Doug's Darkworld

97 days to the weirdest election of my life. At least I hope there’s an election. Came across the above, basically true. Trump’s campaign platform is that he’s going to fix problems he created. Plus problems that don’t exist. Covid-19, oh yeah, he’ll have a vaccine by early next year and the army is on standby to deliver it! Woohoo, Covid-19 will all go away if Trump gets reelected, he promises! Right. It may not even be possible to develop a vaccine against Covid-19. Or it might be like the flu vaccine, helpful, but doesn’t eliminate the flu. Also, huge numbers of Americans won’t even wear a piece of cloth on their face, not to mention the USA is the world capital of anti-vaxxers. Safe to say that large numbers of Americans will resist getting a vaccine. And the bottom line is that even if we get a vaccine, it’s only one part of the sort of comprehensive test/trace/quarantine program required to get Covid-19 under control. A program which as yet Trump refuses to create. Then of course the idea that the guy whose incompetence made America the worst hit by Covid-19 nation is going to fix it, is, well, somewhere between pathetic and ludicrous.

And then there’s the “riots” and “cities under siege” Trump’s going to fix. He was even talking about sending 75,000 cops/troops into American cities. Where the hell these 75,000 cops are going to come from is anyone’s guess. I’d say something rude about where Trump’s going to pull them from, but I’ll leave it up to the gentle reader to imagine. And in any event the demonstrations (there was little to no rioting) were dying down until Trump sent in his DHS wannabe cops, who blew the situation up and triggered more protests.  Oh, yes, there’s been police riots, but Faux News doesn’t mention those.

I don’t even want to go into the idea that Biden is some sort of arch socialist who’s going to destroy America, or that the protestors are all arch anarchists trying to destroy America. It’s freaking ludicrous, but people believe it. Saw a Facebook meme today about hunting protesters for sport, and it was serious. Thanks Trump, you’ve done more to turn Americans against each other than any president in my lifetime.

Moving right along, here’s a good editorial: “What the coronavirus has revealed is the power of America’s cult of selfishness. And this cult is killing us.” Worth a read, though us old folks who have watched America turn into a land of selfish children the past few decades will no doubt be familiar with much of it.

An article by a reformed Covid-19 truther, a fellow who was adamant that Covid-19 was all just a Democratic hoax to make Trump look bad. And  he caught it himself, and infected a number of relatives, some of whom died. Yeah, a wake up call for him. I’ve mentioned this before, but most truthers of any ilk face essentially zero personnel consequences for their beliefs and actions. Sandy Hookers, 9/11 Truthers, Birthers, whatever. They can hold their beliefs and suffer nothing worse than occasional ridicule. Which if anything will reinforce their beliefs. Covid-19 Truthers, yeah, sooner or later there will almost certainly be serious consequences for their beliefs. Covid-19 doesn’t give a shit what you believe. Sadly though Covid-19 Truthers won’t read this article, and even if they did they would dismiss it as just fake news. Until Covid-19 kills someone they know there’s little likelihood of them coming around, especially with so many public figures still spewing “It’s only a cold!” and other such dogs*t.

Q-Anon. I’d heard of them, but was only vaguely familiar. In brief: “The world of QAnon is one in which Trump is a lone, heroic warrior, the only person strong enough to take a stand against a nebulous entity they call the “deep state”. The deep state is a secret shadow government, led by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, philanthropist George Soros, and others, existing to facilitate unspecified corruption and — hold onto your hats — their global pedophilia ring. In the QAnon world, the US Democratic party, the deep state, and pedophilia are essentially synonymous.” Yes, gentle readers, actual human beings actually believe this. Sigh. As the article says, sociologists will be studying this for decades, up there with the Tulip mania and other such mass delusions. Anyhow, a good article deconstructing the Q-anon phenomenon.

Lastly, several readers have asked if I want to reconsider my Trump isn’t  Hitler article of 2018. Honestly, yes and no. In many senses I stand by it, I think such comparisons can limit our thinking. On the other hand, not any question that whatever Trump is or isn’t, I am far more horrified by Trump now than I was then. I still think WW3 with millions of Americans sent to concentration camps is unlikely, but sure not going to bet on it. I will add that there is a parallel between the two I missed. Both men were absolutely convinced of what they believed and said. Self confidence at a level that, well, sane people in touch with reality can never achieve. Reality is way too complicated and nuanced for absolute assurance. This trait however is why both Trump and Hitler developed a cult like following, a lot of people just can’t resist a leader who exudes absolute confidence. Human nature I guess, another one for the sociologists, psychologists, and historians to ponder.

Lastly, there’s an increasing possibility, which I don’t see many people mentioning, that even if Trump doesn’t turn into Hitler, he may do such grave damage to the republic that someone far far worse than Trump could seize power.

Sleep tight gentle readers. Stay safe. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Random image publicly posted on Facebook of unknown genesis, used without permission.)