ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the hermeneutics of suspicion, a mode of interpretation rooted in post-Enlightenment philosophies that started to subject the idea of reason, or consciousness itself, iṇto critical inquiry. It holds that meaning is distorted and the task of the interpreter is to unmask, demystify, and reduce illusions. The chapter traces this particular mode of hermeneutics from the “masters of suspicion,” Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche, to the symptomatic readings of Jameson and Althusser, to poststructuralist thought. We argue that today, this mode of interpretation has given rise to paranoid reading practices that are widespread beyond academia. Academics, traditional news outlets, and bureaucratic news sources alike are faced with an erosion of trust from the public. After outlining the history of this way of thinking and how it manifests itself today, we offer an exemplary, digital-hermeneutic reading of distrust in toxic depression memes.
