"When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute"

Walter Lippmann draws attention to the significant consequences that arise when intricate or remote issues are presented to large audiences. Truth naturally endures distortion during mass communication, an almost inevitable process when complicated realities must be condensed for widespread understanding. The transmission of information from specialists or direct observers to the general public, who may lack context or nuanced understanding, creates fertile ground for oversimplification and misinterpretation.

When ideas or events are complex, their full meaning is wrapped in details, uncertainties, and relationships that are hard to grasp without expertise or direct exposure. In seeking to make these ideas accessible, communicators often reduce the information to basic elements, simplifying or eliminating essential context. Nuance is lost, and the original message is stripped of ambiguity or subtlety. Hypotheses or working theories, which invite debate and revision, are instead presented as established facts, solidifying fleeting or provisional ideas into dogma. Relative or contingent notions, positions crafted to fit uncertain or shifting realities, are recast as universal truths, obscuring limitations or counterexamples.

Such a process ultimately alters the nature of public discourse and understanding. Individuals receiving these messages are rarely able to reconstruct the original complexity; instead, they embrace clear-cut, confident interpretations. This simplification feeds public opinion with certainties that may not exist and creates rigid viewpoints resistant to change. The consequences can be seen in debates that lack nuance, in policies based on incomplete or distorted evidence, and in cycles of misinformation that are difficult to correct.

Lippmann’s observation signals a warning: the more distant or abstract a subject is from everyday experience, the more its truth risks distortion in public dialogue. Awareness and critical engagement, both from communicators and audiences, are vital to narrowing the gap between reality and representation. The cost of ignoring complexity is not only misunderstanding but also the rigidity and absolutism that hinder wise collective action.