From the Beginning
Maybe I might've changed
And not been so cruel
Not been such a fool—
--Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Trilogy 1972)
In November of 1923, the leader of the Nazi Party, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP, Adolf Hitler, led a failed coup d'état in Munich that resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazi Party members and 4 police officers. Hitler himself was wounded and later was tried and jailed for treason. The “Beer Hall Putsch” vaulted Hitler into the national spotlight and, while serving only nine months of a five-year sentence, Hitler dictated Mein Kampf and thus began his journey toward taking over the Weimar Republic and becoming one of the most infamous fascists ever to hold power during the early 20th century in Europe.
On January 6, 2021, a “pro-Trump” mob assaulted the US Capitol in a failed attempt to overthrow the US government in ‘protest’ of an election for which they had been told for two months straight was “rigged,” “fraudulent” and “stolen.” For two months, far-right media and social media platforms had been filled with chatter of violent extremism. The app, Telegram was filled with group chats about how to bring weapons into DC. Ferfuxsake, all 10 living former defense secretaries felt it critical to issue a letter to speak out regarding the US military being used to overturn an election. On January 4th, the ADL issued a stark warning about violence in the Capitol on the 6th. None of this fomenting of violence was hidden. Far right extremists have gone out of their way to promote hate speech and violence on social media platforms. Every intelligence agency in the United States was fully aware that January 6th was going to be a powder keg. Every one of them. It was planned.
Prior to the riot, a sitting president of the United States, along with a cadre of sycophants including Rudy Giuliani, Mo Brooks, Lin Wood and Donald Trump Jr., gave speeches filled with violent rhetoric…amping up the crowd of right-wing terrorists…prepping them for an assault and putsch on the US government. Even though US Intelligence officials have identified White Supremacists as one of the most dangerous threats to national security, groups like the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Bois, Three Percenters, Patriot Prayer and American Neo-Nazis were allowed to gather in the Capitol and attack the US Capitol building.
Back in September, I wrote about how the Trump-inspired Neo-Nazi terror has grown and gained momentum in the United States…and, has been sanctioned by the The Council for National Policy (Dominionists) and, in many cases, by law enforcement themselves.
This marriage of law enforcement and far-right, primarily white-supremacist, groups is the closest our country has come to having an SS, or Storm Troopers…a standing army ready to do the bidding of a Dear Leader. On the 6th of January, among the violent putsch crowd, there were people wearing ‘Camp Auschwitz’ sweatshirts and clothing that had the acronym “6MWE,” which stands for Six Million Wasn’t Enough. These hateful, anti-Semitic, slogans are part of the wardrobe for the “Proud Boys.” You remember the Proud Boys, they were the ones that Trump told to Stand Back and Stand By at the first presidential debate. That night, the Proud Boys immediately began selling merchandise with the slogan. “White Supremacists Are Already Selling “Stand Back, Stand By” T-Shirts.”
What the Fuck Did You Think Would Happen?
“Erich Fromm defined malignant narcissism in 1964. He described it as a condition in which an individual is characterized by grandiloquent, antisocial, and hostile behavior. The people who have it dehumanize every scenario they’re in. Their lack of empathy and Machiavellianism could harm people.”
Every one of us that has been shouting into the wind for the past five years has been telling you that this was coming. Erich Fromm talked about what he called the fifth essence of evil. In the middle of 2020, Mary Trump tried to warn us in: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. Everything about Trump, from the escalator ride through last Wednesday, has been a live TV broadcast of a sick madman. A person so obsessed with power and the deep need for validation that they are extremely dangerous to humanity. “These are people who feel superior, have lack of empathy, and are obsessed with having the complete attention of those around them.”
Just as with every other dictator throughout history, Trump has created a cult of personality that holds enormous power over the cultists. Every autocrat for the last 100 years has used the EXACT SAME PLAYBOOK. There are, absolutely, no new plans. As Anne Applebaum points out in: Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, the march toward autocracy is a step-by-step playbook.
As we witness the death throes of Trump’s attempted coup of the United States, we must remember that what we are actually witnessing is The End Of The Beginning. Not one person that is alive today can ever again ask themselves how the Nazis murdered six million Jews.
We now have a culture of extreme narcissism. Social media are platforms for every individual to live in an alternative reality where they are the gods of their keyboards. The dissemination of disinformation and lies is amplified across the platforms. In 2021, our only short-term saving grace is that the cult leader was an absolute and total fucking moron. A two-bit con man and huckster who has failed at everything he has ever done his entire life. The harsh reality is that Everything Trump Touches Dies.
Replete with a reboot of the Nazi propaganda that led to the rise of Nazism…today’s cult is just a tired rebranding of the exact same bile and insanity that was puked up by the Nazis. The entire “QAnon” movement is just old, worn-out racists tropes that have existed since 1200 AD. Here we have the ultimate in narcissism…an entire cult of people that believe they are ‘patriots,’ out to ‘save the country.’ And if the cult leader tells you to take up arms and storm the US capitol and hang the vice president, then you fucking do it! Yes, an actual gallows was erected by Trump supporters outside the Capitol: Mob chants ‘Hang Mike Pence’ in video from Capitol riots.
Twitterstorm No More
This is just the first taste of autocracy for the world’s oldest democracy. The task before us now is monumental. It only took a failed coup in which five people lost their lives, including the murder of a DC Capitol police officer, for Twitter and Facebook to finally shut down the fire hose of lies and violent rhetoric spewing from the mouth of the Dear Leader. A far too little too late effort that happens while the extreme alt-right platforms of 4chan, Telegram, Gab and Parler fill up with more and more plans for violent insurrection and sedition.
We are witnessing only the very beginning of a movement towards authoritarianism in the United States. “Contempt for the government and its work is a rhetorical trope shared by the current crop of the world’s antipolitical leaders…” Every single person that was bamboozled into thinking that a reality TV show con man would somehow save them from the big bad gubment now falls into one of two categories. In column one, are the nut jobs, the Lin Wood’s, Rudy Giuliani’s and the Sydney Powell’s. They are incapable of admitting they fell for the con. So, out of total embarrassment and unrecognized shame, they continue to live the big lie. Column two are the sane ones who came to grips with the reality that they fell for the oldest con in the world and are now committed to reclaiming democracy for the sake of the Republic.
We are not talking about the ne'er-do-well back-pedalers that are hastily trying to beat a retreat away from their horrible judgement. No, this is a moment where the optics of watching a tatted-up dude in a furry, horned hat and a Chewbacca bikini yelping at the top of his lungs in the Capitol Rotunda is enough to make them finally say; “Wow, I seriously fucked this one up.”
Democracy or Trump
“An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatised, as the off-spring of a temper fond of despotic power and hostile to the principles of liberty.” –Alexander Hamilton: The Federalist No. 1
Every American should now be calling for the most forceful and undeniable prosecution of every single person involved in the putsch. Every last one of them, from the piece-of-shit Trumpers that had the gall to replace the American flag with a Trump flag on the Capitol to every last politician involved in the Big Lie and the fomenting of the coup. This includes Trump, Cruz, Hawley, Johnson, Brooks, Limbaugh, Carlson, Hannity, Giuliani and the Seditious Seven, as well as the 138 House members that participated in the putsch.
This is NOT fucking analog. This shit is real. 18 U.S. Code CHAPTER 115. We need a tribunal, a high-court, and extreme sentences and sanctions brought against every single person that has contributed to and participated in the coup. No quarter, zero tolerance. If we do not make an extreme example out of these people…we will see the next Trump appear in the blink of an eye and America will once again be staring at autocracy and the end of the Republic.
No kid gloves, no mollycoddling, zero mercy. Every last one of these people must be tried and punished and made extreme examples of what happens when you violate an oath or violate the Constitution of the United States. Trump must be impeached, barred from ever holding office again, and imprisoned for the damage and shame he has brought upon this country.
Every Western Democracy is in shock and every authoritarian country is in glee over what the United States has become under the failed leadership of this wannabe dictator. Our country must put this man down, make his chapter stand forever as a shameful exhibition of what complete and total disregard for the rule of law means for any tinpot asshole that tries to follow in his footsteps. Make it clear that our Republic, our nation will never again allow this corruption and usurping of our values and traditions.
“Anyone who took part in this astonishing attempt to subvert the will of the American voters should be arrested, charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. People should go to prison for this — and for a very long time.”
There will be no ‘healing,’ no ‘looking forward,’ until we collectively make examples out of every single one of the traitors. “Whether it’s politics or confronting anti-democracy hooligans on the street, the time for appeasement is over. Our Republic is under direct threat from authoritarian forces, who don’t believe in the rule of law or the right to vote, and we would be wise to act accordingly. Such tyranny should be given no quarter and we must play our part in preserving our democracy.”