REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Jared Meunier, "Sharp Power and the Enjoyment of Crisis: The Mueller Report as Simulated Justice"

This talk examines how sharp power operates not by changing voters' minds, but by exploiting the affective and symbolic structure of liberal democratic media systems. Using the Mueller Report as a case study, the talk explores how truth-producing institutions use procedural transparency while deferring political closure, which intensifies polarization rather than restoring legitimacy.

The talk suggests that sharp power succeeds by parasitizing these conditions by extending existing modes of political attachment and enjoyment. Jared Meunier is a second-year MA student in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center.

His work combines language study, visual methods, and critical theory to examine how autocratic influence operates through affective, symbolic, and media-based strategies. His research focuses on sharp power, political enjoyment, and liberal democratic politics.