New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-11)

18 newyork| november11–24, 2019

becausenobodysharesany numbersat all,which

isstrangebecausestreamingishowplenty of

non-superheromoviesmakemost of theirmoney

now.Obviously,theywillknow—theproducers

andstarswhobenefit.Butthepublicwillbeliving

entirelyinthedark,neverknowingif something

is actuallya hitorjust totallyAstroturfed.This

willbereallydisorienting;today, at least, the

popularityof anartistaccountsforlike halfof the

waywefeelaboutthem.Andhard audiencefig-

ureswere, fora generationofbarroomdebaters

aboutpopculture, theclosest thinganyoneactu-

allyevergottoa “fact.” —LANEBROWN

TheTelevisionEraofPoliticsWillEnd

TELEVISION-DOMINATEDpoliticsfamously

began the night that John F. Kennedy

trouncedRichardNixonintheirbroadcast

debate,reacheditsheightwithRonaldRea-

gan,andarrivedata sort ofparodystatewith

BillClinton,whopushedTV’s empathiccapa-

bilitiestothelimit—likePhilDonahueand

Oprah Winfrey, he reachedthrough the

screenandfeltourpain.BythetimeGeorge

W.Bushwaslandingonanaircraftcarrierin

frontofamissionaccomplishedbanner,

thevaluesofrealityTVhadreplacedthoseof

traditionalnarrativeTV. Andwhilesomeof

thisseason’s presidentialcandidates(Beto

andBookerinparticular)stillattemptedto

projecta televisionemotionality closertothe

warmfuzzinessofTheWestWingthantofac-

tualpoliticaldebate—aseveryoneknows,

factsmake forboringtelevision—theera of

televisionpoliticsis,actually,comingtoan

end.Twenty-first-centuryissuesare just too

real andintractable andupsettingfor a

mediumthatinsists onwrappingthingsupat

theendofevery show. Thedigitalstorytelling

thathasreplacedtelevisionischaracterized

less by linear, emotional storytelling and

more by nonfiction truth.

Consider the Facebook Live and Instagram

videos of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-

Cortez and teen climate activist Greta Thun-

berg. Each is far too ideological for the tube,

but their fact-based messaging and justified

outrage work perfectly well on social media.

And we are fast approaching a turning point

where, as happened with AOC andGreta,

users will actually be able to identify and pro-

mote what becomes popular themselves—

whether that’s a bartender in the Bronx, a

teenager in Sweden, or someone or something

else. This is as many early internet visionaries

predicted, but the results, to this point, have

been more chaotic than utopian. But some

chaos, sometimes, is good.

—DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF

Party Balloons

Will No Longer

Float

Terminal Patients Will Go on

a Trip Before They Die

And a lot of others will go on

themto dealwithdepression,anxiety,

and substance abuse, replacing a

culture of daily psychotropicmedication

with one of periodic hallucinogenics.

Racism Will Thrive, ButNoOneWill

Say the Word

AMONG RACISM’S many paradoxes is that it’s

more advantageous to practice it than to wear it

as a badge, and so denying or recasting one’s rac-

ism despite contrary evidence is an oldpractice.

(Even former Alabama governor GeorgeWallace,

who famously proclaimed, “Segregationnow, seg-

regation tomorrow, segregation forever”in1963,

denied his own on the basis that he didn’t actively

“despise” black people.) That this patterncontin-

ues today on the right can be attributed,inpart,

to a widespread belief that, actually,racismis

defined too broadly rather than toonarrowly.

More than half of white Americans—including

nearly 80 percent of Republican or Republican-

leaning whites—think that people seeingracism

where it doesn’t exist is a bigger problemthan

their failing to see where it does. This polarization

will only calcify as accusations of racismmaintain

their stridency and the accused declinetoreckon

with their validity. The result will be asignificant

share of the white adult population thatbelieves

racism hardly exists anymore—because,intheir

frantic efforts to avoid being labeledracist,they

will have redefined racism out of existence.

When that happens, the hate groupIdentity

Evropa will become a viable ThirdParty.The

Proud Boys will hold seats on countycouncils.A

Richard Spencer–type will be electedtoa state

legislature. Political campaigns likeKu Klux

Klansman David Duke’s successful 1989runfor

the Louisiana House will once againbecome

commonplace. Trump’s “very fine people”carry-

ing torches and assaulting protestersinCharlot-

tesville, the Virginia school resourceofficerwho

was outed as a white nationalist—thesewill

expand into robust constituencies towhompoli-

ticians and private enterprise will cater.AnAmer-

ica where flagrant racism is nowhere meansit can

better proliferate everywhere. Today’strendwill

be tomorrow’s status quo. —ZAK CHENEY-RICE

JAN 21

Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez
talks to her
followers via
a Donkey
Kong Twitch
livestream.

JAN 22

A chemistry

professor

warns global

helium reserves

could disap-

pear within a

decade.

JAN 25

A “New

Science of

Psychedelics”

sessionis held

at Davos, of

all places.

FEB 01

A photo of

Virginia

governor

Ralph

Northam in

blackface

surfaces;

Northam does

not resign.

PHOTOGRAPHS: PREVIOUS SPREAD, LOU LINWEI/ALAMY (XI). THIS SPREAD, COURTESY OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT (AOC); MIKHAIL SVETLOV/GETTY IMAGES (SOURCE PHOTOGRAPH)