Decline and Destruction as Product and Entertainment
The spectacle of Trump in court is appealing theater for those who want to avoid the harder questions
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Like a lot of people, I’ve been unfortunately following the ongoing beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. There’s always something compelling about these battles. You get the sense sometimes that artists and political leaders are just phoning it in, reading the same rote speeches and delivering the same practiced lines, all of it growing staler and staler over time. Then, when there’s confrontation or conflict, a spark starts to grow. You can see a hint of real emotion behind the practiced facades and it’s undeniably intriguing. Listening to Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams,” you can taste his hatred of Drake. And that sensation is antithetical to the warmed-over pseudo-reality we reside in most of the time.
That peek behind the curtain is seductive. And it grows more and more alluring as the divide between the powerful and the rest of us grows. Palace intrigue is a phenomenon that accompanies stratification and alienation from power. We watch these avatars for any sign of authenticity beyond what is given to us because what is given to us is so demonstrably unreal and undeniably flat and strategic that, deep down, we know there are secrets to be uncovered. This is one of the reasons tabloids have always been so popular. Gossip is alluring because it purports to dive beneath the strategized veneers and reveal what’s really going on with the rich and the powerful. It doesn’t matter how many public relations specialists or crisis teams you employ, a crumb of seemingly-true gossip is worth its weight in gold.
Our politics are saturated with this. As representative government has been completely co-opted by the wealthy, we look for signs in the behavior of our politicians, imbue them with heroic qualities, and hope our champions will thwart the evil-doers before it’s too late. Cable news is a medium that loves this narrative. There are a lot of hours to fill, after all, and instead of varying topics and investing in actual reportage - who needs to know about rising maternal mortality rates, the absurd amount of lead in American drinking water, or any of the countless consequences of neoliberal austerity you can just look around and see - because that would mean, well, employing and supporting actual journalists, there’s plenty of juicy pieces of spruced-up gossip to pick at.
If you’ve watched anything lately, you know it. “Analysts” and “experts” who know nothing more than what’s being reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post breathlessly speculating about what’s happening behind closed doors and whether justice will prevail in the battle against authoritarianism.
The Trump Hush Money Trial in New York City is the perfect product. A powerful, wealthy man has been caught dead-to-rights committing a crime that involves sex, lying, and a desperate attempt to cover up his wrongdoings. To boot, it’s the former President of the United States and present candidate and it involves a relationship with an adult film star. Every day brings new and more embarrassing factoids regarding his sexual prowess, physical unpleasantness, and disturbing peccadilloes.
Did you know that his sex with Stormy Daniels was underwhelming?
Did you know he’s been passing terrible gas in the courtroom when he isn’t asleep?
Did you know he told Daniels she reminded him of his daughter?
It is the ideal situation for shallow entertainment.
And it provides incredible catharsis to people who loathe Trump. They see, on their television screens, in the tweets of the commentariat and media class they follow, in the pages of their prized newspapers, a presentation of Trump’s ugliness that they, themselves, have seen and mocked. Finally, people are finally able to look behind everything and see what a disgusting person he is. As if we haven’t all been able to for years, if not decades, now.