Jacob C. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529212501
- eISBN:
- 9781529212532
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529212501.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This book offers a new perspective on the theory of spectacle to explain the rise of Donald Trump and Trumpism in American society and politics. While Trump is inseparable from the existence of a ...
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This book offers a new perspective on the theory of spectacle to explain the rise of Donald Trump and Trumpism in American society and politics. While Trump is inseparable from the existence of a mass consumer culture under capitalism, few have elaborated on that aspect of his identity and rise to the Presidency. Drawing on Guy Debord and his interlocutors, as well as others like Deleuze and Guattari and Walter Benjamin, this book conceptualizes spectacle as an embodied assemblage that includes the affective and emotional components of life amid a broader materialization of capitalism in the everyday landscape. Inspired by the methodology of Benjamin’s The Arcades Project, this book triangulates theories of the spectacle with (1) journalistic coverage of the 2016 Presidential campaign and its aftermath and (2) other journalistic coverage of contemporary consumer culture. Together, the spectacle appears as a bundle of intense feelings and sensations that enrol us into new relationships with commodities, technology and data, as well as the materiality of the consumer infrastructure itself, including built environments and the technologies therein. In total, we get a sense not only of how the State uses spectacle to govern, but how the spectacle came to transform the political sphere itself, thereby providing a context for Trumpism. The spectacle, then, leads not only to “post-truth” horizons, but more precise articulations with the far-right. As such, this book illuminates how Trump embodies the frightening potential of capitalist consumerism to intersect with and further enable fascistic forms of power.Less
This book offers a new perspective on the theory of spectacle to explain the rise of Donald Trump and Trumpism in American society and politics. While Trump is inseparable from the existence of a mass consumer culture under capitalism, few have elaborated on that aspect of his identity and rise to the Presidency. Drawing on Guy Debord and his interlocutors, as well as others like Deleuze and Guattari and Walter Benjamin, this book conceptualizes spectacle as an embodied assemblage that includes the affective and emotional components of life amid a broader materialization of capitalism in the everyday landscape. Inspired by the methodology of Benjamin’s The Arcades Project, this book triangulates theories of the spectacle with (1) journalistic coverage of the 2016 Presidential campaign and its aftermath and (2) other journalistic coverage of contemporary consumer culture. Together, the spectacle appears as a bundle of intense feelings and sensations that enrol us into new relationships with commodities, technology and data, as well as the materiality of the consumer infrastructure itself, including built environments and the technologies therein. In total, we get a sense not only of how the State uses spectacle to govern, but how the spectacle came to transform the political sphere itself, thereby providing a context for Trumpism. The spectacle, then, leads not only to “post-truth” horizons, but more precise articulations with the far-right. As such, this book illuminates how Trump embodies the frightening potential of capitalist consumerism to intersect with and further enable fascistic forms of power.
Julie Willett
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781469661070
- eISBN:
- 9781469661094
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469661070.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, a series of stock characters emerged to define and bolster white masculinity. Alongside such caricatures as "the Playboy" and "the Redneck" came a new ...
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In the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, a series of stock characters emerged to define and bolster white masculinity. Alongside such caricatures as "the Playboy" and "the Redneck" came a new creation: "the Male Chauvinist Pig." Coined by second-wave feminists as an insult, the Male Chauvinist Pig was largely defined by an anti-feminism that manifested in boorish sexist jokes. But the epithet backfired: being a sexist pig quickly transformed into a badge of honor worn proudly by misogynists, and, in time, it would come to define a strain of right-wing politics. Historian Julie Willett tracks the ways in which the sexist pig was sanitized by racism, popularized by consumer culture, weaponized to demean feminists, and politicized to mobilize libertine sexists to adopt reactionary politics. Mapping out a trajectory that links the sexist buffoonery of Bobby Riggs in the 1970s, the popularity of Rush Limbaugh’s screeds against "Feminazis" in the 1990s, and the present-day misogyny underpinning Trumpism, Willett makes a case for the potency of this seemingly laughable cultural symbol, showing what can happen when we neglect or trivialize the political power of humor.Less
In the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, a series of stock characters emerged to define and bolster white masculinity. Alongside such caricatures as "the Playboy" and "the Redneck" came a new creation: "the Male Chauvinist Pig." Coined by second-wave feminists as an insult, the Male Chauvinist Pig was largely defined by an anti-feminism that manifested in boorish sexist jokes. But the epithet backfired: being a sexist pig quickly transformed into a badge of honor worn proudly by misogynists, and, in time, it would come to define a strain of right-wing politics. Historian Julie Willett tracks the ways in which the sexist pig was sanitized by racism, popularized by consumer culture, weaponized to demean feminists, and politicized to mobilize libertine sexists to adopt reactionary politics. Mapping out a trajectory that links the sexist buffoonery of Bobby Riggs in the 1970s, the popularity of Rush Limbaugh’s screeds against "Feminazis" in the 1990s, and the present-day misogyny underpinning Trumpism, Willett makes a case for the potency of this seemingly laughable cultural symbol, showing what can happen when we neglect or trivialize the political power of humor.
Matthew Frye Jacobson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781469649665
- eISBN:
- 9781469649689
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469649665.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The only section of the book written after the 2016 election, this afterword provides the author’s reflections on the exercise of thinking historically about the present—and using a camera to do ...
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The only section of the book written after the 2016 election, this afterword provides the author’s reflections on the exercise of thinking historically about the present—and using a camera to do it—and on the rise of what we now know as Trumpism.Less
The only section of the book written after the 2016 election, this afterword provides the author’s reflections on the exercise of thinking historically about the present—and using a camera to do it—and on the rise of what we now know as Trumpism.
Thomas Juneau and Stephanie Carvin
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781503613508
- eISBN:
- 9781503629714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503613508.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The conclusion reflects on some of the book’s key themes. Ideally, the Canadian intelligence and national security community should consist of a sum greater than the total of its parts, but it has ...
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The conclusion reflects on some of the book’s key themes. Ideally, the Canadian intelligence and national security community should consist of a sum greater than the total of its parts, but it has not truly reached “community” status, and there is no strong sense of belonging that unites it. Intelligence is less unique than many members of the community perceive it to be. It represents one expert input into the policy making process, and the fundamental nature of its interaction with the policy realm is broadly similar to other inputs. Finally, structure matters: the international security environment in which Canada has navigated over the decades has shaped the nature of Canada’s intelligence community. This environment is changing with the rise of populism, the fluidity of threats, as well as new expectations of privacy, transparency, and accountability. As the Canadian intelligence community addresses these challenges, can it learn from its allies?Less
The conclusion reflects on some of the book’s key themes. Ideally, the Canadian intelligence and national security community should consist of a sum greater than the total of its parts, but it has not truly reached “community” status, and there is no strong sense of belonging that unites it. Intelligence is less unique than many members of the community perceive it to be. It represents one expert input into the policy making process, and the fundamental nature of its interaction with the policy realm is broadly similar to other inputs. Finally, structure matters: the international security environment in which Canada has navigated over the decades has shaped the nature of Canada’s intelligence community. This environment is changing with the rise of populism, the fluidity of threats, as well as new expectations of privacy, transparency, and accountability. As the Canadian intelligence community addresses these challenges, can it learn from its allies?
Benjamin Miller and Ziv Rubinovitz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226734965
- eISBN:
- 9780226735153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226735153.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter explains the rise of America First of Trump in 2016. Trumpism strongly opposes the liberal strategies that dominated US strategy since the end of the Cold War. There are also marked ...
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This chapter explains the rise of America First of Trump in 2016. Trumpism strongly opposes the liberal strategies that dominated US strategy since the end of the Cold War. There are also marked differences between realism and Trumpism.Less
This chapter explains the rise of America First of Trump in 2016. Trumpism strongly opposes the liberal strategies that dominated US strategy since the end of the Cold War. There are also marked differences between realism and Trumpism.
Neil McLaughlin
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781529214581
- eISBN:
- 9781529214628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529214581.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
This concluding chapter tells the story of the current revival of Fromm’s reputation that is underway around the world and evaluates both the strengths and weaknesses of his sociological vision. The ...
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This concluding chapter tells the story of the current revival of Fromm’s reputation that is underway around the world and evaluates both the strengths and weaknesses of his sociological vision. The chapter also theorizes how Fromm’s activism and public engagement shaped the quality of his ideas. And ends on making the case for Fromm’s contemporary relevance.Less
This concluding chapter tells the story of the current revival of Fromm’s reputation that is underway around the world and evaluates both the strengths and weaknesses of his sociological vision. The chapter also theorizes how Fromm’s activism and public engagement shaped the quality of his ideas. And ends on making the case for Fromm’s contemporary relevance.
Jacob C. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529212501
- eISBN:
- 9781529212532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529212501.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
The Conclusion puts forward four key points for understanding spectacle as an embodied assemblage: (1) Spectacle is embodied and intense, not passive and hollow; (2) Donald Trump is as much a product ...
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The Conclusion puts forward four key points for understanding spectacle as an embodied assemblage: (1) Spectacle is embodied and intense, not passive and hollow; (2) Donald Trump is as much a product of the spectacle as one of its masters; (3) Donald Trump utilizes spectacle politically, but as one of capitalism’s “lines of flight” he also threatens the State; and (4) The spectacle develops both interior and exterior linkages among consumer subjectivity and its broader environments.Less
The Conclusion puts forward four key points for understanding spectacle as an embodied assemblage: (1) Spectacle is embodied and intense, not passive and hollow; (2) Donald Trump is as much a product of the spectacle as one of its masters; (3) Donald Trump utilizes spectacle politically, but as one of capitalism’s “lines of flight” he also threatens the State; and (4) The spectacle develops both interior and exterior linkages among consumer subjectivity and its broader environments.
Richard C. Fording and Sanford F. Schram
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197500484
- eISBN:
- 9780197500521
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197500484.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book analyzes data from a variety of sources to understand the mainstreaming of racism today, putting this research in a historical context. With issues of globalization, immigration, and ...
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This book analyzes data from a variety of sources to understand the mainstreaming of racism today, putting this research in a historical context. With issues of globalization, immigration, and demographic diversification achieving greater public salience, racism is now more likely to manifest itself in the form of a generalized ethnocentrism that expresses “outgroup hostility” toward a diverse set of groups, including Latinos and Muslims as well as African Americans. Changes in both structure and agency have facilitated the mainstreaming of racism today. Changes in the “political opportunity structure,” as witnessed by the rise of the Tea Party Movement, enabled the mainstreaming of white extremists into the Republican Party and established the basis for an electoral politics focused on giving voice to white people more generally acting on their outgroup hostility. Changes in the political opportunity structure were matched by the appearance of a charismatic leader in the person of Donald Trump, who made great use of a transformed media landscape to stoke white people’s outgroup hostility. Trump won the presidency by strategically deploying his demagoguery to mobilize white nonvoters in swing states, with the end result greatly accelerating the mainstreaming of racism and placing it at the center of policymaking in the White House. Providing extensive empirical evidence, this book documents how the mainstreaming of racism today began before Trump started to run for the presidency but then increased under his leadership and that it is likely to be a troubling presence in U.S. politics for some time to come. The findings provided create the basis for suggestions on how to push racism back to the margins of American politics.Less
This book analyzes data from a variety of sources to understand the mainstreaming of racism today, putting this research in a historical context. With issues of globalization, immigration, and demographic diversification achieving greater public salience, racism is now more likely to manifest itself in the form of a generalized ethnocentrism that expresses “outgroup hostility” toward a diverse set of groups, including Latinos and Muslims as well as African Americans. Changes in both structure and agency have facilitated the mainstreaming of racism today. Changes in the “political opportunity structure,” as witnessed by the rise of the Tea Party Movement, enabled the mainstreaming of white extremists into the Republican Party and established the basis for an electoral politics focused on giving voice to white people more generally acting on their outgroup hostility. Changes in the political opportunity structure were matched by the appearance of a charismatic leader in the person of Donald Trump, who made great use of a transformed media landscape to stoke white people’s outgroup hostility. Trump won the presidency by strategically deploying his demagoguery to mobilize white nonvoters in swing states, with the end result greatly accelerating the mainstreaming of racism and placing it at the center of policymaking in the White House. Providing extensive empirical evidence, this book documents how the mainstreaming of racism today began before Trump started to run for the presidency but then increased under his leadership and that it is likely to be a troubling presence in U.S. politics for some time to come. The findings provided create the basis for suggestions on how to push racism back to the margins of American politics.
Mugambi Jouet
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520293298
- eISBN:
- 9780520966468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293298.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Jouet begins his book by describing his work as a human rights lawyer representing poor prisoners in New York at the time of mass incarceration on a scale unprecedented in global history. He goes on ...
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Jouet begins his book by describing his work as a human rights lawyer representing poor prisoners in New York at the time of mass incarceration on a scale unprecedented in global history. He goes on to describe how the degeneration of American justice embodies troubling dimensions of American exceptionalism, including acute wealth inequality, systemic racism, anti-intellectualism, Christian fundamentalism, and chronic human rights abuses.
While the word “exceptional” can imply greatness or superiority, American exceptionalism historically referred to how America is “exceptional” in the sense of “unique,” “different,” “unusual,” “extraordinary” or “peculiar.” Ironically, scores of Americans equate “exceptionalism” with their nation’s superiority when it might be its Achilles Heel—a self-destructive vicious circle threatening admirable dimensions of American society.Less
Jouet begins his book by describing his work as a human rights lawyer representing poor prisoners in New York at the time of mass incarceration on a scale unprecedented in global history. He goes on to describe how the degeneration of American justice embodies troubling dimensions of American exceptionalism, including acute wealth inequality, systemic racism, anti-intellectualism, Christian fundamentalism, and chronic human rights abuses.
While the word “exceptional” can imply greatness or superiority, American exceptionalism historically referred to how America is “exceptional” in the sense of “unique,” “different,” “unusual,” “extraordinary” or “peculiar.” Ironically, scores of Americans equate “exceptionalism” with their nation’s superiority when it might be its Achilles Heel—a self-destructive vicious circle threatening admirable dimensions of American society.
Michael Taussig
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226684581
- eISBN:
- 9780226698700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226698700.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
The author examines the notion of catastrophe through engagements with Foucault and Bataille, Celine, Weil, and contemporary references to Trumpism. He also explores his own "shamanic" approach. He ...
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The author examines the notion of catastrophe through engagements with Foucault and Bataille, Celine, Weil, and contemporary references to Trumpism. He also explores his own "shamanic" approach. He also addresses questions of disenchantment vs re-enchantment.Less
The author examines the notion of catastrophe through engagements with Foucault and Bataille, Celine, Weil, and contemporary references to Trumpism. He also explores his own "shamanic" approach. He also addresses questions of disenchantment vs re-enchantment.
Dimitri Batrouni
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529205060
- eISBN:
- 9781529205107
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529205060.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
The sixth chapter builds upon the conclusions of the fifth chapter around Labour’s renewal, but with a particular focus on Brexit. It chronicles the leadership’s deliberations on Brexit and what it ...
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The sixth chapter builds upon the conclusions of the fifth chapter around Labour’s renewal, but with a particular focus on Brexit. It chronicles the leadership’s deliberations on Brexit and what it means for Corbynism and the party’s policy programme. It covers the areas of Brexit, state aid, globalisation, the concept of socialism ‘in one country’.Less
The sixth chapter builds upon the conclusions of the fifth chapter around Labour’s renewal, but with a particular focus on Brexit. It chronicles the leadership’s deliberations on Brexit and what it means for Corbynism and the party’s policy programme. It covers the areas of Brexit, state aid, globalisation, the concept of socialism ‘in one country’.
Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190880446
- eISBN:
- 9780190933173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190880446.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Democratization
Chapter 2 discusses how the John Hay Initiative, the Republican foreign policy establishment, became the purest strain of Never Trumpism. The John Hay Initiative was designed to create a firewall ...
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Chapter 2 discusses how the John Hay Initiative, the Republican foreign policy establishment, became the purest strain of Never Trumpism. The John Hay Initiative was designed to create a firewall around the heresies of Rand Paul and to help the other Republican candidates competently defend their vision of conservative internationalism. However, no one around the project imagined that their party would be tempted by a figure like Donald Trump. Trump's candidacy threw them into a world of uncertainty, in which all of their experience and strategies were suddenly rendered unhelpful or even counterproductive. In sharp contrast to most of the rest of the groups discussed in this book, they responded to Trump with open, furious, and mostly unified opposition. There were two primary reasons that people within the Republican national security network offer for having gone Never Trump. First, many were mortified at Trump's statements on foreign policy issues. Even so, most Never Trumpers in the foreign policy network say that their objections ran deeper than policy disputes; it was Trump's fundamental and unredeemable character flaws that constituted the core problem.Less
Chapter 2 discusses how the John Hay Initiative, the Republican foreign policy establishment, became the purest strain of Never Trumpism. The John Hay Initiative was designed to create a firewall around the heresies of Rand Paul and to help the other Republican candidates competently defend their vision of conservative internationalism. However, no one around the project imagined that their party would be tempted by a figure like Donald Trump. Trump's candidacy threw them into a world of uncertainty, in which all of their experience and strategies were suddenly rendered unhelpful or even counterproductive. In sharp contrast to most of the rest of the groups discussed in this book, they responded to Trump with open, furious, and mostly unified opposition. There were two primary reasons that people within the Republican national security network offer for having gone Never Trump. First, many were mortified at Trump's statements on foreign policy issues. Even so, most Never Trumpers in the foreign policy network say that their objections ran deeper than policy disputes; it was Trump's fundamental and unredeemable character flaws that constituted the core problem.