The Latter Days of a Better Nation, Part VI

“They want to be the agents, not the victims, of history. They identify with God's power and believe they are godlike. That is their basic madness. They are overcome by some archetype; their egos have expanded psychotically so that they cannot tell where they begin and the godhead leaves off. It is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate confusion between him who worships and that which is worshipped. Man has not eaten God; God has eaten man.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle

 

Nothing like this has ever happened before!

"Just found out that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ secretly attacked my Twitter account..."

The President of the United States secretly attacked my social media account. 

Attacked. 

My Twitter. 

Note Trump doesn't bother to explain what he means by "attacked" or how he found out and who told him.

Note also Trump doesn't actually use his personal Twitter account, even though it's supposedly been restored by Twitter's new owner, so how exactly this alleged secret attack affects him in any fashion or in any way infringes on his campaign is left as an exercise for the reader. (It also brings up a fascinating implication that Twitter -- a privately held social media company in the hands of a foreign born billionaire infamous for irrational statements and actions and a self-professed hard conservative bent -- has direct influence on American democracy and if that is indeed the case then perhaps social media should be subject to strict government regulation and oversight, but I digress). 

Note that if Trump is talking about the account he used during his presidency, that by definition is public information, intellectual (sorry) property of the US government, and physically in possession of one Elon Musk, available to not only all Americans but the entire world. And he's the one who posted it for all to see, Donald Trump. Nobody else. And we're going to come back to that. 

Note also Trump's First Amendment rights seem to be fully intact -- and in point of fact, that man never shuts the hell up. He's been given an undeserved platform on every social media site (and he literally owns one) and every news channel and every pundit is lined up ten deep to interview him for free and broadcast his insanity to the world. There isn't a late night show or a political rally that wouldn't have him on board at the last moment. The First Amendment grants Trump the right to spew his bile and conspiracy and madness, but no one has to listen to him or give him a platform. 

And finally, if you're still unclear as to what a Begging the Question Logical Fallacy actually is, "Did Deranged Jack Smith tell the Unselects to DESTROY & DELETE all evidence?" is a textbook example. 

But, thus is the world we live in now, this bizarre construct of Reality TV. 

It's not Joe Biden. 

It's not Hunter Biden.

It's not Democrats. 

It's not the DoJ. It's not Merrick Garland and it's not Jack Smith.  

It's not some grand conspiracy led by Hillary Clinton and the Illuminati with a candlestick in the basement drawing room of a Washington DC pizza parlor. 

It's Donald J. Trump. 

It's all Donald J. Trump and no one else. 

Trump abused his office and he bragged about it. 

Trump broke election law in multiple states and he tried to do it in others and he boasted about his fraud on live TV and swore he'd do it again. 

Trump led a violent insurrection against the United States of America and he's proud of it. He could have stopped it -- and his staff and political party begged him to do so -- and he vehemently refused, and he did so on record. He committed sedition and treason right out in the open and is unashamed and determined to do it again. 

Trump violated every standard of morality, ethics, and the values of his position and he pissed on his oath of office every single day and he's not only unrepentant, he's out there right now unabashed in front of his Nuremberg Rallies and on Social Media profiting from his chicanery and malfeasance. You don't need to take my word for it, you can see and hear him for yourself. 

Trump literally told America, the World, that he could commit murder on the street in public and not only get away with it, but he wouldn't lose a single vote and here he is every single day determined to prove that statement correct. And it's looking like he wasn't wrong.

Nearly every lawyer who defended Trump, nearly every violent Brown Shirted brawler who rallied to his banner on January 6th, they're all in prison or facing serious legal consequences for actions committed in Trump's name. 

Those testifying against Trump in court, those bringing charges against Trump in court, they are almost all members of his own party, some of them even voted for him. 

No, this isn't on Joe Biden or Democrats or anyone else. 

It's all Trump.

“Hitler lied shamelessly about himself and about his enemies. He convinced millions of men and women that he cared for them deeply when, in fact, he would have willingly sacrificed them all. His murderous ambition, avowed racism, and utter immorality were given the thinnest mask, and yet millions of Germans were drawn to Hitler precisely because he seemed authentic. They screamed, “Sieg Heil” with happiness in their hearts, because they thought they were creating a better world.”
― Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning

Donald Trump is the reason for Donald Trump's predicament and no one else. 

Trump lies shamelessly about himself and about his enemies every single day. 

Trump convinced millions that he cares for them, when, in fact, he would sacrifice them all without a second thought and has done so repeatedly. 

Trump's murderous ambition, avowed racism, and utter immorality are given the thinnest mask, and yet millions of Americans are drawn to him precisely because he gives them license to be their own worst selves. They scream "MAGA!" with happiness in their hearts, because they think once they've eliminated all of us, they'll somehow have a better world. 

And the more things change, the more you see the relentless cycle of history coming 'round again and again. 

This time, it's Trump. 

It's all Trump and it's all Trump in his own words and it always has been.

The thing about extremism is that each position must be more extreme than the last, more hyperbolic, more unhinged, more fanatical, until you're just screaming obvious insane spittle-flecked nonsense.

But if you do it long enough, like Hitler if you do it with enough rage and hate and fury, then people start to believe. 

See, these people, they often tell you how there can be no morality without their religion. Without their god, they say, everyone would rape and murder and steal and burn down civilization. It is only fear of their god that holds back the dark of night. 

But what happens when they replace their god with someone who gives them license to be their own worst selves? 

The ironic part is that the final apocalyptic book of their own Bible warns them of exactly that -- and yet those who sound the alarm most dire of the (alleged) coming End Times fail to see their own god's warning of evil in guise of salvation. 

Ancient religions aside, it's bad enough when it's just Cat Piss Man on the corner mumbling about UFOs and CIA brain implants, but when this raging irrational insanity becomes a political movement, civilization can collapse in an orgy of violent self immolation that nothing can stop it until it burns itself out and billions are dead.

And every time -- every fucking time -- afterwards, in the ruins of the once great cities, after the war crimes trials, after the remaining criminals have been hanged or thrown in prison, with the gut-churning raw-lamb smell of the rotting corpses and the acrid stench of the burning buildings still in your nose, well, then the survivors all look at each other in embarrassment and shame and wonder: how could this have happened? 

How could this have happened? 

Why did we listen to that guy? 

How could we have been led so far astray? 

How could we have let hate consume us like that? 

How? 

And why didn't someone stop it?

Oh yes, why didn't someone stop it?

Yeah. Someone.

Because in the end, among the ruins and the destruction and the dead, even then, they can never ever see how it was them who were the monsters all along. 

It was them who let it happen, while the ones they were convinced to hate were led away in chains and who stood by while the ashes from the ovens fell on their roofs like snow.

Yeah, why didn't someone stop Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Trump, before it was too late?

Because someone never does. 

Today, now, here, in this place, that someone is US.

And that moment is NOW.

This is the deflection point, right here. This is the crux, the pivot that history will turn on. 

And that someone is us. 

Every generation these dirty rotten insane sons of bitches come again. The madness starts to rise up yet again. The barbarians are at the gate and the drums of war and revolution are beating loudly yet again.

The madness must be stopped now while it's still possible. 

This time we have a chance to stop them before they burn the world down yet again. 

Before it's us, those of us lucky enough to survive, standing there among the bodies of our countrymen, wondering why somebody didn't stop it. 

We're that somebody. 

And we better show up. 

Not someone, you.

You want a better nation? You want a better world? A better future? 

Then you have to be a better citizen. 

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism