Cirrus@Austlit

'Early in The Speechwriter, I encounter a scenario where Donald Trump instructs Don Jr to ‘hijack Air Force Two and suicidally steer the plane into Disneyland ... Congress is still split on impeachment.’ As I read it for the first time shortly after Joe Biden’s inauguration—by that point just a month after the storming of the US Capitol by right-wing men dressed in fur and horned helmets, with debate over impeachment raging—I realise that the fictional Don Jr situation doesn’t feel shocking. In a time defined by utter shamelessness, satire has become even more difficult: it’s impossible to reveal the powerful as hypocritical when they proudly promote themselves as grotesque. Worse, their audiences either don’t seem to care or actively love it.' 

 (Introduction)