It may truly be time to throw in the towel on democracy and I’ll tell you why. George Orwell predicted that the masses could be controlled by mass communication. You remember the telescreen from “1984?” And now there’s one just like it on your wall? And it’s only a question of time, maybe, before it starts watching you back? But even if it doesn’t, even if the watching only goes one way, that’s more than enough to brainwash you.

We live in a world with a huge bandwidth of information, greater than at any time in history. Life is simply more complicated nowadays. Yes, we have a lot of terrific conveniences and comforts, unimagined decades ago. If you had told me as a 10 year old, for example, that one day I would have a gadget that was a combination typewriter and color TV and I could use it to talk to people all over the world, I would have been gobsmacked. Or that the phone of the future could show me movies and give me directions while driving the car, better than a friend reading a map, same reaction.

The good news about technology is how it’s brought us together and improved the quality of our lives. The bad news is that the internet and broadcast television have both become tools of disinformation and that has resulted in a cultural schism, where Americans listen to either one version of reality or the other. Disinformation flowers. Couple that sad truth with the fact that a failed educational system has produced an electorate not only lacking critical thinking skills but lacking even the basic awareness that such things exist, or are desirable to cultivate, and you have a recipe for disaster. If you think I’m hyperbolic or worry overmuch, you tell me how many people voted for Trump in 2020. And then tell me it’s not that big a problem.

Take a look at MAGA poster child of the day, in attendance at the Save America Summit at the Trump National Doral in Florida.

I don’t despise this woman, I pity her. And she scares me. She flat out doesn’t know anything and whether she’s teachable is questionable at best. And this is who the Republican party is counting upon. For the first time in history, at least that I’m aware, the ignorant are being cultivated as a voting bloc. In the past the Democrats have been criticized for being the party of identity politics, supposedly fitting everybody into little boxes, are you gay, are you female, immigrant, Jewish, disabled, some other group. The Republicans don’t care about any of that — they just want to know if you’re stupid. And if the response to that is blessedly yes, then Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, we could go on and on, have a little play acting that they’re going to do for you. And if you think their skit is real, and you vote Republican, then bye bye Democracy. And they’re fine with that. As David Frum said, “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically [and they’re freaking over election protection laws as we speak] they will not abandon conservatism. They’ll reject democracy.”

And bear in mind that Conservatism, as that term used to be understood, is no longer with us. She drowned in the bathtub she wanted to kill government in, so forget about her. Worry instead about the sharks that took her place and are running what’s left of the GOP. That’s who’s plotting the death of democracy as we know it right now. They never cared about Conservatism, per se. She was just the minnow to be eaten while going after the big catch, which is Power.

And the tragic thing is, the woman in this video and the others like her will never know what hit them. When this great country is gone and they were the instruments of its demise, manipulated by the worst, most venal and greedy people ever to seek political office, they won’t know. Because the people in power will just keep feeding them disinformation and lies and blaming it on somebody or something else. Because the GOP also bumped off Accountability one night. She was always a pain, they couldn’t do her in soon enough.

I weep for America. I weep for what is possibly to come. I tell myself this woman has to be in the minority and then I chant my mantra, “73 million?” and that brings me back down to reality. That’s a lot of dummies, yet that’s how many there were that voted against their own interests in 2020. How many more times can America dodge the bullet and survive? At the very least, to be even asking the question shows what shaky ground we are on at this time in history.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. My sister sent my husband a message the other day saying she missed us, a day later she sent him a text saying not to get the vaccination because it is an evil plot/conspiracy. I cried for the whole day.

    • I’m delighted to see you here. I saw your hiatus diary over at DK. I’m saddened to hear about your sister. I have never understood that situation and I know you don’t understand it either. These people don’t seem to understand what’s at stake. They think it’s all about opinions and personalities on the TV and they can’t see what the reality is. They scare me.

      • It is so hard to deal with. I don’t see a way to talk to someone who does not believe in science, facts, or reality. I was hoping that she was going to come out of this, i guess that is not going to happen.

        • To paraphrase an old saying: You can lead a person to knowledge but you can’t make them think. (A harsher way I think of some of the former once dear friends I’ve lost is: You can lead a horse’s ass to knowledge but you can’t make them think!”) My own sister and I are on the outs and I’m not sure the relationship is repairable anymore. It’s been like watching my aunt’s descent into political madness all over again, only my sister is quite a bit younger than my aunt was when she dropped off the edge of the cliff of objective reasoning.

          • I can sympathize with both of you! I lost a good friend of many years. I watched as he started listening to Limbaugh and his clones on AM talk radio, started believing in conspiracy theories, and went from being a caring person to a trumpanzee who only cares about himself.

        • I read it too, Mae, and I’m so very sorry. As you can see here (and so many other places), so many are in your shoes and I feel for you all. I consider myself lucky that I was never that close to anyone like that in my life to begin with, so I don’t bear your sadness and loss. And I’ve seen it; people you think have common sense just turn on a dime. Unbelievable. Hugs to you all.

  2. The problem with thinking is u have to discard what u are comfortable with & open ur mind to infinite possibilities. Like exercise, it requires effort. When half the country is obese, which leads to early death, & yet won’t get off their collective asses, it’s no shock they want to face death as numb & stupid as possible. In 1930 the desperate German people thought the Nazis were crazy. 1933, Hitler steals power, eliminates his ‘enemies’, & the German people started goose-stepping down the street, even allowing their children to be brutalized in Hitler youth camps. North Korea starts in the crib. Someday thinking people may have to fight once again for freedom. Apologists here spout beliefs that the fascists in America are so stupid & unorganized, they will just fade away. History says otherwise. Denial of danger is what led to WW2.

  3. Conservatism, in the GOP, drowned when it was held underwater by Fascism. And once Fascism is in charge, there’s no agenda and no philosophy left other than blatant, ruthless power. It’s long past time to stop referring euphemistically to Repugnicans as Conservatives and simply call them what they are: Fascists. The same scum that a heroic generation of Americans went to war to destroy 80 years ago.

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