We revisit Hito Steyerl’s “In Defense of Poor Image” to make a point about naiveté of the American left during the Obama administration. The web was a frontier, meaning conditions have always been ripe for dissemination of far right disinformation as well as highly polished neoliberalism. It’s a positive development that left popular discourse is able to identify properties like Hillbilly Elegy and Trial of the Chicago 7, as purposeful distortions of American injustice and poverty. How can our messaging compete with billion dollar media and political campaigns dedicated to convincing the masses that societal problems are their personal failings? If you like the podcast and want more, please consider supporting us: https://www.patreon.com/artandlabor. Follow us on twitter and instagram. You can contact Art & Labor at artandlaborpodcast@gmail.com. Please reach out to join the discord for Lucia’s school “Constructing the Real” Please write us a review on Apple podcasts or whatever other platforms!!
Previous episode on Hito with links to both essays mentioned: https://artandlaborpodcast.com/podcast/episode-6-a-drunken-intro-to-hito-steyerl/
Chris Marker’s The Last Bolshevik (1992) very illuminating parallels on propaganda: https://youtu.be/SwoWS1vh3JQ
Obama the “Funny or Die” president: https://twitter.com/jackallisonLOL/status/1329797192203177988
Matt Christman on Respectable Television: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/05/how-tv-became-respectable-without-getting-better
Osita Nuevo on Obama Memoirs: https://newrepublic.com/article/160285/obama-promised-land-trump-biden
International Amazon worker action: https://www.vice.com/en/article/epdvzp/amazon-workers-to-stage-coordinated-black-friday-protests-in-12-countries