"Here we are at the Fox Theater in Atlanta Georgia attending the one and only Donald Trump rally... We are rapidly approaching the epicenter of crazy... I can't wait to see what happens..." Those were the words of Adult Swim reporter Sally for the segment "Sally at the Rally" in 2016. What followed can be seen in the first clip linked in this post, and things have gotten worse since then; why any sane person would still support Donald Trump is beyond me, but maybe Carl Sagan can posthumously shed some light on this mystery...
Image by Can Pac Swire - source: Flickr
When Sally said she was approaching the "epicenter of crazy", she wasn't kidding. Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniac who doesn't seem able to ever speak truth, about any subject. He recently boasted in public, for everyone to hear, that he's the "perfect physical specimen" because he thinks he "beat" the covid-19 infection. His exact words were: "I'm back because I'm a perfect physical specimen and I'm extremely young..." This man is such a clown (my apologies to the professional clowns of this world). He's living proof of the Dunning-Kruger effect Even the Fox reporter who held the interview couldn't not laugh at that. In his imaginative world everything he does is perfect: how often have we heard him say that he uses "perfect words", that he made a "perfect phone-call", that he "perfectly handles" the pandemic and that the U.S. under his rule enjoys a "perfect economy"? I tell ya; the Oval Office isn't big enough for this man's ego. He IS the epicenter of crazy. He is the source from which insane untruths are spread and internalized among his supporters, which is why Sally's video from 2016 was only one of the first of a long series of video-clips starring crazy Trump supporters; I'll include a few in this post; most of them are extremely funny. But actually it isn't a laughing matter at all...
Sally at the Rally: Trump Edition | Stupid Morning Bullshit | Adult Swim
Trump actually isn't the root of the many problems that have floated to the surface of American society; he's but a symptom of the real disease, which is decades of neoliberal economics and politics. Also he's not alone; rising fascism and declining intelligence go hand-in-hand, and they do so all over the world. Just look at Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil or Boris Johnson of the U.K.; they're not the brightest lights in the room as well. You see, these are all right wing populists who always have the simplest solutions for the most complex problems. The economy bad? It's the foreigners! Hundreds of thousands of covid-19 deaths? It's China's fault, not mine! Climate change? Deny science! It's no coincidence that America, the U.K. and Brazil top the charts of deaths per 1000 people during this pandemic; fascists don't care about "their" people, not one single bit. Supporters of these men either lack the intelligence to see how they are duped, or are so consumed by their hero-worshiping cult that they believe anything coming out of their hero's mouth, no matter how outlandish or outrageous...
Jordan Klepper vs. Trump Supporters | The Daily Show
This is what Carl Sagan wrote in his 1995 book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark":
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
This 25 year old quote describes perfectly what we see happening in the interviews with Trump supporters included in this post. Trump's presidency truly is the "celebration of ignorance" Carl Sagan feared for his children and grandchildren. Trump unashamedly retweets QAnon posts and at his rallies we can see the QAnon banners. For those of you who don't know, QAnon is a conspiracy theory that alleges that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling against the cabal. The theory also commonly asserts that Trump is planning a day of reckoning known as "The Storm", when thousands of members of the cabal will be arrested. None of this is based on fact of course. Look, I'm not one to casually dismiss every conspiracy theory, I know many of them are true and I know that the ruling elite hold on to their power in part through constant lies and propaganda. But this one is so apparently baseless... I mean, Trump and Epstein were the best of friends for God's sake; Trump himself is part of the "cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles" if you were to believe any of that shit.
The "Best" Of Trump Supporters
Carl Sagan continued as follows:
“As I write, the number one video cassette rental in America is the movie 'Dumb and Dumber'. Beavis and Butthead remains popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning - not just of science, but of anything - are avoidable, even undesirable.
We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”
I've written this before on numerous occasions: anti-intellectualism is one of fascism's defining characteristics, as is the cult of personality, the hero-worship we see materialize among many Trump supporters. There's a good chance that many of them don't even realize that they support fascism, and that includes Trump himself; after all, it takes some intelligence and literacy to be able to identify fascism when it comes knocking on your door.
Anthony Scaramucci Tells All: Trump an "Unstable Nutjob"
Let's continue with Carl Sagan's wise and almost prophetic words:
“I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.”
I think that in America, as well as in many other countries, the ethnic and national prejudices are indeed aroused, and that national self-esteem has indeed been challenged. And Trump plays these tendencies in his supporters like a fiddle, like any far right populist "strong leader" would. Making fun of all this stupidity is easy, but like I said at the start; this is no laughing matter. Not only in America, but all over the so called developed world science and reason are under siege. Much of that can be easily explained by capitalism's tendency to cater to the lowest common denominator; when politics and politicians are bought and paid for, they also cater to the lowest common denominator. The dumbing down of our species that Carl Sagan feared, is now headed by the current "leader of the free world" who thinks he's the smartest person to ever have walked the earth. I sincerely hope the November elections will silence his siren song of unreason, and that American politics will seize to be the epicenter of crazy...
Trump’s COVID Rally - Jordan Klepper Fingers The Pulse | The Daily Social Distancing Show
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