Using Master’s Tools to Dismantle the Master’s House: Inverting Trumpism in Social Media Incivility

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Poster Session: Ethnicity and Race in Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Election of President Donald Trump and rampant news faking have been interpreted as signs of a dysfunctional democracy and media system. Yet the same events can also be interpreted as new opportunities for people to voices their demands. Thus Trumpism is paradoxical: it is democracy suppressing when it is used right wing movements against non-dominant groups, but it can enhance democracy if inverted, akin to using a master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house. But on a lighter note, Trumpism can be equated to the return of the carnivalesque, a tradition that gave voices to the common people by suspending rules of social engagement. Trumpism, just like during the carnival, removes hierarchy and allow fools to become wise, kings to eat with beggars and facts to be accompanied with fiction. This suspends normal non-carnival life. It is on social media that Trumpism is most visible.

Author

• David MJ Katiambo, Technical University of Kenya