tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6056235652294517694.post965463116437061622..comments2024-01-27T04:41:59.604-08:00Comments on The Contemporary Condition: The Return of the Big LieJairus Victor Grovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15030715466285389226noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6056235652294517694.post-26545356024709817902011-12-03T16:19:17.856-08:002011-12-03T16:19:17.856-08:00Trying to combat Big Lies with facts is like tryin...Trying to combat Big Lies with facts is like trying to win a beauty pageant by talking about how you want to end world hunger.Akim Reinhardthttp://thepublicprofessor.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6056235652294517694.post-86271355886768857112011-12-03T15:45:08.865-08:002011-12-03T15:45:08.865-08:00Very insightful post, I greatly appreciated it. I ...Very insightful post, I greatly appreciated it. I think the "Big Lie" supplements that widely held claim that attention itself, rather than the quality of that attention, remains very important in determining the parameters of politics. As you note, Fehrnstrom doesn't care about whether or not the argument is legitimate: the "mere attention" on the economy is the point of the lie. <br /><br />One supplemental point: I think you should make more of how the "Big Lie" reassures partisans of the correctness of their original position, short circuiting what we imagine to be a dialectical process of political argument by claimjumping identity in a way that secures in advance subjects from challenges and reconfigurations. The mere appearance of "controversy" appears as one health of democracy: controversy remains possible. But the content of that controversy, as you say, is poisonous to democracy. Poisonous because it appeals in advance to settled identities, and even more pernicious because its truth functions as a naturalized totem for partisan subjects.Paul Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00841372871906932597noreply@blogger.com