> "Are you saying people aren't interested in the truth?"
> "Listen, what's true to a lot of people is that they need the money for the rent by the end of the week [...] This is a report of the annual meeting of the Ankh-Morpork Caged Birds Society [...] They've got no say in who runs the city but they can damn well see to it that cockatoos aren't lumped in with parrots. It's not their fault. It's just how things are."
> [...] "It's important! Someone has to care about the... the big truth. [...] if they don't care about anything much beyond things that go squawk in cages then one day there'll be someone in charge of this place who'll make them choke on their own budgies. You want that to happen?"
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Our civilization is filled with uncountable things that were once "nerd fantasies" that the average person doesn't even remotely care about... Until it all goes tragically wrong.
- In a classic case of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I recently read "The Truth" by Terry Pratchett, which repeatedly makes reference to that phrase, and I am now noticing it everywhere, whereas previously I can't recall being aware of it at all.
- A two-tiered "justice" system on steroids. This case began in 2023 [0], where the guy was allegedly wash-trading and secretly buying testimonials.
> It had come a shock to them... no, he corrected himself, it had come as a an affront to learn that [Policeman] Vimes operated on a different map. Apparently he’d instructed his men to use the front door when calling on any building, even in broad daylight, when sheer common sense said that they should use the back, just like any other servant.*
> * William' class understood that justice was like coal or potatoes. You ordered it when you needed it.
-- The Truth by Terry Pratchett
