Monday Music:A Talking Heads Anthem for the Trump Era
‘Facts Are Never What They Seem To Be’
Add another song to the #AgeofTrump #Resist playlist: The Talking Heads, “Crosseyed and Painless."
I’m a journalist, which means I take the collection and presentation of factual information seriously. Basically, facts matter — both because they ground us, tie us to the real world, but also because they provide us with a common sense of ourselves. Autocrats always target facts and the truth, seek to undermine independent thought, because it allows them to present themselves as the arbiter of what is real. Facts are what the autocrat says they are.
This is how Donald Trump operates, how his fascist contemporaries in Russia, Hungary, Israel and elsewhere operate. What they say is what is true, regardless of what you can see with your own eyes.
“To end factuality is to begin eternity,” writes Timothy Snyder. “If citizens doubt everything, they cannot see alternative models” and “cannot carry out sensible discussions about reform” or “trust one another enough to organize for political change.”1
This is the world “Crosseyed and Painless”2 explores, one of fractured identity in a world where facts and truth have lost their provenance.
I push the facts in front of me Facts lost Fa-Facts are never what they seem to be No-no-thing there No information left of any kind Li-lifting my head Lo-lo-looking for the danger signs
The singer is lost, unmoored from any sense of reality. He is “still waiting,” trapped on an “island of doubt.” The song focuses on the fracturing of the individual, but the song anticipates the broader damage.
Facts are simple and facts are straight Facts are lazy and facts are late Facts all come with points of view Facts don't do what I want them to Facts just twist the truth around Facts are living turned inside out Facts are getting the best of them Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts removed from their context, lost to the repetitious assault of media. We are now 45 years later and still reeling from the twisted truths and political fictions.
Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom, Crown, 2023., p. 160.
Talking Heads, “Crosseyed and Painless.” Remain in Light, Warner, 1980.