My Reality, Right or Wrong

The president of the United States today, aided and abetted by his lawyer Rudi Giulliani, incited the population to attempt a coup.

Nothing would surprise me anymore when it comes to the president himself. What more would we expect from such a deluded, narcissistic sociopath?

What truly amazes me is the vast number of people prepared to believe his baseless claims, and to take part in mass sedition on the president’s behalf.

Do none of these people have any concept of reality?

Clearly they do not. The electoral process has taken its course and every legal appeal attempted by the president’s apparatchiks has been struck down and (frequently) criticised by judges for being vexatious and unsupported by any kind of evidence.

Could all of the judges be wrong? (As the president claims.)

Do his supporters actually read the reports? Any of them?

From afar, it looks to me as though a large part of America no longer believes anyone or anything that does not come from their own political echo chamber. If they are not hearing what they already believe, they get angry and ignore – or even attack – the source of that irritating narrative.

This is absolutely a result of the downfall of the traditional media. The (so-called) democratisation of publishing and information on the internet has seen the rise of countless alternative news sources plus the emasculation of journalistic standards.

It is definitely a good thing that everyone can have a voice, but it is a very bad thing that so many voices are dedicated to pushing barrows supporting narrow self-serving agendas. And many of these self-serving, anonymous voices are spruiking news, platforms and ideas which are designed solely to manipulate – for financial or political gain.

Some of the most respected news sources in the world are no longer reporting the facts in any kind of objective manner. They have abandoned editorial integrity and jumped on the same bandwagon as the loony left, the far religious right, the Instagram influencers, the anti-vaxxers and all the other scumbag scammers.

The truth doesn’t matter. It’s only click-volume that counts.

So what will the ex-president do next?

This is the reality TV star who treated America as his own show and is trying to change the rules at the death to stay relevant.

My bet is that he will do two things. He will announce his candidature for the 2024 election.

And when other Republicans line up to describe his presidency as the worst (and most divisive since Lincoln) and shuffle into place to push their own next candidacy, the president will quit the party and start his own party – called (something like) the American Patriot Party.

A very large proportion of the seventy million people who voted for him will switch their allegiance to the new party, which will hamstring the Republicans for years and might even see their demise in favour of the new party which will be all about fomenting belief in fake reality.

To that end, the president will probably set up his own media empire, rivalling Fox, whose reporters will perceive every issue while draped in the flag and carrying a cross. Many tens of millions will believe them, no matter what they say, because this is the politics of allegiance: my party, right or wrong.

My reality, right or wrong.

Meanwhile, in his waning weeks, the president continues to antagonise China and Iran in a period where no major policy decisions should ever be made – especially regarding aggressive foreign policy. This is nothing short of sabre rattling in the hope both of cruelling Biden’s pitch or even inciting enough of a national emergency to warrant (an attempted) declaration of martial law.

Is there absolutely nothing? No act so low and unprincipled it is beyond him?

As Blackthorne said to Toranaga in James Clavell’s magnificent Shogun: “There are no mitigating circumstances for rebellion…unless you win.”

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