The Truth of Populism: Facts, Fiction, and Truisms in Contemporary Politics
Sprache: Englisch ・ Teilnahme nur auf Einladung.
Info
Join us in the living room of the Thomas Mann House for a lively conversation between Adrian Daub, German literary scholar and Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, and Thomas Mann Fellow Nils Kumkar, whose research focuses on political conflict, social inequality, digitalization, alternative facts, and conspiracy theories.
In their conversation, the two acclaimed scholars will examine why “truth” has become such a central and contested issue in contemporary political discourse in both the United States and Germany. Approaching the topic from multiple disciplinary perspectives, the discussion will range from concerns about fake news, declining trust in media and journalism, as well as so-called “alternative facts,” to the broader crises of political legitimacy, conspiracy theories, and anxieties surrounding hybrid warfare in Europe. They will explore how populism both produces its own truths while exposing what might be called public open secrets at the same time. Against this backdrop, the evening probes a more fundamental question: is “truth” itself even the most appropriate category for understanding what is at stake in today’s political conflicts? What we are really arguing about when we argue over “truth”?
Participants
Adrian Daub is a professor of comparative literature and German studies at Stanford University, and the director of Stanford’s Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His research focuses on the intersection of literature, music, and philosophy in the nineteenth century, and he is the author of several books published by academic presses. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New Republic, n+1, Longreads, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Among his most recent book are The Cancel Culture Panic: How an American Obsession Went Global (Stanford University Press, 2024) and What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley (FSG Originals x Logic, 2020).
