With Americans so poorly informed, it’s hardly surprising that their acceptance of atrocities is correspondingly high

~ Louis Further ~

The ‘Athenian dictum’ (“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”) from Thucydides’s Melian Dialogue may be more apothegmatic than historically accurate, but it sums up the approach of the MAGA fascist cult led by a demonstrably increasingly deranged (as in ‘unstable’, ‘inconsistent’, ‘ranting’, ‘discourteous’ and ‘mendacious’) Donald Trump; nor is he the only one.

The only members of society who matter to the MAGA cultists are males (preferably white), strong (financially and physically), aggressive, ruthless – and above all loyal to the dictator; for that is what Trump undoubtedly is.

However, instead of considering strategies to explain then demolish this cult, commentators – whether pundits, influencers, spokespeople, or activists – have increasingly come to concentrate on the ‘unusual’ nature of events in the United States, rather than the dangers – present and imminent.

Were it not for obscene amounts of public money being wasted on massacring Iranians and Lebanese and destroying their land, beneficial things could have been done inside the United States.

Such alternatives don’t include making ‘conversion’ of gay people legal; nor expunging the crimes of cult members; nor removing environmental protections necessary for the Earth to endure.

Crusade

The attacks on Iran and Lebanon are being described by some self-righteous Christians as holy wars against brown-skinned infidels, whose death in great number will come with “more bombs, bigger bombs“. These were officially prayed for by fascist TV presenter, now ‘Secretary of War’, Pete Hegseth in his American Crusade against the ever-present threats of the Muslim ‘other’. That same community insulted and threatened publicly in Islamophobic comments like these by Congresspersons Ogles, Fine, Gill, Self and State representative van Odren.

Trump went further and educed eugenics. Few batted an eyelid in pushback. Such filth is now normal. And is replicated in the media… over the Easter weekend, for instance. There was almost continuous coverage of the eventual recovery of a downed member of the US air force, while the thousands of non-Americans whom his terrorist colleagues have murdered on the ground below were barely alluded to. Indeed, the US State Department (the equivalent to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in the UK) now openly espouses white supremacism in its documents, ethos and activities.

This makes it easier for the élite to call it “fun” to bury Iranian children under rubble. And more ‘normal’ to remove anyone who criticises the war; to vilify those who believe that Palestinians should live; and to arrest by tell-tale association alone.

Trump’s foul-mouthed rants over Easter against Iranians and threats to bomb civilian infrastructure and wipe out the Iranian civilisation created a small stir. But nothing was done by his party to reprimand, remove or reject this kind of rhetoric as it startles less and less. The greater concern was the damage such comments do to the reputation of the United States.

More widely, there are still many (perhaps a third of voting age residents of the US) who effectively worship Trump and vehemently approve of what he stands for.

How can this be?

Sadly, we need to look at Trump’s popularity not despite his crimes and faults, but because of them.

A cult like MAGA stands for racial and sexual supremacy, greed, vulgarity, callousness, cruelty, vicious disregard for others. So it effectively offers a ‘pass’ to those who espouse such characteristics – consciously or unconsciously – and/or explicitly subscribe to it. Fascism of the MAGA kind endorses and encourages selfishness.

Any end – to exercise power and oppress, commodify and homogenise – justifies the means. So acceptable have become corruption; lawlessness (aided by the legal system – especially its higher reaches); lying; sexual predation; environmental destruction; economic incompetence in the guise of ‘experimentation’ (and retaliation); suppression of others’ rights and rights to hold contrary opinions – that their very ubiquity is a cause for celebration and adherence to the movement.

Indeed, Trump/MAGA is increasingly punishing dissent; this happened, for instance, to one of the organisers protesting against the incipient war against Venezuela. And to a reporter in Nashville covering the abductions by ICE.

Because right-wing beliefs are founded on selfishness, cult members feel that they can do what they want. ‘Me first.’ There is no empathy for others (human or animal, individual or collective). Start from there and anything is permissible. Nor – significantly – is empathy actually considered then rejected or discounted. The idea that those outside the cult – from the animals in whose abuse and genocide the élite blithely engages, to the concerns of most other humans of different races, genders, sexual orientation, class and stances on many issues – might warrant a look in isn’t remotely acknowledged. Their needs are totally irrelevant and invisible.

When the truth does get in the way, simply deny it. Ascribe it to ‘liberal’ bias. And, to make doubly sure, only look to sources of ‘propaganda’ which confirm what you already believe.

That’s not difficult: there is an alarmingly small number of ‘mainstream’ (TV, radio, print) outlets left which still produce anything like insightful, accurate and creditable commentary on why these changes in the USA (let alone the wider world) are happening. Still fewer sources to which even a minority of the public is likely to turn offer perspectives on political science – as is evidenced by a major resurgence of far right, authoritarian, supremacist and fascist power. As much thought is given to its rise as those who are taken in by it might give to their choice between coffee or tea with their morning toast.

Normalisation

The fiercest critics of Trump/MAGA rarely, if ever, reach the conclusion that what the cult is doing is part of a wider pattern built on collective introversion meshed with generalisations… all Israelis are good; all Palestinians and Iranians are bad. Socialism is an evil. To doubt the superiority of capitalism – no matter how cogently or convincingly, conclusively – is a sin and/or sign of mental illness. What’s more, the ‘highest’ and most desirable public institution, that which Trump is most often gently criticised for destroying, ‘democracy’, really functions as little more than a choice every few years between two versions of aggressive and destructive maintenance of capitalism’s status quo.

Monolithic slogan slabs are lobbed about during media and online discussions without any actual analysis, dissection or historical perspective. Assertion – counter assertion – re-assertion. No interactive debate on TV. In any case it has been estimated that fewer people than ever now get their news from reputable sources.

So it’s hardly surprising that so many otherwise good people in the US are so poorly informed about the reality of public affairs in general. Nor that their acceptance of most of the atrocities is correspondingly high.

Yes, there is talk in several quarters of the dangers of normalisation of Trump’s excrescences and his trails of fetid verbal dung on social media. But rarely is this contrasted to how outrageous (and potentially career-ending) they would have been a dozen years ago. For example, when Nick Fuentes (one of many far right guests and confidantes who are welcome at the White House) suggested that women should be forced to “breed” in “gulags”, as Hitler made them do, the incident was merely shrugged off with… “There they go again!”, “Oh really!”; it was satirised on late night TV. But quickly passed out of the reach of remediation.

Those who do express timorous concern do so more at the MAGA cult’s apparent ‘inexplicability’ and ‘roguishness’ rather than unambiguously identifying it as a fascist cult carrying out the blueprint of Project 2025. This was in the public domain nearly 20 months before the 2024 election and should have warned everyone what was going to happen, how, how quickly and, crucially, why.

She who could have issued those warnings but didn’t, Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris, may well again be the Democratic candidate for president in 2028.

The minority which without doubt secretly opposes Trump/MAGA and much of what it stands for remains silent in public. But talk to them one-on-one: few can articulate a process which will stop it.

In other words we seem nowhere near any kind of elevation from the depths to which the US has sunk. The long tunnel down which it is slipping has been coated with pitch black paint that reflects and illuminates… nothing.

Image: White House on Flickr