When Politics Becomes Spectacle. Essay Coming Tomorrow
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I’m writing to tell you that the essay will publish tomorrow. In deciding what to write about, I try and listen to my instincts and if something is bothering me it usually merits further investigation. Ever since I saw that clip of Sean Hannity of Fox News broadcasting from the Capitol, I have had a queasy feeling. My immediate reaction to it went viral (you can see the tweet and the clip here) but I continued to think about what this meant as a devaluation of politics and —a frightening thought that only struck me early this morning—a kind of re-occupation of the Capitol by defenders and allies of Jan. 6.
Much more on this tomorrow. Until then, stay well and stay lucid.
Ruth
Whenever the state melds with a privately owned media company or any privately owned company, in this case to disseminate propaganda and disinformation for a particular political party, it should be seen as an element of fascism.
Thank you, Ruth, for articulating the same feelings I have, and I'm sure many of us have on Lucid, and others in the global community. There is something very odd, staged, contrived, and intuitively wrong with this picture! Casually championing election deniers like McCarthy, Jordan, and others, as if to say, "Look America, this is all very normal. Don't worry, we've got this. White supremacy; voter suppression; denial of the rights of women, The LGBTQ Community, and people of color; anti-semitism; anti-anyone who is different; violent attempts to wrest democracy away from people; and climate/science denial are really not all that bad." This "Spectacle" engenders a very visceral response to the whole scene!