Cover of Going Low

Going Low

How Profane Politics Challenges American Democracy

Sample

Get 30 days of Standard free

€5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for €0.00
More purchase options

Going Low

By: Finbarr Curtis
Narrated by: Adam Barr
Try for €0.00

€5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for €15.48

Buy Now for €15.48

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.

Liberalism puts its trust in civil discourse and rational argument. Today, its opponents enthusiastically flout these norms, making a show of defying so-called political correctness. In the Trump era and beyond, right-wing figures delight in sheer offensiveness. What is at stake in breaking the rules of civility to "own the libs"?

Going Low examines how the offensive style of contemporary politics challenges liberal democratic institutions. Considering the rise of illiberal politics and debates about the limits of free speech, Finbarr Curtis draws on the insights of religious studies to rethink provocation and transgression. He argues that the spectacle of brazenly violating taboos is a show of dominance over a supposedly censorious liberalism. Profaning liberal pieties is the ultimate form of "winning." Curtis contends that deliberate offensiveness dovetails with the privatization of public goods: both represent the refusal to accommodate the sensibilities of others in a diverse society.

©2022 Columbia University Press (P)2022 Tantor
Ideologies & Doctrines Politics & Government Religious Studies World
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet