Inauthenticity & Denial: The Fire in Which We Burn

After my devastation at not being able to help halt the slaughter in Gaza, it's time to take account of America's first (openly) fascist regime

RIP

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off this piece.

I had always explained to my readers that my devastating critique of liberal and Democratic politicians was grounded in a desire to prevent my greatest fear from actually manifesting: Trump 2.0, Ubu Trump, Mango Mussolini.

Boy, did I fail. I thought I had laid it out pretty clearly. Running a demented genocider who is as evil as Trump was not a good idea.

“They blew it!” say some.

No, they did not.

The Democrats are all in, on everything: neoliberalism, genocide, regime change, censorship, anti-worker legislation, control of the digital commons, and an unwavering support for Israel, even to the detriment of their own country. Now you tell me why a party like the Democrats would have a problem with Trump, who is giddy with glee when it comes to ensuring all of the above continues to transpire, unfettered by pesky protestors, or people at work or school who “talk about stuff” and make you “uncomforatble.”

Don’t worry, we’ll get to MAGA and the Republicans…

No, we will see no movement towards a Western European-style social democracy, and the Democrats will never put anyone anywhere near the White House if that person intends to: curb military activity, pass universal health care, address wealth inequality, assure a livable minimum wage, reform the electoral college, demilitarize the police, etc.

They don’t want us to have those rights — yes, rights, not privileges — anymore than the Republicans do, so get that through your head. They could have run Warren, Newsom, Bernie, a host of others. They ran a demented war criminal who drooled out of the side of his mouth while conning the public with ginned-up stories about beheaded babies. Genocide Joe Biden was a war criminal way back in 1982, when he told Begin to slaughter children during the massacres in Shatila and Sabra.

This is who we ran against the world’s greatest evil.

And people are paralyzed with fear.

It’s difficult, as we fall apart, to decide just what’s worse. The infrastructure has crapped out, mailing a certified letter can turn into an all-day affair if the postal clerk is in a bad mood, and making a doctor’s appointment is like going through the via process. We have been floating on quantitative easing (QE) so long that when it comes back to bite us — it already is, look at the job numbers — real poverty just may shake people from their torpor.

As for now, it is commiseration in denial, and solidarity in inauthenticity. You can feel it: people see you as a threat because you say something real; you notice something, and you call it by its rightful name, for what it is.

Panic ensues.

A trip to DEI.

And the person who reports you will probably get canned next week, and simply take it.

My theory about inauthenticity as social anesthesia is this: Phoniness is reassuring—not because people believe it, but because it creates mutual cover. It says: “I won’t name the horror if you won’t. We’ll perform normalcy together.”

So here we have it: a liberal fascist accommodation that recalls the industrialist compromise with the National Socialists in the 30s, which helped bring Hitler to power.

Phoniness becomes reassurance that no one will break the spell…

And yes—this is why things don’t change. Not because people don’t see it, but because seeing it clearly would make their continued inaction unbearable. This liberal faction accommodation stinks of Vichy, and nowhere is it better illustrated than in Cornell West's support of Trump’s immoral Iran policy, as the Prez pumps in money and sends in spooks to destabilize the country, burning down mosques while he and his pals laugh about it. Another color revolution, same playbook.

So yes, what I predicted came true, not that anyone couldn’t have done the same. Maybe you remember, a few months back:

”I'm looking at this and feeling not a trace of shock -- absolutely zero surprise. After the Russiagate hoax, the Banana Republic trials that were a slap in the face to the constitution, the FISA forgeries, Mango Caesar is pissed. Now, they've created the Trump that only existed in the confines of their propagandized, colonized minds, a demon summoned by ignorance, fear, and a blissful eagerness to be wholly indoctrinated and numb.”

Yes, and all of Trump’s little screwheads are running around, busy trying to foment a race war as President Flintstone breaks every promise he ever made. How do you feel now, MAGA? Especially after Trump has:

1. Deported people for speaking their minds — Because you guys are all about free speech until it’s about Israel, right?

2. Shot an American dead for protesting, legally.

3. Used the incident to tell a lie and attack the 2nd Amendment, your sacred cow. Here’s that clown cash Patel talking utter shite about gun laws:

Trump has screwed you every which way, on free speech, on censorship, on wars of regime change… Now I see you MAGA dopes out there defending cops in masks! How utterly dead in the head do you have to be to support that? Why not just come out for death squads?

Then again, you basically did when Brian Kilmeade proposed genociding the homeless:

I want to make this clear, in ALL CAPS:

YOU GUYS, THE MAGA-REPUBLICAN CREW, HAVE ACTED LIKE A BUNCH OF COWARDLY LIBERAL DEMS, AND YOU HAVE TAKEN IT LYING DOWN, JUST LIKE THEY DID!

This interview with Gabor Maté is one of the most powerful I have seen because he names this darkness, this anomie, this denial. He points to the fact that we have no institutions of change, no leaders, and no sense of hope at the moment.

But Mate is not cynical, and that is key. He is not a pessimist.

Still, we must, first of all, send in shocktroops, keep speaking, tell this truth, and reclaim a world in which authenticity and freedom of expression are respected as values, and not used as an excuse to pillory the first person who opens their mouth about something important. If not, this state of zombification will spell our doom.

I had two goals today. The first was to dip my foot back in the waters after a long absence and a crushing sense of defeat. The other was to simply get you all motivated to become as real as you can, to risk speaking with others, and to just maybe try telling the truth once a week, about something that matters, and see what happens. Like a science experiment.

Or else pack your suitcases and head to the box cars.

Sorry for the hiatus.

Love,

Pauly