If we could see the scars made by hyper-capitalism (really self-aware, algorithm-driven capitalism) — if we could visualize the cognitive damage produced by our never ending exchange with product-placement — we would be sobered. The Trump-era is only possible because we are in a weakened state; our capacity to think — our thoughts — cut into, broken down, dissolved. The pressure of the internet-being, the digital “user” is the pressure to turn oneself into a brand; to “monetize” one’s image, one’s language. Our politics now reflect this. But because we can’t quite see it — see into our rewired, re-triggered brains — we can’t intuit the disturbing ontological truth. Our superficial, socially mediated politics mirrors our superficial, socially mediated lives. Trump’s vision and values might be disturbing to the left, but his style is everyone’s: quick, stupid, memorable; meaningless. Words and images are unreal, they no longer are expected to reflect any truths in or of the world. Instagram lives are lies, Facebook’s are frauds — without consequence. A president on Twitter has merely grasped this behavioral logic. When everybody has created an alternative-self online, it becomes harder to turn away a politician who creates an alternate politics online. When everybody seeks to monetize their personal “brands”, it becomes harder to resist the greed of others. The more inwardness of self is displaced by a spectacle of self, the less it becomes possible to organize a virtuous resistance of living individuals.
