Donald Trump and the Society of the Spectacle | Tom Nicholas

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord has been drawn upon frequently in recent years, particularly as a way of explaining the politics of Donald Trump. As “fake news” and “alternative facts” have dominated our political discourse, many have sought to see whether Debord’s concept of the spectacle and his other situationist writings might offer some insight into a world which has seemed to have lost sight of what is real and what is not.

Following on from my two episodes of What the Theory in which I took more of a “Society of the Spectacle Explained” approach, in this video, I consider whether the work of Guy Debord really does offer such insight into the politics of Donald Trump. I take a look at propaganda and political lying through the lens of 1984 by George Orwell as well as Veep, The Thick of It and House of Cards and consider how Trump’s outrageous and obvious lies have different ramifications than those which dominate our current popular conception of why politicians lie.

Faced with the spectacular politics of Donald Trump, liberal media outlets such as the New York Times and Politico have largely focussed on “debunking” each falsehood as it is uttered. Here, however, I’m interested in the deeper effects that the emergence of “fake news” and “alternative facts” as rhetorical turns and as actually existing disinformation tactics might be having on our political discourse.

Further Reading

Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord
US: https://amzn.to/33LMvZZ
UK: https://amzn.to/2VWHivO

The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism by Emiliana Armano and Marco Briziarelli
US: https://amzn.to/2BuSm9W
UK: https://amzn.to/2VY2wJA

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
US: https://amzn.to/33OrNc5
UK: https://amzn.to/2MyvP2t

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