Who Killed Truth?

I've been listening to a very interesting podcast called "The Last Archive", hosted by historian Jill Lepore. To give some insight into the show here is a description from the website:

The Last Archive​ is a show about the history of truth, and the historical context for our current fake news, post-truth moment. It’s a show about how we know what we know, and why it seems, these days, as if we don’t know anything at all anymore.

I find this a highly intriguing question. Who killed truth? 

Ms. Lepore concludes her second season with an episode titled, "Epiphany." In this episode, her guest argues we don't know the truth because our "institutions of knowledge" such academia, media, and science have been under attack. She goes on to explain these institutions have been under attack for political gain. In her view, one political party benefits from this.

I would like to offer a different theory. Postmodernism, moral relativism, and our absolute distrust of any type of authority have killed the truth. Postmodernists argue truth as relative. When we all go by our own truth, there is no truth. This is the world postmodernism has built. We can no longer agree on simple truths because it is relative. We've built our own individualistic moral frameworks.

Another issue I see is an absolute distrust of authority. Let us face it Americans have issues with authority. Watch a few minutes of American media and I can't help but see a huge distrust of authority. Parents are portrayed as idiots. Teachers are shown as idiots. Religious leaders are portrayed as idiots and crooked. Law enforcement is shown as crooked. Politicians are crooked. I can go on. So how are we supposed to seek the truth when authority is under attack?

I understand that people are flawed and some level of skepticism in authority is healthy and normal. But that's now what I'm seeing. This goes above and beyond that. Sometimes it is downright disrespectful to all forms of authority. 

If you really want to deep-dive into who killed truth, I would start there.