The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

But most adults in the country did not fully believe her (or they did, but didn’t care). Was that sexism? Yes. Was it an early example of that perplexing nineties paradox where institutions were viewed cynically while institutional figures were believed? Probably. But it was also the power of television to shape rationality through irrational means. Anything experienced through the screen of a television becomes a TV show. Forty years of network programming had trained people to associate the performance of emotion with the essentialism of truth, and Thomas had been much more emotional than Hill. He seemed angry, sad, confused, and uncompromising. She just made a good argument, which—on television—is never enough.