Cultural studies scholars have a long history of problematizing the concept of truth. Today, however, many on the left have turned to the tactic of calling out Trump’s lies, enumerating them, fact-checking them, and countering them with contrary evidence. While well-intentioned, dependence on calls for fact-checking and slogans that proclaim allegiance to science without acknowledging the cultural and social factors that affect knowledge production risks reifying some of the problems that early cultural studies scholars rightly highlighted. This essay argues, ultimately, that cultural studies scholars, activists, teachers, and critical theorists should resist the urge to set down the tools of critical theory but instead to apply them with abandon to Trump, his policies, and, perhaps most importantly, to ourselves.
Articles by Sara Mitcho
Sara Regina Mitcho holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from George Mason University. She is currently at work on a book titled The Violence of Nonviolence: Toward an Ethics of Protest that critiques our reliance on a violent/nonviolent dichotomy to make ethical judgments about protest and describes an alternative approach. The project draws on examples from the history of U.S. protest from the post-Civil War era to the present.