ABSTRACT
News about fake news is fake news. It is a maneuver by media pundits and political operatives to distract the public from the very real fake history that they are peddling. Corporate and government power continually make feeble attempts to obscure facts and distract the public from the very real conditions of inequality, racism, and war. Under the real conditions of unequal access to communication, rhetorical constructions by government officials are almost universally distributed over the airwaves, by the daily press, and even on social media. Rhetorical appeals are needed that can organize actions for social justice, yet argument, discussion, and even investigations cannot occur freely in the contemporary world capitalism order. The rhetorical effect of antifa bravado echoes superhero movies that counsel citizen inaction and reliance on individual heroes. Most theoreticians and practitioners of rhetoric and social activism accept that rhetoric is a “rationale of instrumental and symbolic action” crucial for initiating and motivating human action.
