I've been sitting on this post for literally two weeks for two reasons; frankly I'm not sure it's all that newsworthy, and because I really don't have a lot of context or analysis to add to what Deflector's David Roth has said here. Despite this however, I've found myself unable to let it go without sharing the link because not only is Roth absolutely correct about the transformation of modern Republican politics into something akin to the social media influencer business, but he's also hilariously *nailed* the modern reactionary zeitgeist built around Trump to a perfect tee. I guess what I'm saying here is that you should just read the whole fucking article this time, maybe even twice.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240817214408/https://defector.com/men-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown

Men On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

"Both greasy strivers like Rufo and also your more warped and willful elected officials on the right all understand their jobs this way and behave accordingly. If they seem somehow unlike actual people, if they are too big and too mad and too much, it is because they are now full-time content creators, and so actually not quite like actual people at all. They are all pinned into a deteriorating orbit around the dense collapsing star at the center of the conservative universe, but they have committed to at least make their turns around Donald Trump's imperial bulk as loudly as possible. Again, this is the job.

The result of that work is a chunky slurry of gossip and fantasy and rank bigotry blasting from a thousand gilded hydrants at every hour of the day; it amounts to a grim sort of fan service catering to an even grimmer fanbase. This has limited public appeal, just in the sense of not being the sort of thing that most people are interested in hearing about, let alone to the exclusion of any other topic and in the most vexed n' fervid keening imaginable, and that poses an obvious problem for a political party that has entirely given itself over to the making of this kind of noise. The bigger issue, though, is that these imperatives only run in one direction—louder, uglier, more confrontational, further out, more. If the obvious tactical challenge here is that this shit absolutely sucks and most people hate it, the more fundamental one is that the internal incentives are such that it can only ever get worse."

Now to be absolutely clear here, I think it's ultimately important to recognize the political movement we call Trumpism for what it is; an extremely dangerous expression of unchained, violent reaction drawing on the latent historical embrace of white supremacy and fascist ideology nestled inside American political thought. If I didn't think that was important, I wouldn't write about it so damn often.

By that same measure however, there's nothing wrong with occasionally taking a moment to step back and acknowledge that the unhinged cracker weirdos behind this movement are objectively total assclowns running a pathetic grift based entirely on adult temper tantrums and appeasing the whims of a sadistic, self-absorbed fucking moron reality TV show nazi in Donald Trump. The idea that fascists are all hyper-calculating, super-intelligent political scientists executing a meticulous plan for domination is itself fascist propaganda gifted to us by the jerkstore muppet losers who ran the Nazi Party in Germany; it isn't true, and watching the guys trying to get that bag by sucking up to Trump and herding dipshit cracker edgelords for the cause is a far more apt demonstration of how fascist movements actually work, provided to us in real time. The fact that Roth also takes time to let the air out of the inflated ego balloon that is Chris Rufo's weirdly-shaped head, and slap guys like Ron DeSantis and J.D. Vance around a bit is really just icing on the cake here.

All work and no play make Jill a very dull girl; as such, I'd advise you to grab yourself a coke and check out this article. I'm not making any promises, but if you're anything like me you'll laugh, cry, and maybe vomit - but you'll do it while giggling, and that's a prize worth claiming all on its own.

#USPol #Fascism #ChrisRufo #Trump #JDVance #DeSantis #Grift #Humor #DavidRoth

For #davidroth and #defector fans, this is a great write up

https://defector.com/everything-is-silicon-valley-now/