The age of semiotic infinity
- sciart0
- Apr 25
- 2 min read
Thanks Robb!
Excerpt: " ....a time in which meanings stretch endlessly in all directions, unmoored from both substantive truth and procedural methods of verification. Even the meta-discourse about how to tell truth from falsehood is, itself, pervaded by falsehood: news outlets with fact-checking are “fake news” while un-annotated blogs linking to other un-annotated blogs are where one is to “do your research.”
Arguably, this has always been the case, particularly in America, which has shown, in its history, an unusual proclivity to fall for bullshit, con men, and conspiracy theories. Trump is an heir to P.T. Barnum, Henry Ford, and William Jennings Bryan alike, all concantenated together into a conspiracy-spouting con man who lies about absolutely everything.
But Trump is different from his forebears in that he has great power, and an entire online media apparatus that both amplifies his lies and provides new lies for him to amplify.
We can laugh or cry at QAnon or Plandemic, but the insane, unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Anthony Fauci helped China develop a bioweapon is now online at covid.gov. (This theory of malevolent intent is distinct from the ‘lab leak theory,’ which is still unproven but which may be true and which does have evidence supporting it.)
There’s no comparison to this. George W. Bush’s near-baseless claims that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction would be just one of Trump’s countless policies based on lies about immigration, trans people, climate change, antisemitism, and who pays for tariffs. Some conspiracy theories are harmless, but just one of these — the insane myths about USAID — will kill 25 million people in the next fifteen years.