With Trump, unfortunately, we have to re-litigate a whole set of issues, which previously were taken to be uncontroversial. Things we thought were CORE VALUES are now BARGAINING CHIPS.
He presents us with questions we thought were off the table:
Why not untruth?
Why not tyranny?
Why not cruelty?
Why not power in the place of right?
He is a philosophical alien (though not altogether alone in this). A sociopath, you could say.
And, yet, here we are.
Why not Gulf of America?
Why not 51 states?
Why not drink bleach?
We’re in the hands of an imbecile and infant.
@xankarn Everything you say here is true. Yet, it would be a mistake to make it all about Drumpf, and not only because that's exactly what that narcissistic dildo skin wants you to do.
He isn't the reason any of those questions are being posed. He is a huge orange mouthpiece for a significant chunk of the population (more than half, if a major recent poll is to be believed) who are so alienated by the endemic corruption of mainstream politics, they're asking those questions.
Fully agree.
I sometimes let myself be pulled too easily into his orbit of violent stupidity.
There’s lots to say also about larger cultural and political trends of which he is merely an emblem.
It’s not all about Trump, as you say, but his abuses of power and pathologies reverberate more than most.
@xankarn
> It’s not all about Trump, as you say, but his abuses of power and pathologies reverberate more than most
You know the old saying about the straw that broke the camel's back? He's that straw.
He wouldn't be able to get away with any of what he's doing if the Master Planners hadn't successfully compromised your major democratic institutions; local and federal houses of representatives, the public service, the courts, the news media, cultural criticism, etc.
Thanks for this.
@tzimmer_history has a good post this week about how to calibrate our crazy Trump shit alarms.
Let’s not oxygenate every Trump outrage, he says, instead ask 3 questions:
1. Who’s likely to be hurt?
2. Can this really happen/work?
3. What can we learn about American authoritarianism?
More (and clearer) here:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/navigating-the-nonsense-and-propaganda
(1/?)
@xankarn
> 1. Who’s likely to be hurt?
> 2. Can this really happen/work?
> 3. What can we learn about American authoritarianism?
These are great questions to ask!
I would add that you then make any messaging you do put out, from personal social media posts to political campaigns, about the negation of the Drumpf outrage - based on the answers to the questions above - without ever addressing him directly or even mentioning him.
(2/?)
I'm a big nerd, so I'm going to give an example of what I mean, using Star Wars.
First the authoritarian outrage.
Darth Vader: I'm going to destroy planets with my giant space station!
(3/?)
Answers to those questions:
1) Who’s likely to be hurt?
Everyone who lives on those planets, and people who care about them.
2) Can this really happen/work?
We didn't think so, but Aldaraan isn't there any more, and some old guy says there was a huge disturbance in The Force, so ...
3) What can we learn about Galactic authoritarianism?
It likes to build weapons of mass destruction, the bigger the better. It's a bad idea to let them, if you like your planets in one piece.
(4/4)
How to negate this without blowing air into Darth Vader's ego balloon?
Our posts with hashtag #SavePlanets, could say stuff like;
"It takes a whole society to fund a Death Star, and huge cooperation by workers to put one together. We can make better use of our social resources than weapons of mass destruction, and better use of our planets than being blown up by them. If we put the economy under democratic control, many less exploding planets will disturb the Force, we can do it!"
"Trust me, I do not need to be reminded who and what Trump is. But it is not just about him. He would need compliance and active complicity from a lot of people and institutions who are under no legal or constitutional obligation to follow his orders. Being lawless does not make Trump omnipotent – and obscuring that distinction is an act of defeatism that only serves the regime. "
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/navigating-the-nonsense-and-propaganda
Lots of insightful stuff in this piece by @tzimmer_history.
I'm reminded of English comedian Rob Newman's History of Oil, the bit about Tony Blair being a war criminal, and why that's technically true. But how the news media commentariat think it's rediculous, like comparing UK Labour to the Nazis, like comparing Blair to Goebbels.
"Ah", Rob says, "but what did Goebbels look like to the Germans?"
Then he does his Blair impression, in a Nazi uniform, with a Goebbels haircut. Gold.
Me:
> I'm reminded of English comedian Rob Newman's History of Oil,
For anyone who hasn't seen this yet, you are missing out! Even if you totally disagree with the green anarchist politics, he's a fantastic performer and this is so much fun;
@xankarn @strypey @tzimmer_history
Worth reading and definitely a different way of thinking about Trump worth being considered.
Alexander Karn
Strypey
Toni M.