Trump Is Gross: Taking Political Taste (And Distaste) Seriously

Abstract

This paper advances the somewhat unphilosophical thesis that “Trump is gross” to draw attention to the need to take matters of taste seriously in politics. I begin by exploring the slipperiness of distinctions between aesthetics, epistemology, and ethics, subsequently suggesting that we may need to pivot toward the aesthetic to understand and respond to the historical moment we inhabit. More specifically, I suggest that, in order to understand how Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and in order to stem the damage that preceded this and will ensue from it, we need to understand the power of political taste (and distaste, including disgust) as both a force of resistance and as a force of normalization.

Publication Date

6-1-2017

Publication Title

Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal

Volume

27

Issue

2

Number of Pages

E-23

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2017.0024

Socpus ID

85029887389 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85029887389

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