On October 26, Dr. Atilla Hallsby will deliver a Rhetoric Unbound lecture. Dr. Hallsby’s talk, entitled “Twisted Endings: From the Secret Report to the Deep State,” will take place at 8.00 p.m. Eastern. The lecture will last 30 minutes and will be followed by discussion.
Lecture Description
Drawing on material excised from Sovereign, Settler, Leaker, Lie (Ohio State University Press, forthcoming 2026), this presentation argues that the secret is a dynamic and rhetorical interplay of absence and desire. Whereas the book addresses the rhetorical form of scandals, dogwhistles, national security leaks, and settler-detective narratives, this talk focuses on the connection between the Moynihan Report (1965), the Pentagon Papers (1971), the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture (2014), and “the deep state.” The connection between these texts is encapsulated in two principles: (1) there is always a “beyond” to the secret, or that hidden meanings come to light through the restoration of rhetorical context, and (2) the secret is that there is no secret, or that much of what is concealed is a going-through-the-motions that repeats a similar form across many, temporally distant, instances. I critique the appropriation and dilution of appeals to transparency in contemporary political discourse, particularly in reference to conspiracy theories like the “deep state.” Such theories do not just distort public perceptions by fostering mistrust while masquerading as revelations; they underscore the necessity of discerning the secret’s form and function, a continuous thread that stretches from Daniel Patrick Moynihan to Donald Trump.
Register for Dr. Hallsby’s Lecture
To register for Dr. Hallsby’s lecture, click here.
Rhetoric Unbound 