The architecture of denial and the crisis of truth in a digital age

By Siqhamo Jama

 

In a world saturated with information, we often assume that seeing is believing. We believe that hard, digital, and livestreamed evidence should be the final arbiter of truth. Yet, as the global crisis in Gaza unfolds alongside the forgotten massacres in Sudan and the Congo, we are forced to confront an unsettling paradox: evidence is not enough.

Rhodes University welcomed Professor Anthony Collins back to the School of Journalism and Media Studies. Speaking to a hybrid audience, the former Rhodes University academic, who is currently based at La Trobe University in Australia, unpacked exactly why facts fail us. As an expert in critical violence studies, Prof Collins looked at how our media, our ideologies, and historical erasure build competing realities that allow mass violence to continue in the 21st century.

The silence of the past and the noise of the present

Prof Collins started with a quote from author Omar El Akkad. El Akkad wrote that one day, when it is too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against the Gaza genocide. Prof Collins also drew on Hitler's famous comment in 1939 that everyone had already forgotten about the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The distinction Collins made was that Gaza is playing out live on our screens. The Armenian massacres thrived on silence, but modern atrocities thrive on the socially constructed feed.

Prof Collins explained that the dominant reaction internationally is to simply not want to know. People protect their sanity by pointing their information streams towards less traumatic topics. We curate our own reality by choosing what we click or ignore.

They called this the "newness" of a livestreamed genocide. It is something that was technologically impossible just ten years ago. Having spent a decade researching the Rwandan Genocide, Prof Collins remembered how researchers had to painstakingly piece together the truth through years of interviews.

Now, the violence is broadcast by both victims and perpetrators. Prof Collins pointed out that perpetrators are posting their own actions on social media and celebrating war crimes. This very footage is driving investigations at the International Court of Justice. Yet despite all this visible proof, a bot army of denialists constantly churns out talking points to convince people that their own eyes are lying to them.

The roots of legitimacy

So why does this denial work? Prof Collins argued that genocide needs more than brute force. It requires ideological legitimation. They asked the audience to look back at the civilising mission of Western colonialism, which they described as an intrinsically genocidal project.

Whether it is the millions of people killed in the Belgian Congo or colonial massacres in Namibia, these histories were wiped from our education systems to protect the soul of the colonial project. You must dehumanise the victims, Prof Collins stated. They made it clear that this is not a glitch in colonialism but a constitutive feature.

Prof Collins ended with a sober reminder that the crisis of truth is not only about misinformation, but about legitimacy. Evidence, they argued, does not automatically produce accountability. It must be accompanied by a willingness to confront the ideas that make violence appear acceptable.

Universities have a particular role to play in this moment. By equipping students to interrogate dominant narratives, to historicise present conflicts, and to resist the normalisation of dehumanisation, institutions such as Rhodes University contribute to the defence of intellectual integrity and the public good.

In a digital age defined by noise, the task is not simply to witness, but to think critically about what we are witnessing. That work, grounded in rigorous scholarship and ethical responsibility, remains central to the University’s broader commitment to advancing knowledge in the service of a more just and sustainable society.

 

About:

This talk was collaboratively hosted by the Centre for Postgraduate Studies, the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, the School of Journalism and Media Studies and Critical Studies in Sexuality and Research programme.