Showing posts with label foundational myths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foundational myths. Show all posts

Monday, September 28, 2020

Who will Trump's cultists blame when they finally understand they've been conned?



Donald Trump's entire "career" in and out of politics has been one long, sustained confidence trick. The owners of capital "get it," and shill with enthusiasm because they can only gain from the con man's game.

Generally speaking, when the victims of a con game realize they've been duped, they're angry. It may or may not be the con man's fault, but it's not theirs; no one likes looking in the mirror and confronting their own gullibility.

Politically, it's never been about Trump's narcissistic grifting. Rather, it's about wealth consolidating its power and enhancing its vampiric capital accumulation as the populace is distracted by the grift; and, it's about those Americans, primarily white, who've embraced Trump's con game with open arms.


When they realize they've been had, as inevitably they will, who's up to be blamed? It won't be Trump himself, as rejecting a deity is hard work, and he'll be exonerated by having been "stabbed in the back" or some such nonsense.

It won't be the con man's disappointed victims, swindled and left to founder, because the mirror's cracked by the weight of the dominant caste racism and gibberish.

I think most of us already have a suspicion about the answer to this question, and it's not a pleasant one. In a collective sense, why do humans cherish being conned? Now if you'll excuse me, I have a pitchfork to sharpen.

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This "Never Trumper" is hilarious. She cannot countenance the grift, but on the other hand, because providing health care and other basic public services would be both unAmerican and unfair to the accumulators of capital, she just might change her mind

Yawn.   

Sorry, I don’t mean to make a pro or con statement about what should happen with health care. I’m saying that some version of socialized medicine exists in most European countries, and I think we would agree that they’re all democracies.

I didn’t suggest that the imposition of socialized medicine was somehow going to end our democracy. I merely said that it was going to usher in things that were irreversible that were not going to be good for our country.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

I need to read this: "American Rule: How a A Nation Conquered the World but Failed It's People."

It's exactly who we ARE, and it's who we've always been. I'm confident Howard Zinn would be in full agreement.

The book is American Rule: How a A Nation Conquered the World but Failed It's People, by Jared Yates Sexton, who is a Hoosier. It is published by Penguin Random House and will be released in hardback on September 15.

And I will buy it.

From writer and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton comes a journey through the history of the United States, from the nation’s founding to the twenty-first century, which examines and debunks the American myths we’ve always told ourselves.

In recent years, Americans have faced a deluge of horrifying developments in politics and culture: stolen elections, fascist rallies, families torn apart and locked away. A common refrain erupts at each new atrocity: This isn’t who we are.

In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations. Working through each era of American growth and change, Sexton weaves together the origins and perpetuation of these narratives still in the public memory, and the acts we have chosen to forget.

Stirring, deeply researched, and disturbingly familiar, American Rule is a call to examine our own misconceptions of what it means, and has always meant, to be an American.

I became aware of the writer and book via Twitter: Jared Yates Sexton, @JYSexton. I agree with the gist of these tweets. Hasn't it always been obvious?

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Trump just said he wants to reopen the country by Easter, to which a Fox News host says it would be "a wonderful American resurrection."

You need to understand something. The Cult of Trump is a merging of white supremacy, religion, nationalism, and the worship of capitalism.

I keep talking about the Cult of the Shining City. It's a Neo-Confederate, white-identity evangelical cult that was started by Jerry Falwell and his conspirators in the 1960's as the Civil Rights movement used Christianity to further its fight.

Because MLK wanted to highlight the social justice aspects of Christ's gospel, Falwell and other pro-segregationists preaching Confederate religion, shifted the Christian focus from social justice to prosperity and wealth as markers of God's favor.

This has its roots in Adam Smith's capitalism, which talked of an "invisible hand" of the market that would choose winners. This religion made that invisible hand the hand of a Christian, racist God. We're still dealing with that cult.

This Cult of the Shining City merged with Ronald Reagan's economics in the 1980's and promoted an idea of poverty as a marker of sinfulness. It is a bizarre marriage of ideologies, but deep down it is rooted in white supremacy as the wish of a racist God.

People are constantly confused by how the Cult of the Shining City worships Trump as a messiah and stands by him, but he is the literal embodiment of their ideology. His wealth and power, not to mention his defense of white supremacy, makes him a perfect pope-like figure.

This idea of "an American resurrection" is rooted in this nationalistic idea that was furthered by Falwell and Reagan. It's an extension of Reagan's belief that America was established by centuries worth of manipulations by secret cults and societies.

I've pinned my thread on this to my profile if you want to read more, but you need to understand that the history of America as we know it is a religious myth. It's a parable of a country chosen by a racist god to carry out his will and rule over inferior people.

This worship of the market is inherent to the ideas of Falwell and Reagan. When you watch the DOW jump or fall, these people inherently believe it is a measure of God's pleasure or displeasure. They see a plague like this and see a supernatural punishment.

It's not a coincidence that Trump wants to reopen the economy by Easter. It's a furthering of the relationship between his white-identity, Neo-Confederate, nationalistic, capitalistic cult and the cult of the market. They have been intertwined now for decades.

Here's a warning: The Cult of the Shining City is an apocalyptic cult. They're not afraid to sacrifice lives. They're not afraid to drive civilization over the cliff. This policy of reopening the economy despite the warnings of scientists does not frighten or impede them.

The Cult of the Shining City that worships Trump will watch while millions die from the pandemic and they'll chalk it up to God's will. You already hear that. I'm seeing it left and right in white-identity, evangelical circles. It's economic Darwinism made into scripture.

I know this because I grew up in it. It's how my worldview began. I didn't understand there was a reality beyond this indoctrination. I've only learned after years of research and self-reflection.

People are in denial because it sounds crazy, but it's true.

I only learned about the roots of the Cult of the Shining City by researching my new book AMERICAN RULE. It's affected American culture for decades and most people aren't aware of it.

We're watching it now. We're threatened by it every single day.

If you want to read more or share with others, here is a distillation of the thread with history. We're really, really in danger right now. These people will sacrifice millions and millions. They'll let society fall apart. It's their End Times prophecy.