The Trump Spectacle
by Albert Scharenberg, January 2018
www.rosalux-nyc.org
http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/the-trump-spectacle/
Robert Zaretsky recently commented in The New York Times that Donald Trump’s presidency marks the coming of age of The Society of the Spectacle—a society in which truth is essentially reduced to a mere hypothesis and consistently subordinated to orchestration.
Indeed, lies and deception reign in the White House. During his first year in office alone, The Washington Post counted more than 2,000 cases in which Trump lied or made misleading statements—equating to roughly five times per day.
The 45th President of the United States, sworn into office one year ago today, may be a notorious denier of truth and understand next to nothing about politics—as a reality TV star and celebrity, however, he definitely commands the media. Under his presidency, politics has been replaced by a frantic scramble for media coverage. This Twitter-President has made it his habit to hurl out daily insults against his domestic and foreign adversaries. Here, even scandals serve a purpose by drawing in the public as a consumer (i.e. audience), thus including them as part of the spectacle.
Scandals Without End
With scandals following the President’s every move, there is little time to analyze one incident before the next one makes the headlines.
RELATED LINK:
Reading Against Fascism
by Henry Giroux, July 19, 2018
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/reading-against-fascism/
