Thread by @KrisAtLarge

@RonaldReagan didn't *start* the trend in U.S. culture towards regarding America's own decline as a mere _joke_, but his vacuous presidency as @GOP figurehead definitely worsened it.

it was *necessary*, in a way. Reagan was, himself, the embodiment of decline and decay.

(1/x)

Reagan *looked* decayed for one thing. @RonaldReagan, in public, had the aspect of a corpse given an unnatural simulation of life by expert funeral-parlor technicians. wearing makeup was hardly new for Presidents (@dick_nixon had difficulties with it) but Reagan NEEDED it.

(2/x)

but the real problem was that @RonaldReagan—or rather the Reagan popular cult, created and nurtured by @Peggynoonannyc and other @GOP ideologues—looked backwards, always backwards.

that's a hallmark of fascıst politics by the way: idolizing a sanitized vision of the past.

(3/x)

the key fascıst lie—this lie is also the @GOP lie, the American "#conservative" lie, the lie sold by a million right-wing propagandists—is a myth about decay, in fact. "once we were glorious; now we're corrupt and awful because of THEM, but we'll bring back the old glory."

(4/x)

"put us in power and once again America (or wherever) will be a land of marble colonnades, stout heartland men who till the soil, and obedient wives making babies."

whenever @elonmusk blithers some nonsense about a "population crisis", he's referring to this fascıst myth.

(5/x)

(@mtaibbi were you aware that @elonmusk is a fascıst and that it's really obvious, too? I heard you used to be a journalist once, maybe you should look into this matter.)

you could almost say that the @GOP (and fascıst parties generally) *need* their nation to be decayed.

(6/x)

the more decayed and dilapidated and dysfunctional the country gets, the shinier seem the glittering @GOP (or other fascıst) lies about how glorious and heroic the past used to be, and how glorious and heroic the #future will be once the reactionary party seizes power.

(7/x)

@GOP politicians, like all fascıst politicians, don't have any intention of repairing the decay; for one thing, fascıst leadership means *incompetent* leadership.

or, rather, it means leadership competent only at seizing and holding power through whatever means necessary.

(8/x)

even chaotic dingbats and criminals like @mattgaetz and @RepMTG are *good at something*—they're good at staying on top of their particular political dunghills.

what they're not good at is _administration_. neither was @RonaldReagan. his cabinet was staffed with crooks.

(9/x)

fascısts like @RonaldReagan and the @GOP generally also love _urban_ decay in particular. they point to once-great American cities left to rot with positive *glee*: see? that's what happens when THEY are allowed to overrun a place.

cities in ruins are *what they want*.

(10/x)

@RonaldReagan didn't care; he was a Hollywood star (albeit a faded and ludicrous one) and he was filthy rich—indeed a lot of Reagan's money came from the same filthy source that's bought off @Sen_JoeManchin, and that's the carbon-fuel industry. Reagan was big on oil.

(11/x)

@GOP politicians love "the heartland" for one reason: they tend to have lots of money and all their *friends* are even richer, and thus they can buy up lots of land cheaply in "the heartland". @RonaldReagan had a little toy ranch, a joke of a place—but good for photo ops.

(12/x)

fascıst politics ultimately are about hoarding money and power. when you've got money and power, you deal with problems and consequences by running away from them—the way @mtaibbi's ludicrous hero @elonmusk plans to deal with *his* problems by fleeing Earth altogether.

(13/x)

and most of @TheDemocrats are just as bad. @HillaryClinton's got no more interest in solving America's problems than @elonmusk or any @GOP politician; she's filthy rich herself, and she already blames the American people for *spurning* her. she doesn't care if we _rot_.

(14/x)

mainstream American culture and media have followed our politicians right over the edge. the ongoing #COVID19 crisis demonstrated that obviously enough: *everyone important*, both in politics and media, conspired to abandon the American public to the ravages of disease.

(15/x)

it was *too unpleasant*. nobody wanted to admit that the botched American response to #COVID19 was the act of a failed state, a nation no longer cohesive or forceful enough to safeguard the general public from a pestilence.

it was, quietly, an admission of surrender.

(16/x)

there have been many other such tacit surrenders, in the last few decades of American politics. @TheDemocrats wish only to gild our decay with @JoeBiden's vacant smiles—a conscious imitation of the witless optimism fostered by the figurehead presidency of @RonaldReagan.

(17/x)

@TheDemocrats seem content with American decay; the @GOP wants *more* of it. authoritarian leadership, rule by arbitrary decree and unchallenged police violence, flourishes in times of chaos and breakdown. tyrants can sell themselves more easily under such circumstances.

(18/x)

even a petulant child like @elonmusk can hope to play a hero's role, when everything's a mess and nothing works. and remember—if he screws things up even more (as he usually does) then he can just…run away.

we are alone, amid decay.

we, the people, have been abandoned.

~Chara

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