What you need to understand is that the President of the United States of America is a walking, talking corporation.
He has no loyalty to the nation, no duty beyond protecting himself and expediting his profits. We're talking about a country, he's running a business.
Of course Trump lies. It's like a corporation caught giving Americans cancer. You hold fast to the lie until you can't anymore. It's damage control, an intentional PR strategy meant to warp reality.
He's playing a different game. He's not a president. He's an anti-president.
Treason means nothing to Trump. Of course he's asking for help from other countries for his election. It's a transnational business. Everyone is still viewing this through an old lens, but he and everyone around him as moved on.
They're dragging us into a new insidious era.
Listen. Of course Trump is running the country terribly. But think of what corporations give us now. Terrible products, terrible service. It's not about quality or longevity. It's about fleecing as many people as quickly and lucratively as possible.
Businesses and politics have been perverted and become deranged. This is what happens late in the game, when they monopolize. That's what Trump is doing through the fascism and authoritarianism.
Monopolizing the political structure until you have no choice left whatsoever.
We've been living in a moment where businesses tell us as the customers we're right and deserve everything while slashing quality and services and raking us over the coals.
That's what Trump is. That's where we're going. Gleeful incompetence at a premium rate.
We can reject this. We can restore government as a public good and reject hypercapitalism as the order of the world. But we have to push back against this disaster and rejuvenate the social contract, pry business away from government, and remember basic human dignity.
Business has evolved past the point of competence to aspire to dominance. Once you corner the market you dilute the product, cut costs, and rely on propaganda to cover the difference. This is where we are. In business and in government. Nothing but cruelty and incompetence.
Our government exists now as a tool of massive redistribution from the bottom up. They can’t fix problems, address suffering, respond to crises. Nothing but carefully crafted PR to create an illusion of governance. A lumbering corporate state.
And the goal is to make us apathetic consumers who buy the same terrible products and suffer the same lack of service, all while shrugging because what does it matter anyway? The authoritarian society is a monopoly corporation. It’s inextricably intertwined.
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Every single protester I’ve talked to has been impressively informed. Like, jaw-droppingly so.
On the other hand, takes like this are not only lazy but indictments of a political class that has continually performed “principles” and are now projecting their own guilt.
I cannot believe how many people are piling onto this “the protesters are doing this because it’s trendy” bullshit.
They’re literally risking their education, their careers, they’re being assaulted and having sniper rifles trained on them.
What is wrong with you?
The truth is that the cynicism of centrist liberals is such a heavy burden as they’re navigating a political landscape with real consequences. They don’t want to change anything while appearing on the “right side” of morality.
If we’re going to defeat rising authoritarianism it’s going to take a democratic movement that demands a better future.
People always ask me what they can do, so I put together an explainer. History tells us how we win. It’s time to pay attention.
Authoritarianism tells us we are powerless and alone. That the battle is already lost.
But it’s brittle. Vulnerable. There are so many of us and we are now living in a time where we can band together and defeat this thing and realize the world we deserve.
Our system, by design, is intended to make us feel powerless. But that’s to curb the power of democratic, collective action.
It’s on us to recognize that fact and to create something together that breaks the hold of authoritarian rule by the wealthy. And we can do it.
What’s happening right now is that the Right is loudly expressing their bigotry and desire to crush what little of “the Left” exists and the Center is simultaneously appalled by their openness but trying quietly and institutionally to crush what little of “the Left” exists.
One of the reasons things seem strange right now is because the American understanding of actual politics versus our conventional “Red/Blue” narrative is so limited that most people are living in a mystified state that obscures the actual struggles and fault lines.
When you work in institutions (I was in academia for 16 years) you start to get a real glimpse at performative cowardice and hollow principles. And you understand exactly how the song and dance works and what the Center offers and really values.
Authoritarianism is systemic abuse and feeds off crushing the human spirit.
It assaults us with unthinkable atrocities and means to convince a better world isn’t possible. Resistance begins with rejecting this and fighting for what we deserve.
People want us to believe authoritarianism exists at the point of a gun, but it’s a disease of despair.
Authoritarians bombard us with abuse meant to destroy our spirit and convince us the reality of life is violence.
There are only three ways authoritarianism wins. It entices you to put on the armband and participate, it crushes you as opposition, or it convinces you to look away as it takes control.
This is the reality that was hidden from us post-war. And we must recognize it.
What has been systematically created is a zero-sum society where the ruthless are rewarded and a deep distrust of one another is instilled, creating the perfect environment for corporate dominance in which solidarity is prevented and democratic energy contained.
This goes beyond work. In our politics, in our communities, in our relationships, in our discourse, a sharp cynical edge reigns, preventing intimacy and grace and above all collaboration and imagination.
It is a deep, deep wound. And we must heal from it.
America is far from the first country to suffer this. Neoliberalism has systematically spread this trauma around the globe. But it has infected us and created a fetid environment that’s perfect for dominance and oppression. Healing is the only way forward.
Moments like the NBC and MSNBC revolt over the hiring of Ronna McDaniel and the resulting cave by management serve as ready-made examples of how the power of employers is dependent upon a complete and total illusion of total authority that can be easily shattered.
The truth is that capitalist exploitation is all based on the hope that employees never remember that they are more essential than the management class that uses them. That’s why it’s so necessary to bust unions and aggressively break the will of employees whenever possible.
The moment employees realize the abuse and exploitation they’re enduring can be ended is when the illusion shatters. When you realize you deserve better the wheel is already in motion. And that’s exactly what we need at this moment.