[-empyre-] Packer: against fake news

[Mathias Fuchs]

Dear Randall,

I understand and share your anger about the current temporary holder of 
the title of US president, but I wonder whether the focus on "diabolical 
fakery" and the introduction of XTreme TRUMPology targets the core of 
the problem. Bertold Brecht made an observation once, that by 
continously mentioning the "Führer" and his name, one would just make 
addititonal propaganda for the NAZIs, and he came up with a solution: He 
introduced a fake profession for Hitler, and called him "Der 
Anstreicher". This is German for someone who covers dirty walls with 
fresh paint to hide the dirt underneath. By doing so Brecht made a joke 
on Hitler's failure in getting accepted at the painters Academy class in 
Vienna, he reminded his readers on Hitler's whitewashing attempts, but 
at the same time he avoided repeating the name of the political enemy. 
Brecht faked the professional title of Hitler, but he did so in working 
against his regime. I think that we need not spend half of our lives in 
correcting all of the lies and the fake facts of the president's 
administration, but rather look at political problems from a viewpoint 
that goes beyond personification of political activities conduction in 
favour of a concrete political system, i.e. turbocapitalism, without 
assigning it to a demon or a devil. Do you see what I mean? It is hard 
to find mediatic truth within the political system we are forced to live 
in. How can messages of a tweet length format be true anyway? And why do 
we still hope that communicating on the basis of such would leave a 
chance for truth, correctness or appropriateness? The difference between 
true and false and the problem of keeping such a distinction as a valid 
guide for action is a matter that is rooted in a mediatic structure and 
a political system. The man with the yellow hair is just a puppet of a 
wider interest structure and once he leaves - I am afraid - we cannot 
celebrate having solved the problem. My main point here is that I think 
a personalisation of a political problem distracts from the problem. 
Having said so, may the man with the yellow hair soon stumble and fall.
Best
Mathias

-- 
Prof. Dr. Mathias Fuchs
Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM)
Scharnhorststr. 1, C5.318
21335 Lüneburg

Co-Editor Journal Digital Culture & Society
http://www.transcript-verlag.de/zeitschriften/digital-culture-und-society/

Co-Editor Journal of Performance Research, Vol. 21 (4)
http://www.performance-research.org/


> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2017 16:14:52 -0400
> From: Randall Packer <rpacker at zakros.com>
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Week 4: Welcome Lindsay Kelley, Anna Munster,
> 	Randall Packer, and Ana Valdex
> Message-ID: <CF7C86BE-63DD-4EB9-83AF-65D4B6BB1EC3 at zakros.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="UTF-8"
>
> Dear List:
>
> Since August of 2015, I have been chronicling the TRUMP phenomenon, which I refer to as XTreme TRUMPology. Here are 50 posts I have written to date: http://www.randallpacker.com/category/xtreme-trumpology/
>
> I see the developing fake news issue as the catalyst of a much greater problem: the intentional distortion of reality for the purpose of gaining political control. Fake news is a means to an end, what happens when morally bankrupt demagogues are in pursuit of absolute power.
>
> To this end, it beholds us to construct critical ?weapons? that we can use to deconstruct and defuse this diabolical fakery, and it is my hope, that during this next week, the empyre list can serve as both a virtual roundtable for discussion, as well as a space for developing tactical methods we can employ as media artists, theorists, and educators in our everyday lives and work. Some of these methods have already been identified in past weeks? I hope to see more!
>
> These are dangerous times and I am interested in the kinds of critical tools we can develop collectively to combat the torrent of fakery and disinformation that is consuming our government, our country, and the world.
>
> It?s time for action.
>
> Best, Randall
>
>
>
>

-- 
Prof. Dr. Mathias Fuchs
Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM)
Scharnhorststr. 1, C5.318
21335 Lüneburg

Co-Editor Journal Digital Culture & Society
http://www.transcript-verlag.de/zeitschriften/digital-culture-und-society/

Co-Editor Journal of Performance Research, Vol. 21 (4)
http://www.performance-research.org/