"By treating conservatism and conservatives as reasonable and acceptable we not only legitimize the unspeakable, we massively enhance its likelihood of successfully killing us."
But we're not done yet. Conservatism also means death to the truth. Of course, when it comes to Herr Bloated Pumpkinhead and the current administration, the scale of dishonesty is absolutely epic. It is literally no exaggeration to say that a consumer of any generic statement by this White House would be more likely to know the truth by simply assuming its opposite is the case, than he or she would by accepting any given tweet or Spicerism as fact. No wonder Orwell is selling like hotcakes these days. This is a true "2+2=5" moment, Winston.
It's hardly surprising that a career New York City real estate developer who has spent a lifetime doing little but shameless self-promotion and fabricating scams running the gamut from bottled water to bottled diplomas would be unable to speak truthfully about nearly anything. And of course, when we say 'anything' here, we mean... anything. What's somewhat astonishing and most definitely disturbing, however, is the reaction that his compulsive tendency to lie produces among the roughly forty percent of Americans who form his political base. What has gone so wrong in the lives of these 'conservatives' that they not only tolerate being lied to incessantly, but actually crave it? This is not the place for an extended discussion of that question, but suffice it to say that conservatism's appeal among the public -- including many whom it harms the most -- cannot be understood outside the realm of political psychology. One might view these 'comfortably numb-nuts' as the rightful inheritors of America's storied Know Nothing tradition, but in fact that's too generous a label, since it turns out that it is actually possible in this world to know less than nothing if you're willing to work hard enough at it. When you believe that Iraq really had WMD, or that cutting taxes on billionaires will get you a sweet job, or that Donald Trump has your back, well then, graduating to the status of being a full-blown Know Nothing truly is something for which you are well-positioned to aspire.
This is where, alas, the Founders got it wrong, with their Enlightenment model of rationally calculating citizens. A good hundred million plus Americans have literally lost their minds in our time and, in order to soothe the resentments torturing their savage souls, they are taking down the country around their heads as they descend into an emotionally satisfying madness.
Or, at least it used to be the country they are taking down. Now it's the world. With the president's destruction of the Paris climate change accord, American conservatism is now bringing it on a planetary scale. Could this possibly be more jaw-dropping in its sheer stupidity? We are talking here about a phenomenon that literally threatens life on this planet, and conservatives -- who are otherwise so consumed with fear so much of the time -- insist on rejecting slam-dunk scientific evidence and making sure that we perish instead. Again, the pathological psychology of these folks is the only way to understand such a suicide mission, such an act of terrorism on a global scale. The president's speech was entirely laced with the rhetoric of bogus grievance -- about how the United States is the laughing stock of the world because we're being duped and cheated by smarter, tougher, more cynical countries, and blah, blah, freaking blah... Apart from the sheer absurdity of this trope on the basis of any sort of actual logic or fact, there remains this outstanding question: Even if it was all true, who the hell cares? If the planet winds up being destroyed, does it really matter whether in the preceding years one country's GDP grew a half-percent slower than that of some other countries? What's that old line about deck chairs...? Could there be any other accurate term for a belief system that so jeopardizes an entire planet than 'death machine'?
We need to stop fooling around with this sh*t. Smallpox is not just another disease. Totalitarianism is not just another political system. Nuclear war is not just another form of conflict. And what calls itself 'conservatism' today is not just another form of legitimate, maybe-they're-right-maybe-they're-wrong, ideology.
All of these are life-threatening pathologies of epic proportion. It's bad enough that we have to expend so much energy to keep them at bay. But, by treating conservatism and conservatives as reasonable and acceptable we not only legitimize the unspeakable, we massively enhance its likelihood of successfully killing us.
Today's 'conservatism' is not an ideology -- it's a goddam death machine. And we should welcome it into our homes and communities every bit as much as we would the Black Plague.
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