FYI: Parts 1 and 2 of this series were both released in November 2024 on this blog feed.
A Superpower Commits Suicide and Fascism Triumphs Part 3
“Those who do not build must burn.”
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Introduction
I wrote part 1 of this series immediately following the results of the 2024 US election. Part two I spent several weeks writing and released at the end of November. As I’m writing these words in late December 2024 and early January 2025 the news of what the second Trump administration will do once they are in office has not improved, and there is yet more to say. For those who may not have read the earlier parts in this series, my basic thesis is that Trump’s second term will see a fascist oligarchy take power in America. Based on who Trump picked to be in his cabinet and what we know of their plans and agenda, I believe that Trump’s second term will massively accelerate the process of America’s decline as a global superpower that had already been ongoing. “Accelerating” decline could mean that America’s collapse could happen quickly or slowly, depending on future events, and by what timescale one judges the process of decline.
This decline will be caused in part by the normal grab bag of fascist persecution of immigrants and vulnerable minority populations. However, just about every single idea and plan Trump and his cronies have in mind will also weaken or damage every part of American society, and the rest of the world. Examples of this could include, but are certainly not limited to, generating an economic recession or collapse by starting a reciprocal tariff war with trading partners, gutting or totally destroying what few social safety nets still exist in the United States, roll back more than a century of medical scientific achievement by getting rid of vaccines that in some cases have all but eradicated the diseases they were created to combat, making already weak regulatory agencies even weaker and less able to protect Americans from rapacious corporate greed, and accelerate the whole world towards climate disaster. Some of these points I mentioned already in previous parts of this series. Part 3 will have some entirely new topics along with more discussion about previous subjects.
As I said in part 2, the reason I bring up America’s decline is not because this bothers me personally, but it will bother many of the people who voted for Trump. Some of the most ardent American nationalists were both obsessed with American greatness and fierce supporters of Trump. There is a thick and comic irony in the fact that people devoted to America’s global supremacy are the ones who voted to ultimately destroy it. Secondly, even if none of what I predict happens, and the late 2020s turn out far better for the US than I guessed, I still think Trump’s second term will lead to decline. That appears to be the eventual fate of all great empires, and the mere threat of Trump’s plans is enough to weaken and sow division in an already divided society.
Measles and Powdered Wigs are Making a Comeback Part 2
At the time I wrote the first part of this section I was mainly worried about how Trump’s administration might halt or curtail funding and research into existing or new diseases. That in of itself would be a disaster for the health of the global population, not just Americans. As I write this now, an even dumber possibility has revealed itself. Trump’s administration might even take the lunatic step of getting rid of vaccines for diseases that were all but eradicated, and reintroduce them. If bringing back old diseases that modern science had found solutions to out of ignorance isn’t an example of humanity never learning or getting better then I don’t know what is. I also can’t think of a better example of a “developed” country deliberately wounding itself in such an avoidable way. Also a country that willingly reintroduces diseases that modern medicine and sanitation had mostly eradicated is not the sign of an intelligent or prosperous people.
When I came up with the title to this section in November 2024 I intended for it to be a joke. The anti-vaccine movement had already produced measles outbreaks before Trump was reelected, but getting rid of vaccines altogether would make measles and a host of other diseases endemic once again. It should also put lie once and for all to the idea that anyone who voted for Trump is in any way “pro-life.” What “pro-life” actually means is forced birth and control over women’s bodily autonomy. Or perhaps I misunderstood, and pro-life for the second Trump administration meant pro-infectious microbe life. I can’t overemphasize just how batshit an idea getting rid of vaccines truly is. In the course of a few generations humanity could walk back on one of the greatest triumphs of medical science. It is both shameful and inexcusable.
If somehow reason and basic sense briefly overcome Trump’s administration, and they decide not to condemn America and the world to new and old pandemics, irrevocable damage has still been done. The mere fact that Trump and his administration have given a platform to this kind of anti-vaccine discussion gives it far greater credibility than it ever deserved. The kind of platform the anti-vaccine movement has gained with Trump’s second administration will literally sicken American society.
Anti-Educating Our Way to “Greatness”
Despising education is a long and proud American tradition that saw a resurgence in the early 21st century. A second Trump presidency might see the elimination of the federal department of education. If that doesn’t happen, Trump and his cabinet might work to tilt the education system into becoming an even stronger nationalist propaganda machine than it was before. Maybe anti-education isn’t necessarily the right word to use in this context. Fascists are very pro education, if education means learning to worship the state and to vilify whomever the state chooses to target. What fascists despise is anything that could teach a person to think for themselves, to look beyond the information they are force fed, to interrogate the motives of those in power.
I’m not claiming that the US education system was faultless and an example for the ages before Trump, if it was, Trump’s rise to power might not have happened. Or, at the very least it would have made it more difficult. That’s the magic of Trump’s career in politics though, it makes one look at something that was terrible and flawed with aching nostalgia.
If your goal is to build a great society you want to educate people. If you want to control people you make sure that they stay as stupid and easy to manipulate as possible. The reader might be saying to themselves: “That doesn’t make sense, why would people obsessed with the idea of American exceptionalism work to make American society worse in every possible way?” Have people’s beliefs ever had to make sense? People can live happy and long lives with their heads crammed full of contradictions. My guess is that most of the people who supported Trump in the 2024 election fall into 4 categories relating to their beliefs on American exceptionalism. 1. They accept the idea of American greatness as an indisputable fact and have never questioned it. There can’t be any contradiction if you never take the time to think. 2. They’re fascists and their idea of making America great is making sure everyone fits into category 1 (this takes far less effort than you might hope, most people don’t care about politics anyway). 3. This mostly applies to the people who joined Trump in power, their use of the language and iconography of American nationalism is entirely cynical. They want control full stop. They care not for the damage they have to do to achieve it. 4. Some amorphous mixture of 1-3.
There is one “rational” reason why people of the extreme right have always hated education. The concept of American exceptionalism is paper thin. It has always been and will always be a fantasy that withers under the lightest scrutiny. There are only 2 ways to maintain that fantasy. The first way is violence. The second is by attempting to lock American society into a cycle of self-sustaining ignorance. Don’t give people the real story of American history, and don’t give them the intellectual curiosity to search for the real story. Willing ignorance is the only way American nationalists can convince themselves that they aren’t small-minded, selfish, and hateful.
Americans are Tough! They can Handle Poisoned Food, and Water, and Air, and Medicine and Unsafe Houses, and Cars, and Planes, and Trains, and Houses, and Roads, and Bridges, and Workplaces
Before Trump was reelected the track record of regulatory agencies in the United States protecting people from harm was at best a mixed bag. The reasons why are exactly what you would expect. It often took experts ringing alarm bells for years or decades for the slow and grinding gears of bureaucracy to find a solution to a problem that was underwhelming and imperfect. The personnel who jumped between an industry and the agency that was supposed to regulate it guaranteed corruption would occur. Companies and individuals were always on the hunt for vagaries or loopholes in laws or regulations that they could exploit to avoid legal consequences. The US legal system was always multi-tiered and treated punished people differently depending on their crime and circumstance. A poor person shoots and kills someone and they are likely to go to prison for life. A company that illegally dumps toxic waste and pollutes the water table of a poor neighborhood that kills some and gives hundreds of people cancer might be fined, if they have bad lawyers. A pharmaceutical company that lies about the danger of the addictive painkillers that they are pushing to doctors and patients that starts an epidemic that kills hundreds of thousands might be broken up and sold, while the rich family that owns said company might have their name kind of tarnished. Or an airline manufacturer could rush out a dangerous aircraft that crashes a couple of times and kills hundreds of people, and no one goes to prison and the company only has to fork over some money as punishment. Those last two examples are purely hypothetical of course. All this to say that Americans were right to feel a sense of deep outrage at the injustices that were committed against them from every angle on a daily basis.
Neither the Democratic or Republican candidates in the 2024 election promised to do much to fix the problems with America’s regulatory failures. The Democrats in 2024 ran what was essentially a conservative campaign focused mostly on improving the economic outlook for middle class Americans, and they promised tiny changes on the fringes. Otherwise the powerful party members and their wealthy backers benefited from the status quo so they saw no reason to change it. The Republican party ran on a platform that boiled down to: “Are you frustrated with the status quo? Tired of being exploited by our party policies? Why don’t you vote to make things even worse! Fear not, for you will get something in return. We will extract even more short term profit from you and the planet by destroying and poisoning the environment even more than we were before. But, in exchange we will encourage you to hate so many people and things that your head will spin keeping track of them. Hatred is so direct and simple, you’ll love it! Oh, and the price of eggs is too high or something, grrr, Joe Biden’s fault.” Guess which message resonated with more voting Americans. It’s a wonder how America managed to be a superpower for so long.
I have already discussed some aspects of how Trump’s second term will be a disaster for protecting the health and safety of Americans. Public health for instance. If the biggest lunatics Trump appoints have their way, instead of vaccinations, Americans will be required to take poisoned supplements peddled by grifters on their podcasts. As I suggested in the title for this section it will go so much further than that. Environmental protections, programs to promote diversity in workplaces and universities, public education, infrastructure, and so much more will likely be under threat. Which, to belabor the point, is not the way to build a prosperous and stable society. Protecting people from harm or abuse and building a sustainable infrastructure is how a stable and prosperous society is built.
The Danger of Irrationality Part 2
I have already brought up this subject both above and in other parts of this series. After Trump was reelected but before he was inaugurated I saw some articles and comments to the effect of: “Once Trump’s supporters see that Trump had no intention of keeping his promises to them, and that his policies actually hurt them, then they’ll turn on Trump. We just have to wait for that day then we can make some progress.” Maybe that will happen for some people, but I am far less optimistic overall. Politics and conspiracy became a religion for many in the early 21st century. Religion doesn’t have to be rational, and it doesn’t necessarily need to benefit its low level adherents. Or, people devoted to a religion might get some other benefit aside from quantifiable material gains. For people religiously devoted to Trump to turn on him would require 2 things. The first is that they recognize that they are being conned or used as pawns in a larger agenda. The second is that they admit that.
Not all of Trump’s supporters are religious zealots. Some might be fully self-aware and cynically supporting Trump because they stand to gain with him in power. Some might be aware that Trump doesn’t really care about them, but are hateful enough that they don’t care if he makes their lives worse or not. For those who are fanatics, what could possibly shake their devotion? If they had been supporters since 2015 and still not realized Trump is the most obvious con-artist in history then what could possibly make them see that? The entire right-wing propaganda machine could blame democrats for everything Trump and the Republicans do, and Trump’s supporters would believe it. They had been doing that long before Trump came into office. Furthermore, the entire Republican party strategy for decades had been to break society and then run on a platform of “Society is broken, and it’s someone else’s fault.” Throughout the party maintained a bedrock of strong and numerous supporters. It would be nice if Trump supporters realized they were being duped and turned against him, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I’m reminded by a moment in George Orwell’s 1984, which I know is fiction, but it is instructive. The main character Winston hears an announcement that the chocolate ration will be reduced to 200 grams per person if I remember correctly. The very next day in another announcement that began with the statement “We have won the war on production comrades” they said the chocolate ration would be raised to 200 grams per person. Winston looked around him in the cafeteria and thought to himself that there was no way people would swallow that lie, only a day after they said the opposite, but they did.
Conclusion
It’s hard to know when to draw the line. When to stop listing the ways in which fascists gaining control of all three branches of the federal government is a disaster for the United States and the world. For example, Trump might end the era of barely disguised US imperialism and return once again to naked imperial aggression. Before he was inaugurated Trump repeatedly said that he wanted the US to annex Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal Zone (again), and the Jovian Moons (I made one of those up). At the time people said this could be the addled fantasies of a demented brain, or it could be a distraction to mask something else horrible that was being planned. That is certainly possible, but I’m not entirely convinced. More insane things have happened when someone with unlimited power surrounded by sycophants is encouraged to pursue whatever insane idea worms its way into their head.
If Trump is only in power for another 4 years the damage he and his administration will be able to accomplish will take generations to undo. There will always be people willing to try and repair that damage, to take up that gauntlet, to attempt to build a society based on justice, civility, and empathy. On the other hand, it’s depressing to know that there will always be a fight to achieve that society, a fight that will likely never be won. That’s bleak I know, but I am writing in bleak times. The reader can take comfort in the fact (if comfort is the right word) that humanity is always living in bleak times, and we’re stubborn or foolhardy enough to keep living in the face of that bleakness.