On 7 May, the Institute’s Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy hosted Stephen Holmes, Professor of Law at New York University and an expert on the evolution of liberalism, for a talk entitled Can Liberalism Survive in a World of Fake News?
Prof Holmes explained how fake news both manufactures disinformation and undermines public accountability. Describing Donald Trump as a “fake news proliferator”, Prof Holmes said that while all presidents lie, “Trump has a different relation to lies than most of us. In his business life, lying had a lot of advantages: as a salesman he would lie, trick people and dupe them. Lying doesn’t bother him; it’s something he’s almost proud of.”
Lamenting the current anti-liberal wave in the United States and “politically successful presidential mendacity”, Prof Holmes argued that Trump’s lies were not strategic but performative. Trump lied to show his power to manufacture or shape reality, and those who believed his lies were not interested in truth but rather a feeling of affinity to that power.
You can watch Professor Holmes’ talk, which was moderated by Professor Shalini Randeria, below.