Meanwhile, if the other side wins, we should apparently watch out for quiescence of a different sort.
Their precious skepticism wasted, they’re perfect gulls for Trump, with that kernel of truth nestled in the palm of his sizeable (believe me), outstretched hand. Denizens can’t distinguish between such insider banter and genuine moments of arrogant candor when power’s mask slips. On alt-right forums, casually snide comments dredged from the email data-dump are assigned dread import. Only unimpeded vision satisfies the voyeur. The insidious con within WikiLeaks’ stated aim of “total transparency” resides in the equivalence it confers upon large and small evidence. I’m not denying WikiLeaks has its uses, but those who believe unmediated truth dwells there alone should watch their wallets.
#DATING CHOOSY BEGGARS FREE#
With the exception of ice cream, anything that pleases so easily across the generations is probably not free of fascist potential. Just as the music of Adele unites young and old by mingling self-infatuated ignorance and nostalgia-while concealing the truth of their twinship-WikiLeaks appeals to the part of us that is forever coming of age. As with Trump University, quick wisdom is promised, but the deceptions of government agencies, like the real estate market, are ever-changing-so one had better stay attentive. In their totality, WikiLeaks’ implications return democratic subjects to political virginity and allow them to relive their own deflowering by corruption, over and over. The moral imperative to work towards emancipation is nullified, because one has already been handed the keys to the kingdom, the undifferentiated data-stream that runs the world. A burning desire to know every little thing Bad Daddy bureaucracy’s been up to takes the place of democratic self-assertion. Otherwise, how could Trump supporters fail to see themselves in Trump University’s victims, with whom they largely share a socioeconomic dilemma? A society able to confront itself-i.e., a democratic society-would refuse to shrug off this episode, not because middle-class dreams are inviolable but precisely because their pummeling is by now so common, so recognizable.īut WikiLeaks though! For the cult of Assange, democratic impulses are thwarted by “the voyeurism of childhood” (Janet Malcolm’s phrase from The Journalist and the Murderer). From such insensibility flows an inability to interpret specifically American experiences, to hear the ring of American truth and feel accordingly. It seems that the main prerequisite for “real American” status these days is a lack of receptivity to American culture-highbrow, lowbrow, whatever.
Even mainstream journalists, proudly flexing their empathy, sojourn in Trumpland and declare they’ve found the “kernel of truth” amid Daddy’s (Trump’s alt-right nickname) incoherence-as though any confidence game were complete without a little something true to prestidigitate with. Yet Trump voters who style themselves as “real Americans” fail to identify their candidate as that most quintessentially American of rogues, the con man. The allegory for the Trump presidential campaign is so plain it all but socks you on the nose. Trump University tells you all you need to know, if you still needed to know it. The “Silent Majority” & the Cult of WikiLeak By Michael Brod, Robert Chametzky, Benj DeMott, Joel DeMott, Ty Geltmaker, Eugene Goodheart, Casey Hayden, George Held, Adam Hochschild, Wesley Hogan, Ben Kessler, Brian Kinstler, Bob Levin, Greil Marcus, Scott McLemee, Dennis Myers (x2), Yasmin Nair, Nathan Osborne, George Scialabba, Budd Shenkin, Fredric Smoler & Alison Stone
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