Fear and loathing in an ongoing Trumpian dystopia
The reader of the classic dystopian fiction of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, or Margret Atwood will find Trump’s America familiar. Autocratic dystopian dictators always exert social control through controlling the flow of information in a society. Destroying the free press is a first and necessary step in the movement to the dystopian dictatorship.
From the beginning, Trump has attacked the press. At his campaign rallies, he incited his true believers to hostility toward the press referring to them as “enemies of the people” and peddlers of “fake news”. At rallies, Trump has treated journalist with reckless disregard, herding them into corrals like they were cattle.
After his election, his abuse of journalists only got worse. Any news story that did not meet his approval was assailed as “fake news”. This is an old propaganda technique of invalidating counter narratives with aggressive denials. In addition, he continued to humiliate journalist who would not buy his propaganda.
CNN, the “failing” New York Times, and the Washington Post were denied access to regular news briefings and the professional White House news corps was watered down by the inclusion of social media “wannabes” and conspiracy theorist from the blogosphere. More recently, he has pushed his true believers’ hostility toward violence aimed at the media as represented by CNN.
Concurrently, Trump has created an army of sycophantic liars that appear on all the main street media to stretch the truth beyond recognition. The White House has been a propaganda machine. Lies, misinformation, distortions, and disinformation have poured out of the White House like water over Niagara Falls.
A new wing on the library of Congress would have to be built to archive the Republican lies on healthcare. Trumpcare lies include: premiums and deductibles will be lower, more people will be covered, Medicaid will not be cut, preexisting conditions will be covered and affordable, and you will love it. These lies are but the tip of the iceberg. A complete list would require several more pages.
Trump and his bootlickers have told even more lies about Russian collusion. Numerous members of the Trump campaign met with Russian spymasters, bankers, FSB lawyers, hackers, and lobbyists. These discussions included establishing a secret system in the Russian embassy to evade America’s security apparatus, and ending sanctions on Putin’s supporters in the Russian oligarchy. Yet, no one in the Trump administration can remember these secret meetings until the free press uncovers them.
Don Trump, Jr. has relied on the serial lie to explain his Russian conference. At first there was no meeting, then there was a meeting about adoptions with an attorney who just happened to be Russian.
Word out just this past week is that Senior “helped” Junior craft his misleading statements. Because that’s what “good fathers” do for their offspring, at least in Trump World.
At this point, we know that Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Junior were meeting with every shady Russian character in America except for Boris Badenov and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Trump wanted “dirt” on Clinton and the Russians wanted an end to the Magnitsky sanctions on Putin’s friends in the Kremlin.
Are we living in America or Huxley’s Brave New World?
Terry Stulce served two combat tours in Vietnam, one with the 101st Airborne and one with the 69th Border Rangers. He was an LCSW and owner of Cleveland Family Counseling before retirement in 2009.