Baudrillard in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Groundwork for a Critique of the Rise of Trump

Abstract

This paper takes the view that Baudrillard's work on the West's fascination with reality is as insightful as ever. The paper traces the rise of this fascination across four areas of his work: the critique of the commodity form, the rise of objective reality, hyperreality, and integral reality. I then argue that Baudrillard provides us with a means for adequately understanding and engaging with the current post-truth scandal. My claim is that the essence of' 'Trumpism' is not to be found in a lack of reality, the notion that there is not enough truth in play; it is to be found in the overproduction of a surplus reality that veers out of control into hitherto unknown forms of absurdity, or, in Baudrillard's terms, into integral reality.Brett Nicholls works at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in the Department of Media, Film and Communication. He publishes work on technology, media and politics, as well as postcoloniality. He is currently working on Jean Baudrillard's relationship to science. He can be contacted at brett.nicholls@otago.ac.nz. Vol. 16, No. 2 2016 7 post-truth world' (Hollo 2017). Along with the Twitter storm, such headlines suggest that a high stakes battle between the objectively real and the illusory and fake is well underway. This paper will trace the stakes of this battle by looking at Baudrillard's work. In the recent post-truth context, his long-term engagement with Western culture's fascination with the real is particularly prescient. I will focus specifically upon this fascination and the rise of the general imperative of being in synch with reality across four areas of Baudrillard: the critique of the commodity form, the rise of objective reality, hyperreality, and integral reality. I will argue that Baudrillard provides us with a means for adequately understanding and engaging with the current post-truth scandal. I will offer a Baudrillardian take upon post-truth and Trumpism, as it has been constructed in media. This take focuses upon the conditions for the rise of Trumpism and post-truth. My claim is that the essence of the present media scandal is not to be found in a lack of reality, the notion that there is not enough reality in play; it is to be found in the overproduction of a surplus reality that veers out of control into hitherto unknown forms of absurdity, or, in Baudrillard's terms, into integral reality. 'The real does not', Baudrillard tells us, 'efface itself in favour of the imaginary; it effaces itself in favour of the more real than real: the hyperreal' (Baudrillard 1990b, 11), and, ultimately, integral reality. In a reversal of what might be considered to be common sense logic, the problem of Trumpism and post-truth is not that reality is diminishing, it is that there is too much. MEDIANZ

Simulacra in the Age of Social Media: Baudrillard as the Prophet of Fake News

“…Brett Nicholls (2017) has confirmed these arguments, saying that “in the post-truth situation objective facts about the world are less influential than feelings, beliefs and personal opinions.” He also points out that the social media detractors against Trump confidently assert “that there is a clear difference between objective knowledge and speculative constructions.” However, Nichols sees in this a fascination with naïve realism, arguing: “Both Trump and his detractors make precisely this claim. Both claim they are the real America!” He then goes on to discuss four critiques of how reality is produced: “the critique of the commodity form, the rise of objective reality, hyperreality and integral reality,” with the latter two venturing into the world as theorised by Baudrillard.…”

“…Brett Nicholls (2017) has confirmed these arguments, saying that "in the post-truth situation objective facts about the world are less influential than feelings, beliefs and personal opinions." He also points out that the social media detractors against Trump confidently assert "that there is a clear difference between objective knowledge and speculative constructions."…”

“…This reads like a recent socio-political history of reality formation, starting with Marx's view about how commodities are created from their exchange value, which is then abstracted into monetary representation, in opposition to the use value of those items. "In this way of thinking, capitalist exchange is less real than the materiality of utility and social conditions of the working class" (Nicholls, 2017). However, while "there is no doubt at all that the objective and discoverable world exists outside systems of representation," the real question is how we get past those systems of representation.…”

“…This destruction of the previous notions of the real, finally, leads to the fourth mode of reality creation: integral reality. Nicholls (2017) argues that "Trumpism exposes the ungrounded nature of the political system itself." This is "inseparable from media spectacle," where "instead of standing in for an outside object, as in reality and hyperreality, the sign itself ends up becoming the object."…”

“…Satire may be a rhetoric that appeals to a more "liberal" audience but it still works at the entertainment level like the form of politics it attempts to critique. Nicholls (2017), on the other hand, argues that "Trump's non-dual relationship with the world could be disrupted by rediscovering what Baudrillard calls the vital illusion." This aims to take "the world for the world and not for its model" (Baudrillard, 2008), but again pushes us back to the problem of how we can escape the fact that we can only perceive the world through our linguistic representation of it.…”