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Mass authentic – The New Inquiry

thenewinquiry.com · 1,382 words · saved by 1 readers

Authenticity is internal to consumer culture, not the remnants of what preceded it.

The tenacity of "authenticity" as an ideological talisman — as a motive force and a post hoc explanation for actions, as an all-purpose aspiration and excuse — stems from how it posits what it purports to merely describe. It seems to denote "genuineness," like it were simply a rhetorical equals sign, but in practice it does the opposite; it is always used to call the inherent fact of what is into question, to cast doubt over what people are doing and posit "truer" alternatives. But these alternatives are fictions, not revealed inner truths; they are speculations seeking substantiation at the e

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