Truth Is, We're In Trouble

Much has been said about President Trump's false or misleading statements. The Washington Post has been cataloguing them since the campaign began. So far, the count is above 3000. Yet, despite this, many disenfranchised voters ignore his lying because they see him as authentically representing their interests when the establishment has ignored them. In 1959, sociologist Seymour Lipset called this a "crisis of legitimacy." In a recent Bloomberg article, Why Trump Gets Away With Lying, writer Mark Buchanan states: "Lipset suggested that a crisis of legitimacy would have psychological consequences — and set the stage for a lying demagogue to be perceived by many people as bravely speaking suppressed truths. In normal conditions, voters shun any candidate who obviously lies and abuses widely shared social norms. But in a crisis, Lipset argued, disenfranchised voters may see such violations as a symbolic protest, and a deliberate poke in the eye to the elites they have come to despise."

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The posters in this series reflect the conflicts the American political system has been experiencing during the turbulent period between 2010-2018. They are meant to encourage an exploration and a dialogue about the cultural minefield we now find ourselves in.