Whose truth is true? Political ideology as the new religion
As we enter a new year, Dr. Alex Vickery-Howe reflects on the anxieties and grievances that lead to competing realities in a post-truth world.
CONVICTED CRIME Donald Trump He replaced the former president Joe Biden’s face with an autopen portrait. aspect “History student”, accordingly White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (how did he say that without laughing?), Trump labels Joe Biden ‘sleepy’, Barack Obama “divider” and Ronald Reagan and “Young Trump fan”.
This is so pathetic.
This is almost as pathetic as salivating over a “peace cup” (*cough* bribe). a sports organization. You know, what your minions insist on doing as big as possible To compensate for Trump’s damage minor fungus problem. When will the Nobel Committee start rewarding the “best and fairest” on the football field? This would be the next logical cultural moment.
Frankly, Trump has many reasons to distract the public. photos deceased financier and pedophile jeffery epstein We’re obviously blaming Trump further, but are we really at the point where he’s rewriting reality?
Maybe…
Maybe everyone does this. Political ideology is the new religion. Listen to me.
Are we all fascists now? Are we all marching to the beat of our community leader’s drum? I have been asking this question about the contemporary United States for some time; always being conscious that if the biggest – or at least the loudest – democracy is fallingthen others become vulnerable.
Contrary to Republican propaganda, the Founding Fathers believed that their new nation It will not be related to religion at all. It’s a strange confirmation bias that right-wing pundits conveniently forget that the separation of church and state is enshrined in the United States. Constitution the right to bear arms to prevent blinkered religious dogma from infecting political decisions appeared only in a particular answer to War of Independence.
Simply put, last thing It was a group of people that General Washington and his friends wanted. brainwashed, Bible-reading ignorant people run around with AK-47s. The Founding Fathers left the United Kingdom to build a modern and free country. They were not interested in dictatorships; They had fought only one king. I apply a lot but David Bowie‘s ‘This Is Not America‘ The song that summarizes the decade we are in. As the United States loses its way, the Western world also loses its way.
Yes, Puritans muddied the waters Pushing an extreme religious agenda in America’s early days, but the Puritans believed in witchcraft and I don’t think we want to go back to their sense of “community” any time soon, do we?
To trace the beginning of our current “culture war” I would look at this: Pat Buchanan and the way it galvanized conservative anxiety in the mid-90s. What we are really talking about when we say “conservative anxiety” is White Christian anxiety. He weaponized people’s irrationality and sent the United States into war. political free fall. Most importantly, Buchanan and others like him; I think we let Bush family You’re too kind and don’t get me started. Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Cheney – It fundamentally distorted what America is. They desecrated the land of the free and claimed it to be the land of the converted.
Enter Trump.
Make America Great Again The movement is a “community” fueled by the anxieties Buchanan fueled. A truly great America is one consistent with the secular values of the Founding Fathers. What Trump has been blowing the whistle on since 2016 is clearly this: Make America White Again or Make America Christian Again.
This kind of nonsense has nothing to do with America and everything to do with the insecurities of Trump’s target audience. The bigotry is sharp, but so is the absurdity. Anyone who thinks they can neatly package individuals into broad categories has a very childish understanding of the human experience. No human being can be boxed and labeled. We are not pottery.
I don’t believe for a second that Trump is religious. Everything about his hedonism (*cough* guilty) lifestyle is a blatant rejection of Christian teachings and let’s be honest, man doesn’t know anything about the Bible and struggles in a funny way each time he is asked to choose his favorite verse. His knowledge of the New Testament is next to my knowledge of mathematics. I failed business mathematics in high school.
What Trump does – and I support you, Donnie, you do it very, very well – Parroting the language of the Christian Right to deprive his flock of their life savings. He is building a “community”.
Considering the cons, this much better More than his crooked university, no doubt carrying salmonella steak and his, ahem, mortgage company (Lord, imagine having a dream Trump as your mortgage broker. Oh, I took God’s name in vain). The reason the scam works is that, like any good capitalist model, it identifies a gap in the market and exploits that gap for financial reward.
In this case, the gap in the market is working-class people, disenfranchised people, and downright poor people who are said to be in positions of power. middle and upper class people who are actually in positions of power. For a change, this isn’t a lie made up by Trump. Tragically this is a lie the left made magic and promoted Inside our own echo chamber. Our own “community”.
Trump has his masters, of course. Far Right he really doesn’t care About the barely educated clown. The target has always been the Supreme Court. Roe v Wadekeeping the poor uneducated and the herd under control. The forces behind Trump Less Apprentice and more The Handmaid’s Tale.
Like stupid “influencers” Australia’s response to political polarization in the US, which has degenerated from parroting misinformation to playing its own game, is this: Consider legislating against Provocative lies spread on the Internet. This is a discussion we need to have.
The tragedy of the anti-Semitic Bondi massacre Prime Minister forced Albanese face concrete consequences cruel words in cyberspace. We see it too Deepfakes targeting female police officers in misogynistic hate campaigns Besides crazy conspiracy theories He blames Israeli intelligence for the terrible attack.
Now everyone has their own version of reality. Fundamentalists. Subtleties. political activists related to every extreme. There are dozens of competing “truths” and hundreds of rising voices. Everyone says this to their competitors:educate yourself”. What they mean is this: “Accept my truth universally. Otherwise.”
If we are truly in a post-truth malaise, then it’s no surprise that Trump has written a series of spiteful presidential op-eds and called them “history.” He can get away with it because others do it too. After all, tearing up the norms of polite American society and imposing a new “truth” is exactly why Trump was elected.
Those suffering economic and social deprivation sent the bad businessman back to the White House. what is left of him – because they were tired of being ignored. They were tired of others’ “truth” winning. What else would the destruction of the East Wing mean, if not the destruction of democratic symbols and the construction of a new “truth”? Why else Trump? slap your name on the Kennedy Center if not to deal a blow to the hearts of the “cultural elite” Shunned him in New York when they keep them away from them “Overpass” and “Rust Belt” situations In 2016 and before?
Look at the language everyone uses, it is obvious that reality is now malleable. Trump constantly boasts The “legacy” of the White House When he was John F. Kennedy’s nephew Kerry KennedyTrump is preparing to restore “truth” as soon as he leaves office.
Kennedy posted the following On Twitter:
‘Three years and one month from today, I will pick up a pickaxe. [sic] And I’ll get those letters out of the building, but I’ll need help holding the ladder. ‘Are you in there?’
Much of this phenomenon is tied to social anxiety. People are no longer comfortable sitting with different perspectives. They need their “truth” to achieve victory. seen in recent years Riots and murders over statues. What all this symbolism represents is a sign of different realities and is often a stand-in for deep personal victimization. Many of the grievances so powerfully weaponized by Trump and others in the United States relate to the contrasting experiences of people of different economic and social classes.
We live in Australia’s own shadow systemic mistreatment including those in financial difficulties Robodebt’s callous legacy and bipartisan indifference to the ongoing housing crisis. It disproportionately affects young people. When this long shadow is met by the lack of pragmatic action of the so-called “someone”empatheticThe federal government – “empathy” is a hollow word if it remains blind or indifferent to class – clearly has the same recipe for social anxiety that has developed here in the US to Trump’s benefit
In the absence of opportunities and meaningful connections, people retreat to monastic enclaves where bigotry, narrow-mindedness and the intolerant aspect of religion become convenient tools for fraudsters and fanatics.
Global transition to both extreme right and extreme left This is a sign of anxiety. While the former is certainly the most dangerous, the latter increasingly eludes rational debate. We call it the “culture war,” but it is a war of religion, a war of egos, and to people like Buchanan, it is a war to return to a status quo that never existed.
This is also – or perhaps essentially – a class war. Neither side wants to wrestle with this. By adding fuel to the fire, the Conservatives are trying to further fuel the unhappiness around the class divide. The progressive community, meanwhile, isn’t very good at self-reflection. we should have looked at this economic privilege and this rocks our apple cart.
But the thing about anxiety is that it can be alleviated. Its structure may be damaged. This problem can be solved by a sound policy of reuniting rather than dividing. We all agree that we want to live in a better world.
But do we have to tear each other apart to get there?
Dr Alex Vickery-Howe is an award-winning playwright and social commentator. He teaches creative writing, screen and drama classes. Flinders University.
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