8 The Nation. November 25, 2019
president of US public policy in 2011 and chose former Republican
senator John Kyl to conduct a review of conservatives’ complaints.
(While he could not find any significant evidence for their accusations
of liberal bias, his report nevertheless repeated their worries that con-
servatives could be harmed by hate speech policies.)
Politico’s Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman recently broke
the story that Zuckerberg initiated a series of private dinners at one
of his many homes with Trump boosters such as The Daily Wire’s Ben
Shapiro, far-right talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, Fox News’ Tucker
Carlson, and GOP Senator Lindsey Graham. The authors quoted a
source who found the reaction to his entreaties “more positive than I
anticipated” and judged Zuckerberg to be “receptive and thoughtful.”
Another said, “I’ve always thought that he wanted to make things
right by conservatives.”
We should hardly be surprised by Facebook’s decision to invite
Trump and company to lie. It’s both profitable and good politics,
from Zuckerberg’s standpoint. Warren does have a plan to break up
the company (and companies like it), and Facebook’s salvation re-
quires either a Trump reelection or a Republican-controlled Senate.
We should not be shocked by the company’s decision to include the
journalistically indefensible Breitbart News in its new “trusted sourc-
es” news section or by its willingness to allow the scurrilous Daily
Wire to violate the company’s rules with what Judd Legum’s Popular
Information newsletter has identified as exactly the kind of “inauthen-
tic coordinated behavior” Facebook forbids. What should surprise
us, however, is our unwillingness to recognize just how destructive
a force Facebook has become and ask ourselves, “How will we save
our country and democracy itself from its ravages?” QCOMIX NATION PETER KUPER
[Oskar Eustis, the artis-
tic director of the Pub-
lic Theater]. It’s the first
time we’ve worked to-
gether in a long time as
playwright and director.
That’s a blast.AS: Are we at a place now
where there’s more ac-
ceptance of or even hun-
ger for serious political
art? When Bright Room
premiered, we were still
suffering from a McCar-
thy hangover that insisted
on keeping art and poli-
tics separated.TK: That separation still
exists. I wrote Bright Room
in part because of Primo
Levi’s point that the moral
drama about choices that
can affect an outcome
are not appropriate for
the concentration camp.
Once you’re there, the
fundamental horror is
that you have lost agen-
cy. When choices can be
made is before the rail-
road tracks are laid and
the boxcars start to roll.
That’s why I set this play
in 1932 and 1933, because
that’s the moment when
it could have gone—andit was starting to go—in
another direction. By July
of ’32, the KPD [Com-
munist Party of Germa-
ny] was gaining.
AS: But those on the left
were attacking one an-
other, which you’re clear
about in the play.
TK: That’s part of the
horror of it.QAlisa Solomon, the director
of the arts and culture con-
centration at the Columbia
School of Journalism, is the
author of Wonder of Won-
ders: A Cultural History of
“Fiddler on the Roof.”(continued from page 4)Calvin Trillin
Deadline Poet
THE TRANSFORMATION
OF WILLIAM BARR
His past, they said, was proof that he
Would be a pretty straight AG.
But, going down a different road, he
Became Trump’s most corrupted toady.
The words that he forgot are these:
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.