Category Archives: Politics

The Prisoner, A Conservative Psychiatrist, & Our Dark Times

.

In 1967 star and producer Patrick McGoohan released into the world a surreal allegory of television series The Prisoner about an unnamed espionage agent kidnapped to a secret island called ‘The Village’ with the reason for his sudden resignation of great interest to his captors. A full decade before the brilliant surrealist filmmaker Daid Lynch would burst onto the scene with Eraserhead, The Prisoner would be most people’s introduction to film and television that would later be called Lynchian.

An important aspect to The Village and its totalitarian governance is that dissidents, malcontent, and people who attempted to resist were not labeled criminal but rather sick, mentally unbalanced. after all, no sane person could possibly resent to idyllic life present by the Village.

36 years after the debut of The Prisoner, conservative columnist and former psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer commenting on Democratic politician Howard Dean toying with conspiracy theories that President Bush had been forewarn of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 coined the term ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome,’ mirroring the Village’s policy of treatment dissent and disagreement as mental illness allowing easy dismissal of any and all criticism. Granted, Krauthammer probably meant the term as merely play on words and not at all a serious rebuttal, but the fast adoption of the term and its repeated deployment negates whatever intent the writer had.

A dozen years after Krauthammer introduced mental illness as a dismissal and pejorative for those is disagreement the term ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ entered the political terminology with current events expanding it to include ‘Musk Derangement Syndrome’ to include the wealthiest man alive and the administration hatchment man for regulatory governance.

As this administration proves itself criminal, callous, careless, and cruel the terms ‘TDS’ and “MDS’ are employed more and more. After all, no ‘right thinking’ person could possibly oppose such ‘common sense’ actions such as ignoring the courts, holding due process in contempt, and persecuting ‘enemies of the people’ for their speech.

At the end of the Prisoner’s only season when our unnamed protagonist finally discovers who is ‘Number One’ the person in charge of the Village and all its conformity demanding madness, it is a person who looks precisely like himself. The allegory clear, we all live in the Village. We have put ourselves there, caged by our own conventions and demands for tranquility.

And now in reality we are trapped in a ‘Village’ of our own making. Our wardens insisting that our rejection of an insane, idiotic, and cruel administration proof of our mental illness. I, for one, wear the ‘syndrome’ badge with honor. The truth remains, this is a cruel, criminal and deeply stupid administration and the truly deranged are those who profess that is normal and good.

Share

Tesla Vandalism Is Domestic Terrorism

.

Before I start let me state without qualification or evasion that Elon Musk, unelected and unaccountable, should get the fuck out of our government.

A recent spate of vandalism against Tesla dealerships and charging stations has erupted on the news cycle prompting the President to declare the acts as ‘domestic terrorism’ with promises of persecution. This is turn has caused some corners of the left to insist that it is ‘just vandalism’ and not terrorism.

I would maintain that acts of violence, against people or property with the goal of effecting political change, in this case driving Musk from his position of power, is pretty much the definition of terrorism. It occurred within our national jurisdiction and presumably from American nationals making it thoroughly domestic. Simple logic renders the inescapable conclusion that these acts are indeed ‘domestic terrorism.’

That’s not the real fuck issue.

The real issue is that this administration will in no way or in no manner treat all acts of domestic terrorism equally. The pardoning of the violent insurrectionist who attempted to overthrow a fair, free, and legitimate election is proof of this. Further evidence is the legal action against the man who organized pro-Palestinian protests.

When Trump promises to use law enforcement against some persons but not others, he is employing the fascist credo ‘For my friends, everything; for my enemies the law.’

Share

Fake it Till You Make it

.

The affirmation ‘fake it ’till you make it’ has long been one employed to fight the dreaded ‘impostor syndrome.’ To be a writer with confidence, act like you have that confidence, play the part until it because a reality for you. This applies to nearly all areas of human activity; act the way you want to be, and it will help you become exactly that.

I think there’s a dark mirror-universe version of this effect as well. I think if you want to be that thing you are act is fairly irrelevant. You will tend to become what you pretend to be, even if that was not your original intention.

There’s an activity, principally online, known as ‘owning the libs,’ where people, mostly men, perform in a manner to provoke anger and outrage from liberals and then rejoicing in the fact that you managed to make the outraged. The fact that there’s an entire community of people acting this way is of concern because in my opinion many of them are ‘faking it’, being homophobic racist until they ‘make it’ actually becoming homophobic racists.

Compounding this effect is the presence of actual homophobic racist all too eager to welcome anyone to their ranks. The pressure of conformity within any social group is powerful, humans are social creatures, and those drives are very hard to overcome. Pressure to conform to the hateful community eventually molds those ‘pretending’ into actual adherents.

So, maybe that ‘okay’ hand gesture wasn’t really and truly meant as a white power symbol, and maybe that ‘roman salute’ was just someone throwing their heart to the crowd, but such things a welcomed with great joy by the fascists and racists and positive reinforcement changes people. Sometimes they fake it until it makes them Nazis.

Share

This is Far Worse Than I Expected

.

I have been posting far less political content not because the environment has improved an in any manner but because I had nothing really new to say. My opposition to Trump, Trumpism, and the entire GOP has not changed or slackened in any manner. It is terrifying to see what has become of this nation and I fear terribly for what is yet to come.

That said, the fucked-up nature of what has transpired in the less than six weeks since the fool and narcissist took office is far worse than I had imagined.

Oh, I was pretty sure that idiot would abandon Ukraine. His sympathies are entirely with Putin. He imagines himself as a strong virile and tough man. In his deluded and stupid brain the man thinks he’s like some cinematic mafia boss when the reality is that his fragile ego and limited intelligence make him the plaything and tool of those vile and evil men. The bowing to Putin is hardly surprising, I just thought it would take a little longer.

I also though crashing the economy would take more time. I though the disaster of extending his massive tax giveaway to the world’s richest people would be the anchor that jerked the nation’s economy to a halt but we’re not waiting for such laws. No, we’re in a full-scale trade war with Canada now and already the markets are falling and if this shit goes on we are in for some serious monetary pain the likes of which we have not seen in decades.

I see no way out of this in the next two years. The Supreme Courts abdication of responsibility has locked in gerrymandered districts that assure us that no GOP house member will stand up for the nation, their district, or even their separated powers. Plus, the world’s richest person has already assured them that his vast wealth, growing greater by the day as he and he alone determines what government spending is to be enacted, that he will destroy them should they show the slightest evolution of a spine.

We may be witnessing a new world order coming into being. One that no longer has American’s hand on the helm.

Share

Aesthetics Defines Fascism

.

One of the more tedious debates in popular political discussion is the endless argument about placing fascism on the left or on the right. Both ends of the political spectrum are desperate to have the 20th century’s greatest monsters reside in their opponents family tree rather than their own. As such both sides are immune to actual arguments and logical constructions because it is a requirement of their purity that the ‘truth’ bend to their personal preference and that their ‘side’ remains free of that taint.

Some years ago, I saw the fascinating documentary Architecture of Doom which examined the NAZIs from an artistic point of view instead of a political one. The thesis was that while the party lacked any real coherent political philosophy adopting conflicting positions if that led to real power its aesthetics were fairly consistent. From Hitler on down there was a real obsession with how things looked. A fixation on the ‘high’ art of the past and a hatred of the modern ‘degenerate’ art.

Which brings us to America today and the neo-fascist that have corrupted the Republican party.

This past week Trump dismissed most of the board of the Kennedy Center for the Arts and installed himself as that chairman. When asked about it during the Super Bowl interview one of his comments was “It’s not going to be woke. There’s no more woke in this country.”

Later that day the Super Bowl paused for its massive halftime show led by performs Kendrick Lamar. Apparently, I did not watch the game or performance I was at Disneyland, there were no white performers in the show and there’s been quite a bit of griping about that show. Of course, most people have interpreted the complaints to be principally about racism and they are not far off in that assessment. But a great component of the right’s racism is again an aesthetic issue. These performers don’t look like what these racists think people who are to be admired and coveted should look like.

This applies to the queer and trans communities as well. The neo-fascists know precisely what they think men and women should look like and those who vary from that image are the ‘degeneracy’ that the neo-fascists fear and abhor.

None of this is meant to dismiss or play down the very real legal threats that are multiplying like tribbles in our government today. The flood of illegal actions, dismissals, and seizure of power is a very real threat to our system of government. These must be fought. We are under assault from every quarter and the artistic is a vital one not merely a sideshow.

Share

When You Join a Group, the Group Changes You

.

Among my political reading and podcasts are former Republicans who have walked away from their party since the rise of Trump. It has been fascinating to see what changes has taken place in their worldview as they now think write, and debate outside of the borders of what had once been their ideological home. Particularly interesting is their view back at their colleagues and friends and former friends that remained ‘good’ Republicans and have drifted more and more into mindsets that these formers have a hard time comprehending.

Here is a fallacy many people believe; that people choose a political party based on how much that party matches with their own internal set of beliefs and policies. That’s not how it works. What happens is there are one or two really important issues for the person, and they gravitate to the party to matches those very limited concerns. It may be right for an under representative group, it may be a specific thing like abortion or guns, or it can be more nebulous like ‘traditional mores’ but it’s mostly a very limited set of things. Then once the person is in the party, in the social grouping, theybegin to change their beliefs and attitudes to match the larger group. These ‘minor’ issues aren’t what brought them there, but they adopt them just the same. Humans are social animals, and it is our evolved nature to conform to the society we wish to belong to.

What has happened with the Republican Party under Trump is a similar sequence except instead of joining a clique the clique changed and the people who remained in it changed to stay accepted members. It is not a conscious and intended act these changes; it happens below the level on intention action. The person makes slight, minor alterations to their speech, their actions, and eventually to their thoughts.

These people who stayed with their party for whatever reason that they found compelling were buffeted by the new changed GOP and it’s ideology and standards. Some left the dissonance between their image of themselves and the party to great to bridge but many stayed. They stayed and convinced themselves that they hadn’t really changed, not had their goals, only the tools and methods had changed. Like Saruman they didn’t and don’t think of themselves are being in the wrong, only bending to necessity. But as time drags on and the process is never ending like water eroding away a mountain the results are inevitable. They become the thing that they said they stood against without any defining moment save the first that one can point to as when it flipped. It’s that first moment, that second when you decide to do something that is wrong, but you have argued yourself that it’s really for the best that is the fall.

Share

Derangement Syndrome

.

During the administration of G.W. Bush the columnist and for practicing mental health provider Charles Krauthammer deployed in one of his columns that he had discovered a new disorder ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome.’ This semi-satirical comment was quickly picked up by allies of the administration and hurled at every criticism of G.W. Bush. All the critiques held no merit because all the critics were ‘deranged.’ Like becomes so much easier when you can dismiss all who criticize you with a blanket and undefined mental illness.

When the administration ended such a valuable rhetorical tool could not be abandoned and so now those who stand in opposition to Trump have Trump Derangement System, and those who have issues with Musk have Musk Derangement Syndrome. It is truly the hammer that the right employs against every single person that doesn’t agree with them and thus becomes nails to struck.

The irony of this is that in that original column Krauthammer invented this imaginary in response to a leading Democrat, Howard Dean, leaving open the possibility of Bush having been forewarned of the 9-11 attacks. Krauthammer invented ‘derangement syndrome’ because of a prominent political operative engaging in a hair-brained conspiracy theory and now that slur is used for people who refuse to accept hair-brained conspiracy theories.

If standing opposed to someone who tried to overthrow a free and fair election makes me ‘deranged’, so be it.

If standing opposed to someone who knew that the coming pandemic represented a serious and lethal threat to the nation but then lied to the people as to the danger makes me deranged, so be it.

If standing opposed to someone who used vital military aid for a free country under threat of invasion for his own political gain makes me deranged, so be it.

If standing for the science of vaccines and the immeasurable good that they have produced against a man who would appoint idiots to manage our public health makes me deranged, so be it.

Share

Magneto, Musk, & Masked Villainy

.

Villains and heroes often present themselves as saviors of the people making it sometimes difficult to know which is which.

In the first X-Men movies, Magneto, a survivor of the holocaust perceiving a new reign of mass murder of his people, this time those with mutant abilities rather than Jewish heredity, embarks on a scheme to save his people. At a gathering of world leaders, he will deploy a device powered by his own nutant talents to transform those world leaders into mutants. The device exacts a terrible price and using it would cost Magento his life. Instead, he kidnaps a young girl and will transfer his abilities, temporarily, to her and use her to power the device, sacrificing her life for his goal. And as the character Wolverine spits out at him, “You’re so fulla shit. If you were really so righteous, it’d be you in that thing.”

There’s one way to differentiate the villains from the heroes, the willingness to pay a price versus compelling others to sacrifice.

In the final weeks of the presidential campaign Trump ally Elon Musk said in a telephone town hall that in order to get the nation’s economic house in order “We have to reduce spending to live within our means. And that necessarily involves some temporary hardship…”

It is notable that none of the proposals from the incoming administration or put forth by Musk have the slightest pain that would be inflicted upon himself or his class of billionaires. Quite the opposite. Their tax cuts would be extended and expanded and their businesses freed from damaging the environments or responsibilities to their work force. All of the pain, the actual sacrifices, would be born by others at the command of those not only paying no price but profiting from the process.

I leave it to you to determine who is being villainous here.

Share

Trump and the Cardinal Virtues

.

At a recent event hosted by Univision Kamala Harris was asked if she could list three virtues of her political rival Donald Trum. Like Hillary Clinton before her this question stumped her with Harris only managing to pay some services to Trump by saying she believed that he loved his family, a safe statement that would enrage no one.

The story got me thinking, what if we matched the seven cardinal virtues with Trump? Would we be surprised by any of the answers? Each virtue traditionally has a corresponding vice, so for each I think the test is which better fits the know personality and action of Trump, the virtue or the vice?

Chastity/Lust

Well, this one’s pretty much on the vice side. A man who has been adjudicated in court of sexual assault, criminally convicted for covering up sexual affairs, and who boasts his personal Vietnam was not getting an STI. This virtue cannot be listed as one of his.

Faith/Idolatry

Again, there is no question. He sells bibles but displays them proudly upside down while calling for violence the man has shown no interest in faith and not only idolizes himself but expects others to do so. This virtue too cannot apply.

Good Works/Avarice

There are no good works that can reasonably assigned to Trump and his lust for money may very well exceed his lust for flesh. Even when it came to his own protection detail, he charged the government for freight for his expensive hotels unwilling to lose a single dime. Avarice it is.

Concord/Discord

It is a virtue to have an agreeable nature and a sin to be pointlessly disagreeable. Again, Trump nature makes this an easy call. A man known for his screaming and demanding nature while expecting subservience from everyone else can hardly be called ‘agreeable.’

Patience/Wrath

His anger at even the slightest perception of an insult is well known. Trump routinely calls for violence and harm upon those who he perceives as enemies, without every showing the slightest ability to forgive or even delay his own gratification. Wrath wins.

Humility/Pride

Well, a man who slaps his name is giant letters on everything he can and who has never ever admitted error, and who cannot, in his mind, ever lose only be cheated raised Pride to levels rarely seen.

Six virtues so far and not one can be credibly associated with Trump. Is this going to be a clean sweep?

Sobriety/Indulgence

Here’s one we can actually give to Trump. He is sober. The loss of his older brother to alcoholism apparently affected him deeply and he is known to be a non-drinker and non-intoxicating drug used.

1 out of 7, clearly a failing grade.

Share

Vance’s Idiotic ‘Solution’ to School Shootings

.

On the subject of School shootings Senator Vance advocating for ‘hardening’ of the targets as the preferred solution saying, ‘But I unfortunately think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger.’

This is sheer pedantic word play. For one thing the Senator is far too bright to not know that the money simply doesn’t exist to harden every forking school and pre-school in America.

Set that aside, though. Say we could wave a magic wand and instantly fortify every school like a well defended hardpoint on the battle line. Does that actually solve the problem? Does the would be shooter, now denied the school as a target, just lay down his arms and assume the post of a responsible peaceful citizen?

Of course not.

The shooter driven by rage that has been fueled by agony moves to a softer target. Perhaps a park, or a supermarket, or a shopping center, or a sport game. Or even just a forking busy street out in the open. The school isn’t shot up but someplace else is. Then what? Harden that next target, and then the next and the next until all of America is locked-down self-imposed prison calling itself the land of the free?

The truth of the matter is that Vance proposed no solution, and he knew he proposed nothing. He wanted to cast the illusion of someone that cared while maintaining for his base that solid commitment that no amount of a slaughtered children or people would ever justify even the slightest impediment to their hobby.

Share