This is an article that I think H.L. Mencken would admire. You have so aptly described the craven monstrosities that are trying to take over our government, the media, and our world.
It reminds me of a discussion I got into with some dummkopf here on Substack. They were carping on about how Democrats shouldn't be calling for political violence. I pointed out to them that none had, yet there were plenty of Republicans who were saying a slew of heinous things that could be construed as inciting violence. The person refused to see this. Worse yet, they were so drilled into their echo-chamber confirmation bias, that they couldn't tell fact from fiction, truth from lies.
This points to the crux of the problem with the Trump Cult: they don't know how to divine the truth of a matter. We've reached a technological point where people are so lazy, as to mindlessly doom scroll the social media distraction machine, view the abysmal TV news, listen to fact free podcasts, and blindly take it all as Truth. I sense Marshall McLuhan would equally amused and horrified by this.
The Cult doesn't grasp that truth isn't arrived at so simply. It takes time and the consideration of multiple sources, discussions, and empirical observation, on which your article does and excellent job.
But sadly we live in a world filled with people whose attention spans, and memories, are getting shorter and shorter. They don't read book or magazines, and according to the latest Google trends data, they also listen to less music and watch fewer movies. Instead they're sucked into the time wasting apps created Tech Bros Billionaires. This is creating legions of serfs ready to accept whatever autocratic 1984, Soylent Green, Mad Max future they have planned for us.
As Hunter S. Thompson warned, the generation of swine is upon us, and don't let them get a smell of blood.
Huh. I know we are not Facefriends,, so I have the pleasure of copypasting what I posted Friday morning after arguing with two (arguably) paid Russian trolls on the Tom Dispatch thread. You know, How Democracy Works Today.
"It's clear that the US is very susceptible to suggestion, the way some people are susceptible to pollen in spring. This gives the wrong people--those willing to lie for political power--an advantage. Profit-driven social media provides them a virtually free mechanism by which to amplify themselves, and I think the "regular" media has decided to play the same game by taking its editorial cues from what's trending in the lucrative torrent of nonsense. And so here we are.
The acute crisis has been triggered by Putin's campaign to install Trump. And if the Republicans win, Putin wins: I have no doubt about it. Can we sue Putin for peace, for our own sake? No. It wouldn't matter, because at this point the body politic is in an auto-immune spiral.
In this metaphor, the Punditocracy is a set of mad white blood cells, attacking the brain of the body politic. All of you OpEd writers out there (you know who you are, you've made deadline by performatively worrying about Biden's mental acuity) have been expertly played."
You are absolutely right. Putin's revenge on the USA has been creating the same "desert of the real," in Zizek's term, here. "Everything is possible and nothing is true."
I would not presume to comment at length because this is definitely not my area. But I did have a few stray thoughts to add to the conversation.
The first is, I agree it is very fishy, but every assassination can't be in a conspiracy. Or maybe it can be. Maybe that's just the nature of assassination.
My second, is, and I know I am not the only one thinking this, how come the assassins always seem to miss when they're shooting at the bad guys, but never when they shoot at the good guys? See the comment above.
And finally, I'm hard-pressed to see how talking to our neighbors about the election would do any good at all. Everybody who's going to vote has long since made up their mind and anybody who hasn't made up their mind, I'm not sure how I would even begin to talk to them because if you haven't made up your mind about this..... As for the MAGA people, as several people in the comments have already pointed out, there is no point. A neighborly conversation is not going to help with that. That's a cult at this point and that requires a specialized deprogramming techniques that most of us, self included, do not have. (I say this by the way, living just on the edge between red and blue. Hillary won my precinct in Maine by one vote in 2016. Biden won by 250 votes in 2020. I expect that margin will stay the same.)
I think the calls for everyone to get involved are reflexive and habitual, but probably not applicable in this situation. I think all we can do is vote and see what happens.
Sorry, Faith, I fat-fingered my reply. As people do read these comments, and you commented in reply, let me see if I can reconstruct it.
First, protection is a well-known science, as well-known as, say, commercial flying. Just as when a door flies off a plane, an attempted assassination is something very very necessary to investigate. And when a plane crashes--a successful assassination--that goes double. Yet in our culture, all the forces of authority, the government and the press, suggest that our bias should be the other direction, that "things just happen." That's like saying, "Doors just fly off airplanes." They don't. They require negligance, systemic failure, and sometimes, nefarious intent.
Second, the distribution of successful skullduggery can be explained by the presence of one group within the political spectrum that 1) approves of skullduggery, and minimizes when its traces are found; 2) has a long track record of successful psyops (the October Surprise, for example, is definitionally an operation to create a psychological impression in a population); 3) may feel it NEEDS to fiddle elections in order to survive, and may be correct; 4) has a candidate who is manipulable, immature, and obsessed with appearing heroic; 5) is snuggled up to probably the world's most experienced psyop outfit ; and 6) has a willing distribution network for any story it creates. All this should make us very skeptical about ANYTHING relating to Donald Trump.
This skepticism should be modeled by law enforcement, the Dems, and the press. None of these groups show this skepticism, so it falls to individuals to do the hard unpleasant psychological work. This causes strain. So you engage with people IRL to feel in control, and that "real life" still exists. The neighbor watching Fox News is himself deeply in the wilderness of mirrors, and should be avoided. (Likewise, the neighbor who believes everything is a conspiracy. But, y'know, getting a Steakburger at Steak n Shake is the result of a conspiracy. Very little happens without groups of people working towards a goal; and very little is simple. it's all a question of judgment.)
This isn't as good as the earlier reply, sorry everybody. Be skeptical and stay sane, is what I'm saying. :-)
I get that, and thank you for taking the time to step through it further. I agree this doesn't pass the sniff test, although I know almost nothing about what happened because I wasn't interested in letting the details into my life.
I will say this -- that photo inspired *me* and I know what he is. So I can only imagine the effect it has on those who don't know what he is.
I need to stay on my neighbor's good side. He saw a video on youtube about how to build a perpetual motion machine, and when he's got it going (as he assures me will happen any day now, I'm going to want some of that unlimited free 'lectricity.)
well, if that's their evil plan, they're going to continue to win on that point with me because I'm definitely a happier, healthier person with a news blackout. The big stuff filters through, that's enough for me!
Absolutely. I was not suggesting that you were arguing that every assassination is a conspiracy theory. I was just saying that whenever something like this happens, there's always a sense that there's more to it and that can't always be the case. It wasn't specifically about your piece. It was more about the situation.
I agree. It's dodgy as hell. As a photographer, I'm impressed with that photo, I have to say. It's stunning by any measure.
As for my neighbors, well I don't talk to them about anything so I'm not going to talk to them about politics either. Especially not my neighbor who watches Fox News in his underwear and collects assault weapons. I don't think that conversation would go well. Nice guy though. Loves his cat.
Diabolism cannot be ruled out. Trump's infernal luck on July 13--a day that will be earmarked in infamy, the War of Jenkins' Ear except it's our turn--has Satan's smoking hoofprints all over it. Listen, I'm a rational man but then something happens that makes you think Vincent Price is going to walk into the room wearing a tux and an ambassador's sash. In my great horror and sorrow at the Trump adventure, I keep returning to this clip from Bresson's The Devil, Probably, where the great ponderer helps himself to a famous seat-rattler, Val Lewton's "Bus" created for the 1940s film The Cat People. Could it be...Satan?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rXtuuUpBe0
This is an article that I think H.L. Mencken would admire. You have so aptly described the craven monstrosities that are trying to take over our government, the media, and our world.
It reminds me of a discussion I got into with some dummkopf here on Substack. They were carping on about how Democrats shouldn't be calling for political violence. I pointed out to them that none had, yet there were plenty of Republicans who were saying a slew of heinous things that could be construed as inciting violence. The person refused to see this. Worse yet, they were so drilled into their echo-chamber confirmation bias, that they couldn't tell fact from fiction, truth from lies.
This points to the crux of the problem with the Trump Cult: they don't know how to divine the truth of a matter. We've reached a technological point where people are so lazy, as to mindlessly doom scroll the social media distraction machine, view the abysmal TV news, listen to fact free podcasts, and blindly take it all as Truth. I sense Marshall McLuhan would equally amused and horrified by this.
The Cult doesn't grasp that truth isn't arrived at so simply. It takes time and the consideration of multiple sources, discussions, and empirical observation, on which your article does and excellent job.
But sadly we live in a world filled with people whose attention spans, and memories, are getting shorter and shorter. They don't read book or magazines, and according to the latest Google trends data, they also listen to less music and watch fewer movies. Instead they're sucked into the time wasting apps created Tech Bros Billionaires. This is creating legions of serfs ready to accept whatever autocratic 1984, Soylent Green, Mad Max future they have planned for us.
As Hunter S. Thompson warned, the generation of swine is upon us, and don't let them get a smell of blood.
Ed any reply that namechecks both Mencken AND Hunter Thompson is right on in my book. So glad it pleased; I sweated it to get it right.
Mike, you have outdone yourself. Take me to your lieder.
Huh. I know we are not Facefriends,, so I have the pleasure of copypasting what I posted Friday morning after arguing with two (arguably) paid Russian trolls on the Tom Dispatch thread. You know, How Democracy Works Today.
"It's clear that the US is very susceptible to suggestion, the way some people are susceptible to pollen in spring. This gives the wrong people--those willing to lie for political power--an advantage. Profit-driven social media provides them a virtually free mechanism by which to amplify themselves, and I think the "regular" media has decided to play the same game by taking its editorial cues from what's trending in the lucrative torrent of nonsense. And so here we are.
The acute crisis has been triggered by Putin's campaign to install Trump. And if the Republicans win, Putin wins: I have no doubt about it. Can we sue Putin for peace, for our own sake? No. It wouldn't matter, because at this point the body politic is in an auto-immune spiral.
In this metaphor, the Punditocracy is a set of mad white blood cells, attacking the brain of the body politic. All of you OpEd writers out there (you know who you are, you've made deadline by performatively worrying about Biden's mental acuity) have been expertly played."
You are absolutely right. Putin's revenge on the USA has been creating the same "desert of the real," in Zizek's term, here. "Everything is possible and nothing is true."
I would not presume to comment at length because this is definitely not my area. But I did have a few stray thoughts to add to the conversation.
The first is, I agree it is very fishy, but every assassination can't be in a conspiracy. Or maybe it can be. Maybe that's just the nature of assassination.
My second, is, and I know I am not the only one thinking this, how come the assassins always seem to miss when they're shooting at the bad guys, but never when they shoot at the good guys? See the comment above.
And finally, I'm hard-pressed to see how talking to our neighbors about the election would do any good at all. Everybody who's going to vote has long since made up their mind and anybody who hasn't made up their mind, I'm not sure how I would even begin to talk to them because if you haven't made up your mind about this..... As for the MAGA people, as several people in the comments have already pointed out, there is no point. A neighborly conversation is not going to help with that. That's a cult at this point and that requires a specialized deprogramming techniques that most of us, self included, do not have. (I say this by the way, living just on the edge between red and blue. Hillary won my precinct in Maine by one vote in 2016. Biden won by 250 votes in 2020. I expect that margin will stay the same.)
I think the calls for everyone to get involved are reflexive and habitual, but probably not applicable in this situation. I think all we can do is vote and see what happens.
Sorry, Faith, I fat-fingered my reply. As people do read these comments, and you commented in reply, let me see if I can reconstruct it.
First, protection is a well-known science, as well-known as, say, commercial flying. Just as when a door flies off a plane, an attempted assassination is something very very necessary to investigate. And when a plane crashes--a successful assassination--that goes double. Yet in our culture, all the forces of authority, the government and the press, suggest that our bias should be the other direction, that "things just happen." That's like saying, "Doors just fly off airplanes." They don't. They require negligance, systemic failure, and sometimes, nefarious intent.
Second, the distribution of successful skullduggery can be explained by the presence of one group within the political spectrum that 1) approves of skullduggery, and minimizes when its traces are found; 2) has a long track record of successful psyops (the October Surprise, for example, is definitionally an operation to create a psychological impression in a population); 3) may feel it NEEDS to fiddle elections in order to survive, and may be correct; 4) has a candidate who is manipulable, immature, and obsessed with appearing heroic; 5) is snuggled up to probably the world's most experienced psyop outfit ; and 6) has a willing distribution network for any story it creates. All this should make us very skeptical about ANYTHING relating to Donald Trump.
This skepticism should be modeled by law enforcement, the Dems, and the press. None of these groups show this skepticism, so it falls to individuals to do the hard unpleasant psychological work. This causes strain. So you engage with people IRL to feel in control, and that "real life" still exists. The neighbor watching Fox News is himself deeply in the wilderness of mirrors, and should be avoided. (Likewise, the neighbor who believes everything is a conspiracy. But, y'know, getting a Steakburger at Steak n Shake is the result of a conspiracy. Very little happens without groups of people working towards a goal; and very little is simple. it's all a question of judgment.)
This isn't as good as the earlier reply, sorry everybody. Be skeptical and stay sane, is what I'm saying. :-)
I get that, and thank you for taking the time to step through it further. I agree this doesn't pass the sniff test, although I know almost nothing about what happened because I wasn't interested in letting the details into my life.
I will say this -- that photo inspired *me* and I know what he is. So I can only imagine the effect it has on those who don't know what he is.
I need to stay on my neighbor's good side. He saw a video on youtube about how to build a perpetual motion machine, and when he's got it going (as he assures me will happen any day now, I'm going to want some of that unlimited free 'lectricity.)
Agreed about the photo. It’s striking.
The cultivation of fatigue/overwhelm so that populations disengage is a hallmark, perhaps THE hallmark, of authoritarian spy services.
well, if that's their evil plan, they're going to continue to win on that point with me because I'm definitely a happier, healthier person with a news blackout. The big stuff filters through, that's enough for me!
Many many people do this, myself included, and I think it's wise.
Absolutely. I was not suggesting that you were arguing that every assassination is a conspiracy theory. I was just saying that whenever something like this happens, there's always a sense that there's more to it and that can't always be the case. It wasn't specifically about your piece. It was more about the situation.
I agree. It's dodgy as hell. As a photographer, I'm impressed with that photo, I have to say. It's stunning by any measure.
As for my neighbors, well I don't talk to them about anything so I'm not going to talk to them about politics either. Especially not my neighbor who watches Fox News in his underwear and collects assault weapons. I don't think that conversation would go well. Nice guy though. Loves his cat.
Diabolism cannot be ruled out. Trump's infernal luck on July 13--a day that will be earmarked in infamy, the War of Jenkins' Ear except it's our turn--has Satan's smoking hoofprints all over it. Listen, I'm a rational man but then something happens that makes you think Vincent Price is going to walk into the room wearing a tux and an ambassador's sash. In my great horror and sorrow at the Trump adventure, I keep returning to this clip from Bresson's The Devil, Probably, where the great ponderer helps himself to a famous seat-rattler, Val Lewton's "Bus" created for the 1940s film The Cat People. Could it be...Satan?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rXtuuUpBe0
I was a Political Science major who never anticipated that politics itself would turn me into the Simpsons’ incredulous Frank Grimes.