A Total Eclipse of the Truth
The subversion of democracy by uncontrolled capitalism and lunatics threatens to cost us everything
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
― Aldous Huxley
The eclipse in Buffalo was a moody, cloudy affair. When it passed over, the darkness triggered the hundred-year-old, cast iron streetlamps. A guy across the street took pictures with his phone, and a group of neighbors down the block gathered on a rooftop porch. There were some hoots and hollers and a few firecrackers. To me, these sounds stole from the moment. Aren’t the heavens and the vastness of infinity, enough to be impressed? Do our tiny earthling squeaking sounds add to the moment or detract from it?
I was happy with the murky view, as I was able to look without protective glasses. The obscuring clouds felt appropriate for the times.
After all, in spite of living in the so-called information age and the Earth being proven round over 2000 years ago by Eratosthenes, the Greek mathematician and head of the Great Library at Alexandria, we live in remarkable ignorance. With a simple stick in the ground casting a shadow of seven degrees, he proved the curvature of the Earth and calculated its circumference to within a few hundred kilometers. Similarly, Copernicus proved the Earth revolves around the sun without the aid of a telescope, not the other way around, as the almighty, all knowing Roman Catholic Church obstinately insisted.
The Flat Earthers and their like — the climate changed deniers, the Christian Fascist nut cases, the capitalist predators, the people who believe the ultimate expression of freedom is to own enough automatic weapons to mow down a city block and let their kids go to school with them — are acting out and coming for you. They continue to support Trump, always a vile, soulless husk of a humanoid who is rapidly descending into dementia, as a means to their end, morality be damned.
Trump’s mental health
To get a detailed picture of Trump’s mental decline, I highly recommend reading this disturbing article by journalist and lawyer Jay Kuo, an interview of John Gartner, a psychologist, psychotherapist and the founder of Duty To Warn, a group of mental health professionals who have been calling attention to Trump’s sociopathy since 2017. Duty to warn isn’t just a group, it’s a responsibility mental health professionals have, to disclose information about patients who may become violent. Most states have laws that either require or at least permit this.
In Jay’s article, Gartner warns of five conditions of Trump’s increasingly challenged brain that make him unfit for office and worsen his sociopathic behavior. My highly condensed take:
Decline from baseline: Trump, if always a sociopath, was once highly articulate. He possessed a broad vocabulary and spoke in coherent thoughts. Now, he is frequently unable to finish a sentence or find a word. Symptomatic of dementia, he repeats himself and relies on fillers and superlatives.
Memory: Aging often involves forgetting names and dates. However, Trump has repeatedly said he’s running against Obama. He mixes up Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi. Confusing your arch rivals in a presidential bid, is not part of normal memory loss.
Language: Trump displays phonemic aphasia or paraphrasia, that is non-words replacing real words. In recent rallies, he has said, “We have becrumb a nation,” “I know Poten,” and “All comp-ply-ments” to Joe Biden. He has said, “crimakle” for criminal, “Rusher” for Russia, and “space-capsicle” for space capsule. He does this in written posts as well. It is not a speech issue. For instance, in a post, he wrote; “Joe Buden DISINFORMATES AND MISINFORMATES.”
Motor performance: Trump displays a wide-based gait, poor fine motor coordination, and leans forward, evidence of frontotemporal dementia.
Behavior: Trump’s impulse control and judgment are becoming more paranoid, aggressive and confused. His inability to control himself is manifested in court, defying court orders and risking more lawsuits as he continues to attack E. Jean Carroll, after being convicted of sexual abuse and defamation. His inability to exercise self-control has resulted in yet another lawsuit.
Solar eclipse lunacy
Trump displays the characteristics of both a grifter and lunatic. Grifters and lunatics have become a norm these days. Both prey on ignorance. Alex Jones of Infowars shame represents grift, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, lunacy. Both were out from under their rocks for the eclipse.
Jones, is the far right conspiracist who disgustingly claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. As we know, after killing his mother, Adam Lanza shot 20 little kids dead, just six to seven years old and six adults. At the time, I thought surely this would bring about reasonable gun control legislation. Silly me.
Jones claimed the relatives of the victims were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns. He was tried in court and ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages. So far he has refused, walks free and continues to peddle disinformation and snake oil “health” supplements on his website.
Leading up to the eclipse, Jones claimed that the government is planning to use the event as a practice run for declaring martial law if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. He posted a nearly eight-minute long video on X, that then goes on to hawk his bogus products for the last three. If this isn’t end stage capitalism, I don’t know what is.
Of course, God-fearing, automatic weapon toting, shit for brains Marjorie Taylor Greene was not to be outdone. On Friday, before the eclipse, she wrote on X, “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.” Of course, there are many more “things” to come. Hundreds of earthquakes happen in the US every year (read up on tectonic plates, Marjorie) and eclipses are easily predictable events from a science called astronomy. Do you believe the sun revolves around the Earth, as well?
People like Donald Trump, Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene can only exist in a society gone terribly wrong.
As we stumble forward, it depresses me that there are so many gullible and angry people in this country to fall for these lies and flimflam demagoguery. As scary and awful as some of them are — Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Neo Nazis — and as insane as the conspiracy theories — Pizza Gate and QAnon, our culture produced these people. There is something sick at the heart of America. Even if not sympathetic, these terrible people are victims taught to hate and lash out at the wrong people. At one time, they were just innocent babies without opinions.
The entire wealth of this nation has been built on victims world over.
The sickness is a massive failure of our society, an unsustainable economic model in ecological terms, exported to the world by politicians bought by corporations who passed laws and ignored others to enable unconscionable wealth inequality. The only thing that kept the lid on this boiling pot, was the ability to do well, or at least the illusion that could happen. Now, most of us don’t do well.
Some speculate that a civil war could be in the offing. This can’t be discounted. America has always been divided. There are so many fault lines. Racism has always been here. Religious intolerance has always been here. Revulsion towards those of different sexual orientation, has always been here. And now Trump, the most absurd of all false hope, threatens to be the fuse that lights the fire.
It’s class warfare, people. It’s always class warfare. Everything else is divide and conquer strategy. They want us to be enemies as the world is drowning and burning from climate change. That furthers their goals. Last June, I wrote about Canada on fire. I’m waiting to smell Canada in my Buffalo, NY dining room office again. That is the truth.
“People like Donald Trump, Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene can only exist in a society gone terribly wrong.”
Compelling evidence of a diseased society.
And it's a disease that infects so much of the developed world.
Everywhere--the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia, Brazil--everywhere people choose to believe the improbable, because the obvious truth, that they hadbit all, but now are pampered slaves destined to live in an unliveable world, is too terrible to contemplate.