Why He Lied

I wanted to pass along some remarks on Glen Loury and John McWhorter’s conversation about Jussie Smollett. For example:

The reason Smollett did this remains a little mysterious, as he still refuses to admit that he fabricated the whole thing. We can only speculate. But the reactions to the assault before it was revealed as a hoax are quite telling. The usual suspects were all too willing to take things at face value and to interpret Smollett’s story as yet another example of American white supremacy run amok. That narrative was ready and waiting—Smollett just had to slip into the victim role. The credulity of Smollett’s supporters wasn’t mere naiveté. It was a political stance, one that requires victims if it’s going to hold steady. In fact, it’s easy to imagine Smollett getting away with the whole thing and ascending to the role of antiracist icon, if only he hadn’t cooked up such an outlandish scenario.

It’s not mysterious at all. The first thing you need to understand is that an actor is an individual who lies for a living. A good actor lies convincingly. A mediocre one less so.

Maybe it’s not true of everyone in the profession but my experience has been that you can’t remain an actor without craving attention. Garbo’s “I vant to be left alone” was an indication that she was through with the acting business. I know people who got out of performance because their relish for being the center of attention either had waned or wasn’t that strong to begin with.

I don’t know whether Mr. Smollett sought more attention from the producers of Empire or just more attention but he certainly decided that concocting a fabulous story would garner him the attention he craved and the media’s prevailing narrative on Trump and Trump supporters gave him the script. There’s nothing like confirming a pundit’s claims to get you the praise of the pundit.

And I found this interesting:

But Glenn, this is the thing. Those people sincerely believe that something like that could happen. They actually think that racism is still so bad—I’m not going to speak for homophobia—but racism is so bad that that story could be plausible. I don’t think they’re acting. And so a lot of what frustrates us, I often say that these people are striking a pose because it’s part of this religion. But I have to understand that, to an extent, they mean it. They actually think that could happen. They think it’s 1950. And I don’t quite know why, except that they sequester logic off when it comes to race. This is where my religious analysis comes from. Kamala Harris, for example. I’m not trying to dog pile on her.

… but how could she believe that

Well, just consider that maybe she didn’t really believe it, but that her response of the sort that she gave, “Oh, poor Jussie, a victim of a modern-day lynching. We’re with you. Solidarity. White supremacy must be stopped,” is a part of the act. It is in itself as much of a pose as was the original …

It must be!

Read the whole thing.