Thanks. You have expressed what I have felt in my bones for a long time but have been unable to explain intelligently.
It is definitely about the insiduous breakdown of societal norms and conventions and the testing of boundaries.
Its easy to ignore Trump's outrages and let it all wash over you. The normalisation or sanewashing by the MSM helps with an easier acceptance of the ideas (eg at the time Trump first brought up Canada as the 51st state, a number of articles appeared as explainers ie "What would Canada look like as part of America".)
While I now better understand the techniques used, the exact purpose of all of this remains unclear to me (ie one or all of gangsterism, Putinism, tech ruled autocracy, oligarchism, etc).
I write from Australia where the political right, who have drunk the Trump Koolaid, have just been thrashed in a national election.
Yes it is beyond insane - but “norms” whether good or bad are what societies have functioned with, well forever, is this virtual reality going to destroy how we function? ? We cannot survive that as a society , we will simply become the slaves of “whim” - this cannot be allowed to happen
Brilliant. Disturbing. Necessary. And yes, you’re right, Trump isn’t playing chess. He’s redrawing the board in crayon and daring the rest of us to play by the old rules. This is symbolic arson.
Trump doesn’t dominate institutions by commanding them, he dominates by making their meaning negotiable. The meme is the method. He’s turned every sacred ritual into a costume fitting for the theater of sovereign narcissism.
In my opinion what Trump understands (and what most centrists still don’t) is that symbolic power is now more durable than legal power. Laws can be overturned. Rulings can be appealed. But images? They are eternal. Screenshots are forever. You can’t subpoena a meme.
In this way, he’s less Caesar and more Andy Warhol’s Antichrist. He breaks norms, and he flattens them into content. The Pope meme is a signal of domination, yes, but more than that, it’s a declaration that there is no longer such a thing as “off-limits.” Only “uploadable”!
And this is where we’re headed: sovereignty by saturation. Think of it as the algorithmic version of the Overton Window, shift what’s sayable by making it shareable. Not policy by persuasion, but power by pixel.
Trump isn’t trolling. He’s terraforming the discourse, one meme at a time. Tragic, yes!
Is he asking to be crowned?! No! He’s already editing the coronation footage….
You always have a fresh perspective that I haven't necessarily thought about, but always do after reading a piece like this. I wonder though how much of this comes from his warped little mind and how much is coming from Vance, Miller, etc.
You're not wrong. I'd only add that this symbolic/mythic claim staking by the world's most famous toxic narcissist is inadequate to his self concept: not as the spiritual axis mundi, but as the mundi. For Trump he is not the state personified, he's not the church personified - he is the sole object or operator in all of existence.
I wonder if this picture is also to make his evangelical supporters laugh and love him more. They've hated the Pope for centuries. And it might also be a way to ridicule Biden's faith.
Wow. This is powerful. I was a history and political science major but haven’t spent my career in that world so I see the historical parallels and the world order shifting but don’t have the depth of experience to clearly articulate what I’m sensing. I’m now a subscriber.
The engine behind the scenes found their useful idiot, who was willing to lower discourse, test traditions and blow decency out of the water, because he's never truly been held accountable for anything. Nixon is seething in jealousy for just being too early in the game. This has been in the works for years, and it's a perfect storm of timing with our algorhythmic and uploadable culture for the disease to spread like wildfire. General degradation in all areas ... it used to be unthinkable for an elected official to swear on air. Now, it's just another Monday in the USA. Meh, move on. Something worse around the corner to distract.
Thank you for your post. This was the message of my sermon this past Sunday when I encouraged my congregation to participate in Easter... to be involved with rather than watch the world go by.
if i say today that the usa is about to become a theocracy people will laugh at me.
i will say it in 3 months, less people will laugh at me.
i will say it next year, no one will laugh because in trumpkistan the subjects of the god king are not allowed to interact with people of other nations, except for wars of annexation.
I hope the Fearless and the Braves can stop this madness
In 65 B.C. Seneca observed what a lifetime’s worth of habits like decency and honor would reap:
“I am no longer good through deliberate intent, but by long habit have reached a point where I am not only able to do right, but am unable to do anything but what is right.”
And in 2021, after watching the remnants of the first wave or Trumpism taking hold, I wrote this essay:
I remember and thought about that piece when I was writing last night.
For me, the important arc of history was recognizing the effect of Roy Cohn. On the one hand, seeing what "having no decency" meant in the face of normative structures that rejected Cohn during McCarthy, and on the other, today, melts like ice in front of a blowtorch.
But there has always been the tension between those driven by a logic of consequences and a logic of morality. Donald Trump appears to be someone who is driven entirely by a logic of consequences. If I stick my hand on the stove, I get burned. Don't do that.
Rape someone? Well, I may have to pay, but so what? I'm rich. Who cares what kind of emotional trauma that might cause?
Commit fraud? Well, I might have to pay, but so what? I'm rich. I can probably defend the suits, and who knows, I might probably win?
The Supreme Court says I have to bring Garcia back? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, who knows, I'll let my lawyers sort that out, what can the Supreme Court really do to me? Congress certainly won't do anything, and if they try, well I'll just have the IRS investigate them, or if I really get creative, maybe I'll just have one of them killed. I mean, what can they really do to me?
That's where we are in America at this point.
Control the narrative with discourse and power, coercion, control, image, reproduction of that image at high velocity.
Why is Senator Murkowksi afraid? Trump is a lame duck President? They all act as if Trump can exact some political toll on them?
Can he?
They think he can. What is it they think he can do?
Sick his MAGA minions to destroy their homes and their lives?
Possibly. Probably. They're as driven by the logic of consequences as he is. Since he pardons them for crimes, and their Attorney General seems wholly uninterested in prosecuting actual federal crimes, what realistic threat do they face?
This is the America we find ourselves in right now.
So, when I say he has no decency, he has no shame... you understood correctly Scott what I was talking about...
There is only consequence... and only power. Power and narrative.
Thanks. You have expressed what I have felt in my bones for a long time but have been unable to explain intelligently.
It is definitely about the insiduous breakdown of societal norms and conventions and the testing of boundaries.
Its easy to ignore Trump's outrages and let it all wash over you. The normalisation or sanewashing by the MSM helps with an easier acceptance of the ideas (eg at the time Trump first brought up Canada as the 51st state, a number of articles appeared as explainers ie "What would Canada look like as part of America".)
While I now better understand the techniques used, the exact purpose of all of this remains unclear to me (ie one or all of gangsterism, Putinism, tech ruled autocracy, oligarchism, etc).
I write from Australia where the political right, who have drunk the Trump Koolaid, have just been thrashed in a national election.
"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made"
Brilliant. The catalyst for my outrage is the breaking of norms, the non-stop test of how far we will let him go.
Yes it is beyond insane - but “norms” whether good or bad are what societies have functioned with, well forever, is this virtual reality going to destroy how we function? ? We cannot survive that as a society , we will simply become the slaves of “whim” - this cannot be allowed to happen
Brilliant. Disturbing. Necessary. And yes, you’re right, Trump isn’t playing chess. He’s redrawing the board in crayon and daring the rest of us to play by the old rules. This is symbolic arson.
Trump doesn’t dominate institutions by commanding them, he dominates by making their meaning negotiable. The meme is the method. He’s turned every sacred ritual into a costume fitting for the theater of sovereign narcissism.
In my opinion what Trump understands (and what most centrists still don’t) is that symbolic power is now more durable than legal power. Laws can be overturned. Rulings can be appealed. But images? They are eternal. Screenshots are forever. You can’t subpoena a meme.
In this way, he’s less Caesar and more Andy Warhol’s Antichrist. He breaks norms, and he flattens them into content. The Pope meme is a signal of domination, yes, but more than that, it’s a declaration that there is no longer such a thing as “off-limits.” Only “uploadable”!
And this is where we’re headed: sovereignty by saturation. Think of it as the algorithmic version of the Overton Window, shift what’s sayable by making it shareable. Not policy by persuasion, but power by pixel.
Trump isn’t trolling. He’s terraforming the discourse, one meme at a time. Tragic, yes!
Is he asking to be crowned?! No! He’s already editing the coronation footage….
You always have a fresh perspective that I haven't necessarily thought about, but always do after reading a piece like this. I wonder though how much of this comes from his warped little mind and how much is coming from Vance, Miller, etc.
Or from id
Interesting observations and diagnosis. Is there a cure other than a bullet?
Thank you for writing and sharing this. It does indeed feel uncomfortably accurate.
Well put.✍🏼
You're not wrong. I'd only add that this symbolic/mythic claim staking by the world's most famous toxic narcissist is inadequate to his self concept: not as the spiritual axis mundi, but as the mundi. For Trump he is not the state personified, he's not the church personified - he is the sole object or operator in all of existence.
I wonder if this picture is also to make his evangelical supporters laugh and love him more. They've hated the Pope for centuries. And it might also be a way to ridicule Biden's faith.
Very facile and astute rendering of surreality. It’s like you’re interpolating reality from the Upside Down.
Wow. This is powerful. I was a history and political science major but haven’t spent my career in that world so I see the historical parallels and the world order shifting but don’t have the depth of experience to clearly articulate what I’m sensing. I’m now a subscriber.
The engine behind the scenes found their useful idiot, who was willing to lower discourse, test traditions and blow decency out of the water, because he's never truly been held accountable for anything. Nixon is seething in jealousy for just being too early in the game. This has been in the works for years, and it's a perfect storm of timing with our algorhythmic and uploadable culture for the disease to spread like wildfire. General degradation in all areas ... it used to be unthinkable for an elected official to swear on air. Now, it's just another Monday in the USA. Meh, move on. Something worse around the corner to distract.
Thank you for your post. This was the message of my sermon this past Sunday when I encouraged my congregation to participate in Easter... to be involved with rather than watch the world go by.
if i say today that the usa is about to become a theocracy people will laugh at me.
i will say it in 3 months, less people will laugh at me.
i will say it next year, no one will laugh because in trumpkistan the subjects of the god king are not allowed to interact with people of other nations, except for wars of annexation.
I hope the Fearless and the Braves can stop this madness
You may want to rethink the name Greyzone.
Check the term in Wikipedia and see https://www.dailydot.com/debug/the-grayzone-max-blumenthal/
In 65 B.C. Seneca observed what a lifetime’s worth of habits like decency and honor would reap:
“I am no longer good through deliberate intent, but by long habit have reached a point where I am not only able to do right, but am unable to do anything but what is right.”
And in 2021, after watching the remnants of the first wave or Trumpism taking hold, I wrote this essay:
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/have-you-no-shame?r=bx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
We (they) have learned nothing.
I remember and thought about that piece when I was writing last night.
For me, the important arc of history was recognizing the effect of Roy Cohn. On the one hand, seeing what "having no decency" meant in the face of normative structures that rejected Cohn during McCarthy, and on the other, today, melts like ice in front of a blowtorch.
But there has always been the tension between those driven by a logic of consequences and a logic of morality. Donald Trump appears to be someone who is driven entirely by a logic of consequences. If I stick my hand on the stove, I get burned. Don't do that.
Rape someone? Well, I may have to pay, but so what? I'm rich. Who cares what kind of emotional trauma that might cause?
Commit fraud? Well, I might have to pay, but so what? I'm rich. I can probably defend the suits, and who knows, I might probably win?
The Supreme Court says I have to bring Garcia back? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, who knows, I'll let my lawyers sort that out, what can the Supreme Court really do to me? Congress certainly won't do anything, and if they try, well I'll just have the IRS investigate them, or if I really get creative, maybe I'll just have one of them killed. I mean, what can they really do to me?
That's where we are in America at this point.
Control the narrative with discourse and power, coercion, control, image, reproduction of that image at high velocity.
Why is Senator Murkowksi afraid? Trump is a lame duck President? They all act as if Trump can exact some political toll on them?
Can he?
They think he can. What is it they think he can do?
Sick his MAGA minions to destroy their homes and their lives?
Possibly. Probably. They're as driven by the logic of consequences as he is. Since he pardons them for crimes, and their Attorney General seems wholly uninterested in prosecuting actual federal crimes, what realistic threat do they face?
This is the America we find ourselves in right now.
So, when I say he has no decency, he has no shame... you understood correctly Scott what I was talking about...
There is only consequence... and only power. Power and narrative.