Johnstone on the lameness of US Politics
US Politics Is Just Nonstop Fake Revolutions Now
It’s so silly how American politics is just nonstop fake revolutions now.
Millions flooded the US streets for the “No Kings” protests over the weekend to oppose a monarchy which does not exist without making a single tangible demand. Power was not challenged in any meaningful way. The status quo wasn’t disrupted in the slightest. People held up some signs saying the president is orange and that if Kamala were president they would be at brunch, and then went home.
The whole thing was just one big pep rally for the Democratic Party, designed to accomplish nothing beyond getting American liberals excited about the prospect of someday voting for Gavin Newsom. A bunch of boomers showed up to dance around and hold signs and feel as though they are fighting the power in their feely bits, while drumming up support for the same status quo which gave rise to Trump in the first place.
You see the same fake revolutionary astroturf zeitgeist on the Republican side. American rightists are constantly pretending they’re fighting some kind of populist rebellion against an oppressive establishment even while their party controls every branch of the US government. They act like Trump is ending the wars and fighting the Deep State even as he stomps out free speech on behalf of Israel, rolls out a Palantir surveillance system, pours weapons into facilitating Israel’s genocidal atrocities, bombs Iran and Yemen, ramps up for war with Venezuela, and perpetuates the horrific proxy war in Ukraine.
It’s two plutocrat-owned warmongering imperialist parties whipping their respective bases into the mass delusion that they are participating in a heroic act of revolutionary defiance by voting Democrat or Republican. They get everyone fighting a fake revolution so that nobody thinks about fighting a real one.
It didn’t used to be this way, for the record. The US has been a murderous and tyrannical oligarchic bloodbath for its entire existence as a nation, but up until fairly recently its politics looked more or less like the politics of other western nations. Politicians had campaigns where they’d try to argue that they have the best policies, there’d be an election, and then they’d spend their time in office philandering and pretending to make themselves useful. There wasn’t this constant LARPing about how voting for one of the two mainstream parties is participating some kind of a courageous insurgency against monarchy or communism or the Deep State or whatever.
That’s changing because public discontent with the status quo is soaring to all-time highs as Americans get poorer and everything gets shittier. The establishment order is no longer accepted and people are starting to push for real change, so their outrage needs to be harnessed and corralled into politically safe directions.
Donald Trump’s entire political career has been all about this. He introduced a new WWE-style kayfabe theatrics into American politics where both Democrats and Republicans feel as though they are fighting the power in a very important and relevant way — Republicans because they believe Trump is a populist rebel and Democrats because they believe Trump is an unprecedented threat to freedom and democracy. Really his whole thing is about protecting the status quo of the US empire, but both mainstream factions are duped into seeing the exact opposite.
Now you’ve got the two main strands of American political thought falling all over themselves to be the first in line to support the establishment, all while being told that they are fighting the power. They remain mollified because they think they are doing something, and the powerful get to keep everything they’ve stolen.
It’s truly a brilliant scam. Evil, destructive and tyrannical, to be sure, but you’ve got to admire the skill with which this psyop has been pulled off.
In my opinion, Caitlin is right on the money here.
The bolded paragraph spells out the wrestling connection that is almost totally ignored by almost everybody with an opinion about The Orange Fart Cloud.
Most of the commentary on Trump, whether pro or con, embraces the premise that Trump runs the country by dint of his own "ideas," aka whims
His nonstop whim is to be the biggest deal on earth, no matter how. Most of his criticism helps him get there.
Comments
Very weird this astro-turfed
.
demonstration
and how the sheeples respond
A pic from yesterday's affair ..
(after all, this is Rhode Island)
Clown show.
Zionism is a social disease
You may see it as a clown show
But those people get my vote as the ones less likely to be beaten with batons or shot with rubber bullets. And though they probably can't flee very fast, can you imagine a storm trooper tackling a guy in a duckie suit.
He would be laughed out of the police station and have to endure years of ribbing.
I think it's kinda brilliant.
But that's just me.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Several friends
tried to get me to go to the protests. I declined.
But apparently there were even some international protests that went along- this picture is reputedly from a No Kings protest in Scotland. Whether true or not, I approve most wholeheartedly.
I also like the idea of the inflatable costumes as a brownshirt-confuser. Apparently, somewhere in Portland, there's a place that is actually handing out the inflatable frog costumes to those who are willing and motivated to go do the protest thing...
Legit protest doesn't do anything any more, and hasn't in years, but a good mocking might still have some impact.
One can always hope.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
I'll bet King Charles
kept a really low profile yesterday.
Heh.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I attended the one in Utica.
I guess my check from Mr. Soros must be still in the mail.
There were about 3000, a not insignificant number in a mostly conservative, purplish town.
Michael Wolf was on air with his weekly Brit Twit interviewer, complaining about how "No Kings" was a dumb, abstract slogan and gatherings across the country were a bad idea, there should have been One Big Protest in DC. Nice, Micheal. Only those who have the means to fly to DC and pay for accommodations once there deserve to be heard, Mr. Wolf?
The more usual kind of demonstration being referenced by Johnstone above simply Does. Not. Work. anymore. TPTS can and will promise anything to get a crowd to disperse. Then someone introduces a bill which gets sent to committee and is never heard of again. I like the No Kings slogan. It is simple and easy to understand, and it reminds people who we are. We are a people who govern ourselves under the Constitution, which we can amend if enough of us want.
In my view, the target of these gatherings was not the President or his DC fan club, at least not directly. I think it was partly to let our MAGA neighbors know they haven't intimidated us. Another target was collaborationist Democrats, to let them know we are no longer interested in voting for go along to get along. I grant you, they are not yet getting the memo, see for example Chuckie Schemer's intervention in the Maine senate primary.
Mary Bennett
I agree with much of what you have to say
"No Kings" is a catch phrase and nit picking its word choices is cheap sophistry. I have no quarrel with it as either a label for a new movement or a policy idea.
I also like the local focus of your comment. Planting your flag is a necessary First Step to building a movement that accomplishes anything. Let the other side know that you are real. Let uncommitted people know that you are real, too.
Nevertheless, I agree with Caitlin that this particular event has very little to show for itself other than as a first step. If and only if this has legs, it could be very useful.
We'll see if skepticism is in order.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
Reuters just reported
that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Cheeto can indeed send the National Guard to Portland, after all.
It is my strong belief that he's looking to kill a few people to set examples, and perhaps to make his little willy stand up. After all, it has worked so well in Gaza and Venezuela, this extrajudicial-killing thing. And the so-called "opposition" shows no interest whatsoever in stopping him- or even doing a token, performative, strongly-worded letter.
So if you are in Portland: check your six, early and often. No smiley.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-appeals-court-allows-trump-send-troo...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/20/trump-troops-por...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.