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America’s had a heck of a week. First it saw a presidential debate that ditched ideological duelling for unprecedented low blows. Joe Biden spent more time on higher ground though, which

left him with a 14 point lead in opinion polls. Then President Donald Trump’s Covid diagnosis became public and he was admitted to a military hospital, after which he broke quarantine to

take an SUV drive and wave to supporters, leaving one of the hospital doctors publicly fuming at how people’s lives were being risked for political theatre. In this theatre Trump has spent

months playing fast and loose with Covid facts, which is also why searches for ‘schadenfreude’ have spiked 30,500% after his diagnosis. He has been dissing masks even into the debate. He has

been holding crowded rallies where bhakts showed him love by going maskless. Sober health experts have gotten the short shrift from him. Even now that he is literally in their hands, he

describes lifesaving treatment as “miracles coming down from God”. But however powerful the distortion fields that the politics of spectacle can induce, reality has a tendency of biting

back. In India, after months of police and central agencies turning the film industry inside out, it turns out that nobody murdered Sushant Singh Rajput. And yet, the damage is done. In the

period in which photo-op theatre runs feral at the expense of facts, science and experts, costs mount up. Now optimists are hoping that Trump will parlay his diagnosis into role model

leadership on the pandemic. Pessimists however think that once he gets well again he will double down on how Covid is just like a flu, or how he defeated it bigly. Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Email DISCLAIMER This article is intended to bring a smile to your face. Any connection to events and characters in real life is coincidental. END OF ARTICLE