Quite fascinating to be allowed to live in this time and witness the breakdown of traditional communication that is taking place.
For there he stands. Arms out to the sides, a field of red and blue unfolded behind him, and at the bottom of the image sits the U.S. Department of Energy logo, as if it were a perfectly ordinary announcement about the state of the power grid. 😅
Beside it - Quantumania, the White House's own seal at the top, the man floating in a galaxy like the poster for a film no one ever made.
We have experienced several similar examples over the past year and a half.
At first it puzzled me. A Department of Energy. A head of state. Those kinds of institutions normally speak in a particular tone, measured, grey, deliberately boring, because the "seriousness" was supposed to be carried by the form.
But then it fell into place, and it landed somewhere other than where I had expected.
For the tempting thing is to say that the pendulum is simply swinging back. That the other wing tore down all decorum first, let language and reality slide into dissolution.
Right up until a guest stood half-naked at a Pride party on the South Lawn.
Right up until a president chose to mark Trans Day of Visibility with a proclamation on top of Easter Sunday itself, while the Resurrection had to settle for second place.
Right up until Christmas was to be celebrated with a frenzied, costumed, identity-saturated version of the Nutcracker - danced by a troupe that on its own website teaches white people to check their privilege. A Christmas celebration that the White House itself described as "the pure, unfiltered joy of childhood" without a single word about what Christmas actually celebrates.
So at first I thought this was now the other side's turn to push back. But that's not quite right, and that's not why these images somehow feel... refreshing.
For there is a difference between the two things, and that difference is the whole case.
What that dissolution asked for was that we nodded. That we said that what we saw was something other than what we saw. The "as-if" was not a joke, it was a duty, and you became a bad citizen if you didn't play along.
Quantum Aura demands nothing. No one in the entire world believes the man glows. No one is asked to believe in a quantum field. It is a costume that openly says it is a costume, and a costume everyone can see is a costume is a kind of honesty. It doesn't lie, because it never asks you to call it true.
It communicates and turns heads.
And yes, it pisses many people off, and I do understand that. A large part of the right has for over four decades communicated so deadly boringly that it felt like a punishment to listen - about as captivating as chewing dust and staring into a spreadsheet.
So for something to finally float in a galaxy instead of apologising for itself hits - for many - like fresh air in a stuffy room.
"If Star Trek or an Ironman look solves the task - f*ck it, then that's what we're running with."
That seems to be the motto now.
But that's not why it works. It works because a joke that says it is a joke is the exact opposite of a lie that demands to be called true.
So for those who are following along, deeper than the irritation.
The difference here is not about true or false - but about whether you're allowed not to believe in it.
And that is refreshing.
Because we didn't used to have that.
🤓🤷
