Ep 278 The Devil In No Longer In Disguise

It addresses the massive confusion that what I am seeing out there , which has taken up residence in my mind , which is probably pretty much like what you're seeing out there , which likely also occupies your mind . I will confine myself to commenting on what are perhaps the three largest current instances of mind madness .

I suppose for a great many people , including myself , the three are the orange here Trumpist or fascist , as you choose , whichever you prefer onslaught on the United States , the still raging and even spreading genocidal violence in the Mideast . And the steady ecological devolution of survival prospects worldwide .

I'm sorry that all that horribleness is center stage for this episode , but at least the confusions these phenomena arouse in me as I speak with you are about potential corrections , that is , how to deal constructively with them . So what's with my title ? The Devil is no Longer in Disguise .

Well , it's either clickbait and I got you , or by that I simply mean the evil of all . Three of these current issues that I'm going to address are not hidden . The rot is not even trying to hide . You can't avoid the horrific details , not least because the perpetrators brag more than they even try to hide .

Okay , so for the first topic , I came across a description of Trump by a British writer , nate White , who I otherwise know absolutely zero about . His description of Trump goes like this why do some British people not like Donald Trump ? A few things spring to mind . Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem .

For instance , he has no class , no charm , no coolness , no credibility , no compassion , no wit , no warmth , no wisdom , no subtlety , no sensitivity , no self-awareness , no humility , no honor and no grace All qualities , funnily enough , with which his predecessor , mr Obama , was generously blessed .

So for us , the British , the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief Plus we like a laugh to embarrassingly sharp relief Plus we like a laugh . And while Trump may be laughable , he has never once said anything wry , witty or even faintly amusing . Not once Ever . I don't say that rhetorically , I mean it quite literally .

Not once , not ever . And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility . For us to lack humor is almost inhuman , but with Trump it's a fact . He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is . His idea of a joke is a crass comment , an illiterate insult , a casual act of cruelty .

Trump is a troll and like all trolls , he is never funny and he never laughs , he only crows or jeers . And , scarily , he doesn't just talk in crude , witless insults , he actually thinks in them . His mind is a simple , bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness .

There is never any underlayer of irony , complexity , nuance or depth , it's all surface . Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront . Well , we don't . We see it as having no inner world , no soul , and in Britain we traditionally side with David , not Goliath . All our heroes are plucky underdogs Robin Hood , dick Whittington , oliver Trist .

Trump is neither plucky nor an underdog , he is the exact opposite of that . He's not even a spoiled rich boy or a greedy fat cat . He's more a fat white slug , a Jabba the Hutt of privilege . And worse , he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British , a bully , that is .

Except when he is among bullies , when he suddenly transforms into a sniveling sidekick instead . There are unspoken rules to this stuff , the Queensberry rules of basic decency , and he breaks them all . He punches downwards , which a gentleman should , would , could , never do , and every blow he aims is below the belt .

He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless , and he kicks them when they are down .

So the fact that a significant minority , perhaps a third of Americans , look at what he does , listen to what he says and then think , yeah , he seems like my kind of guy , it's a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people , given that Americans are supposed to be nicer than us and mostly they are .

You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man . This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people and many other people too . His faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss . After all , it's impossible to read a single tweet or hear him speak a sentence or two without staring deep into the abyss .

He turns being artless into an art form . He is a Picasso of pettiness , a Shakespeare of shit . His faults are fractal . Even his flaws have flaws , and so on ad infinitum . God knows . There have always been stupid people in the world , and plenty of nasty people too , but rarely has stupidity been so nasty or nastiness so stupid .

He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W looks smart . In fact , if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws . He would make a Trump , and a remorseful Dr Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish my God , what have I created ? I react , it would seem .

This British writer , nate White , can turn a phrase . You might wonder , however , why there isn't any reference to Trump's actual views . But wonder not , I would guess Nate's point in that regard is that , beyond what Nate offered , trump's views don't actually exist .

In any case , I am here in America and I look around , mostly on YouTube , where I look at interviews of Trumpers and at descriptions or quotes of his utterances nowadays about his trials , and I look at his talks and what all else , and I find myself confused about the same concern as the Britisher why does , let's call it , a third of the US population support

Trump in any way at all ? And why does what some subset of that group support him to the point of what appears to be worship ? He seems to be oxycodone incarnate , an addiction which , once it's got you , ravages you , or your brain at any rate , but that isn't much of an answer to why . So what is ?

Before trying to answer , however , let's get the second and third top stories that confuse me and confuse many others . On the table , israel goose steps bombs across Gaza to demolish hospitals , homes and pretty much everything else , and even beyond that , to make it as openly intentional as possible .

Israel starves people as overt policy and acknowledges that that is the idea . And , as with Trump , worship , many wonder how do we understand the reactions to Israel's genocidal policies , which are often baffling as well as nauseating ?

And my third focus of confusion is the trajectory of the world that is currently right out in the open , displaying for all to see its steadily worsening ecological dissolution . And again , how do we explain people's reactions to that ? So back to the orange blight . How is it possible for so many people to support Trump ?

And then , how is it possible for the vast bulk of Israelis , otherwise sane souls , to support massacre and mayhem , genocide that calls itself well , revenge unto death , revenge unto death .

And also , how is it possible for too many otherwise seemingly sensible souls in the United States , presumably caring souls , to also support genocide and be horrified by and even repressive toward support for Palestine ?

And finally , how is it possible for an incredibly large number I will confine myself here to the United States , but it is generally true , I think of sentient humans elsewhere as well , to effectively ignore or tut-tut the suicidal trajectory of the planet they inhabit .

A hard rain is falling and so many ignore or even run from , but don't rise up against the already raging and everywhere impending floods . In a nutshell , on this score , what's going on in people's heads ? It feels to me like one has to have a feel for that to impact where we are headed .

In a book titled Mother Night , kurt Vonnegut has a passage where a character tries to address what I think is basically the same underlying question as is vexing me , though far more creatively than I can muster Vonnegut's character comments .

I have never seen a more sublime demonstration of the totalitarian mind , a mind which might be linked onto a system of gears where teeth have been filed off at random . Such snaggletooth thought machine , driven by a standard or even by a substandard libido , whirls with the jerky , noisy , gaudy pointlessness of a cuckoo clock in hell .

The boss G-man concluded , wrongly , that there were no teeth on the gears in the mind of Jones . You're completely crazy , he said . But Jones wasn't completely crazy .

The dismaying thing about classic totalitarian mind is that any given gear , though mutilated , will have at its circumference unbroken sequences of teeth that are immaculately maintained , that are exquisitely machined . Hence the cuckoo clock in hell , keeping perfect time for 8 minutes and 23 seconds , jumping ahead 14 minutes .

Keeping perfect time for 6 seconds , jumping ahead 2 seconds . Keeping perfect time for 2 hours and 1 second , then jumping ahead a year for two hours and one second , then jumping ahead a year . The missing teeth , of course , are simple , obvious truths , truths available and comprehensible even to ten-year-olds in most cases .

The willful filing off of gear teeth , the willful doing without certain obvious pieces of information . That was how a household as contradictory as one composed of Jones , father Keeley , vice Bundesfuhrer , kropftauer and the Black Fuhrer could exist in relative harmony .

That was how my father-in-law could contain in one mind an indifference toward slave women and love for a blue vase . That was how Rudolf Hess , commandant of Auschwitz , could alternate over loudspeakers of Auschwitz , great music and calls for corpse carriers .

No-transcript , that is the closest I can come to explaining the legions , the nations of lunatics I've seen in my time . So that is Vonnegut's attempt .

But what does that moving dismissal say one should do when a great many one hears of , works with one even lives with , seem to have in their heads one or another cuckoo clock in hell , or when one fears there may be missing truths even in one's own head . My answer is I can only guess .

I'm not sure I'm confused , but I think how we answer matters for a host of reasons . First , to prevent fascism , curb wars and preserve planetary habitability is going to require that many who favor insanity , injustice and or social suicide change views .

And second , that I think whatever allows people to take otherwise absurd , self-denying , other-denying , reason-ignoring and even suicidal stances in these three cases that I have mentioned occurs in countless other domains as well , albeit perhaps less screamingly visibly .

Here are some Guns , immigration , artificial intelligence , health , medicine , salaries and income , book banning and all kinds of fundamentalism , including sectarianism , as well as , of course , sexism , racism and classism in all their forms . So back to our topics . First , why do folks like , or even purport to love Trump ?

I think we can confidently answer , but only for a very few . For example , the rich and powerful who support him expect largesse in return . There's no confusion there , and I suppose a connected or ancillary explanation is those who see him in the Oval Office for four more years and don't want to be on his enemies list .

A second oft-touted explanation is that a subset of his supporters . Trump's supporters are simply little Trumps . Little Trumps who he has released from hiding their vile side by his parading his violent side .

This explanation says Trump's vulgar , racist and , I think , easily as attractive to some sexist outbreaks , wherein the devil struts about in all his resplendent finery , has freed others from making believe , or even from having actually sublimated or otherwise no longer felt similar inclinations to let go and be them ugly selves , to also strut like their pied piper .

Then the question arises why do , however many of these folks exist , have these inclinations in the first place ? But it is in any case a plausible explanation for some of Trump's support . So one group so far supports him as a lackey to serve their interests . A second group supports him as a pied piper , legitimating their preferred inclinations .

Next , there are what folks looking on like to call the ignorant and deceived followers , that is , trump supporters , who actually believe Biden stole the election and believe Trump cares about them . There are those , that is , who have fallen down the rabbit hole of Fox reporting .

But if you think about it for a minute , if you do believe those things , then the behavior becomes pretty rational . Finally , we also have two more groups , or perhaps it is two components of one group , the encompassing constituency can see that Trump is a horrible person . For one part of them , however , he is also a wrench in society's works .

He is not more same old , same old , but instead he is so wildly berserk that he just might upset existing norms and habits long enough for things to get better . So these folks support him literally because he is off the rails and they hope for good to come from the messes that he creates .

I think the last group I see ironically supports him as the lesser evil . These folks quite reasonably trust very little that comes out of any politician's mouth . They know they are hurting , they feel it . They don't really know what another Trump regime would mean , but they do feel that they know what another Biden regime would mean .

It would mean more of what they have already suffered . So for them Biden is just business as usual and they tend to think that nothing in place of that could be worse than that . So Orange man is the new lesser evil , and politics is sleight of hand anyhow . So let's at least beat the system . We could stop there .

But why even guess at what yields support for Trump , for fascism ? It ought to be to ask is there any way to address Trump-supporting views constructively . So okay , how about talking to the rich who want to get richer ? We know that will go nowhere . Power alone will affect them . We get that . It's lesson one of activism .

Next , how about the previously closeted or out in the open but significantly restrained racists and sexists who now happily follow Trump's bombastic lead ? Can we address them with evidence , reason and even empathy ? Maybe Sometimes that might work For us to say no , don't bother . Is that evidence of a clock with very nasty flaws ?

What about the group who thinks Trump will do less harm ? In that case , evidence and reason should matter . They dislike things worth disliking . They just think that with Trump , there is more chance those ills will be muted or even stopped .

They don't see the error that involves , and so making a case to demonstrate that error seems worth undertaking seems essential . I know that lots of people think that supporting Trump , and especially that workers supporting Trump , is the really inexplicable mindset of our times . They chalk it up to untouchable broken gears . I am not one who thinks that .

I agree there is some ignorance and myth involved . But whose fault is that ? The stacked system , of course , and beyond that , arguably activists like me who have known otherwise , but who in 50 years haven't communicated sufficiently well with working people for them even to be immunized against supporting a billionaire buffoon .

And before throwing rocks at Trump's working class male , female , white , black supporters , consider the upside-down views of the non-Trump millions who think that attacking our government is vile . Who think hating politicians is vile .

Who think rage at doctors who push drugs , at lawyers who plea bargain lives into prisons , at teachers who purport to know more but actually know less and teach inanities , are vile . Who think society deserves support .

So yes , of course there are also Trumpers out there , out of their minds , who were drawn slowly into a cult-like defense of their prior support for him and who now manifest , grotesquely , deep racism and sexism . But I actually think most of the support for Trump is no more peculiar , given the facts , than actual positive support felt by many for Genocide Joe .

I certainly want Biden to win absolutely , because Trump is an outright megalomaniacal , egomaniacal , fascist , lunatic . And as horrible as neoliberalism is , fascism is a hell of a lot worse .

But really to feel literally positively for a guy who is armed , rationalized and even cheered on Israel's brazenly open extermination policies , does that evidence a clock in good order ? And that brings us to our second example . How do we even explain , much less relate to support for such visibly , undeniably genocidal policies as perpetrated in Gaza .

Consider a subset of the Jewish community in the US . They video saw Hamas horribly kill Israelis . They assessed and presumably decided right off or later that decades of open-air imprisonment , random deaths , colonial occupation , denial and indignity being labeled vermin didn't justify that it was terror , it's true .

Then they decided people who have also suffered through history genocidal attack , denigration , death , more depth genocide to unleash their American emblazoned military might in unyielding assault . They do unto others what had been done unto them .

They announce it , they prepare it , they do it , they celebrate it , they sing praises to it , they admire their intentionally aimed bombs blasting everything homes , hospitals , limbs and souls until there is nowhere for Palestinians to run . That isn't bursting with death and destruction because Hamas's actions justify it .

Bursting with death and destruction because Hamas's actions justify it . What do Israel's actions now justify ? Well , some in my country think they warrant praise , some think they warrant support . Some think that to oppose Israel's genocidal , planned , praised actions and US support for them is anti-Semitic and the protesters should be shut down . And those people ?

But well , what would Vonnegut , who described Nazi cuckoo clock minds say about this round . So two down , and what I have offered may be just a little clarity along with a whole lot of confusion my apologies , I don't have better for you along with a whole lot of confusion . My apologies , I don't have better for you . And so we come to our third focus .

Outside your window , every window , the world facing fire , facing ice , facing flooding , facing starving high water rising . On the one hand , mired in the rat race , fancy captains of industry clutch at profit to enrich themselves , one would think their offspring even while they pursue the oil-drenched death of everything that breathes , including their offspring .

Is that cuckoo clock brains or just profit-seeking identities wedged into perpetual self-aggrandizement , even unto death ? And on the other hand , so many heads . Just look away , don't look . See only what you want to see . Is that fear ? Is it ignorance ? Is it surrender ? Is it being too busy ? Are we going over the edge ?

Because well , that's where the mob is going ? What do you say to that if you would like to try to help save everything ? Dylan , in a different time , but distraught at what he saw , said this when I heard it back then I turned left , hard left . He didn't . That was a pity , but maybe give it a listen .

Dylan's a poet , but this isn't meant to be read , though I will anyhow . So sue me , and seeing it well , whatever you want which I hope is less like what Dylan apparently saw and more like , dare I suggest it , what I saw Darkness at the break of noon , shadows , even the silver spoon , the handmade blade , the child's balloon eclipses both the sun and moon .

To understand , you know , too soon . There is no sense in trying . Pointed threats , they bluff with scorn . Suicide remarks are torn from the fool's gold mouthpiece . The hollow horn Plays wasted words , proves to warn that he , not busy being born , is busy dying . Temptations plage flies out the door . You follow , find yourself at war , watch waterfalls of pity roar .

You feel to moan , but , unlike before , you discover that you'd just be one more person crying . So don't fear . If you hear a foreign sound to your ear , it's alright , ma , I'm only sighing as some mourn victory , some downfall .

Private reasons , great or small , can be seen in the eyes of those that call to make all that should be killed to crawl , while others say don't hate nothing at all except hatred .

Disillusioned words like bullets bark as human gods aim for their mark , make everything from toy guns that spark to flesh-colored Christ that glow in the dark , it's easy to see , without looking too far , that not much is really sacred . While preachers preach of evil fates , teachers teach that knowledge waits can lead to hundred-dollar plates .

Goodness hides behind its gates , but even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked . And though the rules of the road have been lodged , it's only people's games that you got to dodge . And it's all right , ma , I can make it Advertising signs .

They con you into thinking You're the one that can do what's never been done , that can win what's never been won . Meantime , life outside goes on all around you . You lose yourself . You reappear . You suddenly find you got nothing to fear .

Alone , you stand with nobody near when a trembling , distant voice , unclear , startles your sleeping ears to hear that somebody thinks they really found you . A question in your nerves is lit , yet you know there is no answer fit To satisfy .

Ensure you not to quit , to keep it in your mind and not forget that it is not he or she , or them or it , that you belong to .

Although the masters make the rules for the wise men and the fools , I got nothing , ma , to live up to For them that must obey authority that they do not respect in any degree , who despise their jobs , their destinies , speak jealousy of them .

That are free , cultivate their flowers to be nothing more than something they invest in , while some on principle baptize to strict party platform ties , social clubs in drag disguise , outsiders they can freely criticize , tell nothing except who to idolize , and then say God bless him , while one who sings with his tongue on fire gargles in the rat race choir , bent

out of shape from society's pliers , cares not to come up any higher , but rather gets you down in the hole that he's in . But I mean no harm , nor put fault on anyone that lives in a vault . But it's all right , ma , if I can't please him . Old lady judges watch people in pairs , limited in sex . They dare to push fake morals , insult and stare .

While money doesn't talk . It swears Obscenity . Who really cares ? Propaganda , all is phony , while them that defend what they cannot see with a killer's pride , security , it blows the minds most bitterly for them that think death's honesty won't fall upon them . Naturally , life sometimes must get lonely . My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards , false goals .

I scuff at pettiness which plays so rough , walk upside down inside handcuffs , kick my legs to crash it off , say okay , I have had enough . What else can you show me ? And if my thought dreams could be seen , they'd probably put my head in a guillotine . But it's all right , ma , it's life and life . Only . What can I say ?

Fuck the devil , in disguise or not , I'll be back , don't quit . And that said , this is Michael Albert signing off for Revolution Z . Until next time .