It's not just Orwell
"Alternative facts," a Newspeak term coined by Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway, has caused such a rush to purchase George Orwell's 1984, that Penguin Publishing had to put in a rush order for 75,000 more copies.
What is interesting is that this is not the first time that Donald Trump's surprise election victory has caused a spike in sales of a classic dystopian novel.
In the wake of Donald Trump's election, copies of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 satirical political novel It Can't Happen Here has sold out on some major online book retailers, including Amazon and Books-a-Million. The novel—which was written as Adolf Hitler rose to power in Nazi Germany—tells the story of a fascist takeover in America.
It Can't Happen Here is actually a MUCH more relevant, even prescient, book about the new administration.
The book is so like today's reality that Salon wrote this more than a year ago.
With his careful mix of plainspoken honesty and reactionary delusion, Trump is following an old rhetorical playbook, one defined and employed successfully in the 1936 presidential campaign of Senator Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip. In his campaign’s promotional book “Zero Hour,” Windrip laid out the classic nativist call to action that Trump would pick up nearly word-for-word
This is how the NY Times puts it.
Like Trump, Windrip sells himself as the champion of “Forgotten Men,” determined to bring dignity and prosperity back to America’s white working class. Windrip loves big, passionate rallies and rails against the “lies” of the mainstream press. His supporters embrace this message, lashing out against the “highbrow intellectuality” of editors and professors and policy elites. With Windrip’s encouragement, they also take out their frustrations on blacks and Jews.The architect of Windrip’s campaign is a savvy newsman named Lee Sarason, the novel’s closest approximation of Steve Bannon. It is Sarason, not Windrip, who actually writes “Zero Hour,” the candidate’s popular jeremiad on national decline. Sarason believes in propaganda, not information, openly arguing that “it is not fair to ordinary folks — it just confuses them — to try to make them swallow all the true facts that would be suitable to a higher class of people.”
Does that sound familiar?
Comments
If that is what it takes
your opponents limits to control reality are realized. Fing joke.
If this present isn't fertile for a awesome change, the joke is
Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever
Sebastian Haffner
It's completely understandable that 1984 and It Can't Happen Here are suddenly national bestsellers. I'm glad to read of this as these works are capable of shaking one's soul. Indeed, they are quite pertinent to today's situation in the USA and other parts of the world.
These two books are, of course, fiction. Hard hitting and seemingly written yesterday, they are nevertheless make-believe. We, however, are not living in a fiction. We are going to live through the Trump years.
For those who have not read it, I would like to recommend Defying Hitler, by Sebastian Haffner. It is the story of growing up in Germany and witnessing first-hand the rise of Hitler. From the back cover of my copy:
It's possible those of us in the United States are in a position similar to that of Haffner. We don't yet know. This first-hand account of a nation turning to fascism is valuable should we take the hard right turn down that bloody avenue. Reading Haffner's account, we can get ideas on how to recognize fascism and even how to stop it.
The situation is not ideal.
But I am more convinced that living through the Clinton years would be worse than living through the Trump years. I am pleasantly surprised that he apparently believes in fulfilling his campaign promises, bad as some of them were. Wheras, with Hillary there was no truth at all. The people DID pick the lesser evil.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Radiation
Well, of course, the people actually did pick Clinton, but due to the system we get Trump. However, I agree fully that Trump is the lesser of the two Evils.
Were Hillary sitting in the Oval Office right now, the hottest selling items wouldn't be 1984 and Brave New World, but rather the Acme Personal Geiger Counter.
No!
The people of California and New York picked Clinton. You apparently don't understand the Electoral system. Trump is not the first President to be elected with less than a plurality and one President was elected by the House because no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. I suppose they were all illegitimate?
And I don't find it all that unbelievable that illegal immigrants in those states would have registered and voted under their lax procedures and voted for Clinton against the man who said he would deport them. Neither side is being honest, especially the news media. I heard a CNN anchor say flat out that the claim is false. It is not false, it is unproven. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
@The Voice In the Wilderness I doubt that the
I doubt that the problem was illegal immigrants voting. Clinton doesn't need to do shit like that to rig things. I think the only reason she's not President is because there were unexpected countermeasures to the rigging her people were doing as a matter of course.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'm not claiming Clinton was responsible.
It was rational for illegal immigrants to register and vote against Trump. In what numbers is anyone's guess, but the number is surely not zero. Nor do I believe it was organized. For some, voting was just part of their masquerading as US citizens.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
@travelerxxx If we were going to
If we were going to oppose the electoral college and select people based on popular vote, why the fuck didn't people flood the streets in 2000?
Oh, right. Because the establishment was on the other side that time.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@travelerxxx However, I totally
However, I totally agree with you about the Geiger counter:
[
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
We've a looonnnggg ways to go
A lot can happen.
@travelerxxx I hate to have to tell
I hate to have to tell you this, but America has been a fascist state for quite some time.
In what way, other than in superficialities, does what the US PTB has been and is doing and planning differ from what the Nazis did during their attempt at a global military takeover? Apart from being able to exert a more complete spying system on their own people than any fascist state ever previously dreamt of?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
@Ellen North
I don't disagree with you, Ellen. One reason I promote Haffner's work is because his story stops in 1939. Everyone knows the "rest of the story." Further, most people can handle it.
For those with stronger stomachs, I would recommend The 15% Solution by Steven Jonas. This is quite in the vein of It Can't Happen Here, but was written recently and is set in our time. Further, The 15% Solution well recognizes the marriage of the American extreme religious right with fascism. In my opinion, it does this more accurately than does Sinclair.
I saw Warren's comment on why she voted to confirm Carson
Dear lord, can this person be any more clueless or think that we are stupid?
Read this BS
My comment to her is that I'm sure that her strongly worded letter to him after he screws millions of people on the HUD program will make him tow the line.
And Warren says that she is watching DeVos too.
Joe has a great article in tonight's EBs about the f'cking democrats which is exactly what they are. It's the first article under the quote.
I have seen 3 articles on DK about how the democrats aren't fighting and how upset people are about it.
I don't know why they think that they are going to start fighting now and get a backbone since they have shown that they won't fight since 2006 when we put them in charge after they promised us that if we did they would roll back the Bush abuses.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
@snoopydawg demoRATS (and apologies
demoRATS (and apologies to rats everywhere, who generally are pretty sociable creatures) --
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
It seems as if every "progressive" to hit the national stage
is really either a red herring or a veal pen owner.
Saw the sainted Donna Edwards on MTP talking about those awful Russians and Putin.
Really, can anyone name a political figure out there today that hasn't been co-opted, corrupted or cowed? (or fooled)
@gustogirl Saw that one coming a
Saw that one coming a long time ago. Was actually glad Chris Van Hollen beat her. It's more destructive to have someone that everybody thinks is a progressive hero working for the establishment than an establishment guy with some scruples who will rarely stick his neck out. At least you can muster some resistance against the establishment guy.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@snoopydawg If Dr. Carson doesn’t
If Dr. Carson doesn’t follow through on his commitments, I will be the very first person he hears from – loudly and clearly and frequently.
Let us know how that goes for you, Elizabeth.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@snoopydawg Now that I know
Now that I know Democratic leadership is fine with going out on the streets and protesting the incoming President, I wonder where the head of the DNC and all the Democratic Congressmen were in 2000.
I guess the problem was the lack of pink fuzzy hats.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I haven't actually read It Can't Happen Here
But doesn't the Trump analogue get overthrown and replaced with someone even worse?
Keep in mind that Mike Pense is still waiting in the wings.
They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore
That can happen and probabaly will
but that really isn't the point of the book. When you read it, and I hope you do, it's the calls to populism that struck me and just how well that worked. Also, the disdain for "elites" or anyone deemed educated by the masses who really in many ways want revenge for being screwed over by those elites. And the nationalism and militarism - you'll recognize modern America in much of it.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
"Alternative facts" are common
in fairy tales, some relationships1 and U.S. politics2, even though they probably belong only in fairy tales. It's only that that no one thought up a good oxymororonic name for them, like "alternative facts" before. We used to just call them names like "half truths," "lies," or politics as usual."
Little to no accountability for lying yields lots of lying. In politics, accountability is nearly non-existent, primarily because (a) the two party system leads to LOTE voting and (b) the Gang of 536 in D.C. kabuki often unites to make certain accountability ranges from minimal to non-existent. (In Game Change, for example, we read of Pelosi telling House Republicans that the bailout will not pass without lots of Republican votes to give Democrats who vote for it "cover." (The first vote got only Democratic votes, which reveals a lot!) See also the oh, so close vote on Amash Conyers, wherein Democrats voting against it were either not running again or bulletproof for one reason or another (e.g. Joe Kennedy III from Newton, Massachusetts, Barney Frank's former town, where no Democrat is likely to lose, and most especially not a Kennedy).
Clinton ran a lying and racist primary campaign in 2008, but in 2016, became the nominee of the party that carries the diversity banner! And not only did she become the nominee, but, irony of ironies, the Southern black vote was her "firewall" during her primary battle. More irony": her opponent never used racism (or pandering) to obtain personal advantage. Obama lied about a public option during the 2008 with the ACA turning out to be the biggest thing in all his 8 years in office, and he got re-elected in 2012. And so it goes. Suckas!
If "alternative facts" were a new thing, among many other things, much of Orwell's 1984, written in 1948, from Newspeak to the memory hole would never have been written. Those things rang so true and became so iconic precisely because they were reflecting reality. The oxymoronic name is new; the behavior is as older than the Roman Senate.
1 Examples: "I'm gong to ask my spouse for a divorce and marry you.I'm just waiting for the right time." or (a salesperson) "That looks fantastic on you."
2 Examples:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-HhzzzsauE]
Put another way: Only people in certain states picked Clinton.
In reality, most people vote by party. Or, with all the indie registrations these days, by whether they "lean" Republican or "lean" Democratic. Traditionally, Democrats win states with densely populated cities, like NYC or L.A., aka the blue states. So, that makes for lots of popular votes, which count for diddly in an election. So, I don't give her props for winning the votes of a lot of people in blue states. The freaking donkey symbol probably could have won almost every state she won, especially with Trump being the Republican option.
Since most states are now red, the persona and promises of a Democratic Presidential nominee matter a lot since the Solid South flipped from Solid Blue to Solid Red. (If California had not also flipped from reliably red to reliably blue after Reagan, Democrats would not have won a Presidential election in decades.) The story at a glance: http://www.270towin.com/
As Trump said, he ran to win the election. He didn't run to win the popular vote. He cited, for example, that he did no campaigning at all in New York (his home state, as well her supposed home state) or in California, whereas, he would have campaigned in those states if he had been running to win the popular vote.
Every Presidential nominee has long known that appealing to people in a variety of states, not just NY, California and the Northeast, is necessary. Hillary and her many campaign strategists and massive platform teams blew it, plain and simple. (Remember her phalanx of 200 economic advisors we read about in 2015?) And I am not even sure anything she said about issues could have saved her because people did not like or trust her enough to believe what she said anyway and her long staunchly neo-liberal track record and everything else we know about her spoke more loudly than any campaign speech possibly could (no matter how much of her trademark annoying yelling she did while delivering it). Also, this was obviously a change election and Hillary was not a change candidate nor was she selling change.
@HenryAWallace bingo. n/t
bingo. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@HenryAWallace Here's what's really
Here's what's really infuriating about all of that.
Hillary and the Clintonistas were the main proponents of the argument that we needed to focus on flyover country and winning the independent vote over, from roughly 1990 to 2004. Back then, they argued that we needed to please, NOT the liberals in San Francisco, LA, and New York
(for example, listen to the contempt in Hillary's voice when she talks about San Francisco in this clip from '08:
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/ge4f8a/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-hea...)
But instead needed to go bowling and throw back some brews with working-class Reagan Democrats. She was still trotting out this line in 2008. 2008! And now, now that those working-class Reagan Democrats have finally refused to give her something (their support) for less than nothing (a political knife in the back), she and hers are bleating about how it's not democracy because NY, LA, San Fran and Chicago voted for her and, darn it, it's JUST NOT FAIR that all those sparsely populated hick states could keep her from getting Her Turn.
Anybody who uses the phrase "It's My Turn" as a slogan for a presidential election needs not to use the word "democracy," anyway, since they clearly don't know what it means. They don't know what the word "republic" means either.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Third in line for POTUS, right behind Pence, is Ryan.
Then President of the Senate Pro Tem Orrin Hatch, then whoever gets confirmed as Secretary of State.
So much for impeachment, unless all we want is to show them that Presidents and Vice Presidents should stay on their toes because someone is watching, even after election day.
@HenryAWallace This seems related -
This seems related - dead-eyed granny-starver Ryan may perhaps have been offered this 3rd in line from the Presidency position? in a lawless blatantly corporate/billionaire-run Mafia-style 'government' where 'shooting each horse who fails to clear the jump or outright refuses' appears to be an option, in return for his working so very, very hard for Obama's (edit: 'legacy') regarding the Fast-Tracking on the corporate coups being labelled as 'trade bills'.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/how-barack-obama-joined-hands-with...
And for any who think that the the TPP - initially said to be killed off if with only one country abstaining, but with all countries, including Belgium, brought into line by whatever means and despite massive public protest where public awareness exists - is dead because Trump said so - when US government propaganda (lying to and misleading the public) has been declared 'legal' under 'Simon Says' corporate/billionaire rules - think again.
Why are all agencies existing to protect the safety of the American public immediately being gagged from communicating important public information regarding health and safety issues, including those of their food supply, if all regulations are not be removed under corporate 'law' to allow for maximum profit-enhancing fraud and poisoning of the to-be-unwitting American public?
Why are the sane and aware within other countries still fighting this if America, the originating country creating and promoting the coup as a 'trade bill', has supposedly pulled out of it? Remember previous Presidential claims regarding such Bush-initiated corporate-designed 'trade agreements' benefiting only a very few at the expense of everyone and all else, promptly belied by leaked communications indicating otherwise to the Canadian government?
I received this reply partially quoted below this past Wed, Jan 25th:
She understates greatly, (even just regarding milk, which Canadians would not be allowed to produce at all for themselves in 10 years) but I suppose has to be cautious.
The investor-state provisions make the publics of all involved countries responsible for providing the self-anticipated maximized future profits of thousands of ruthless corporations and billionaires even if it directly and rapidly kills them - or they are sued bankrupt to provide them because this final step off-shores domestic law to a corporate/billionaire-only 'trade court' where the public interest has no standing.
Participating politicians are relinquishing legislative ability and human/citizen rights which are not theirs to dispose of.
People are being overwhelmed with well-publicized 'Greater Evil' (as though the Clintons/other half of the Corporate Party would not have done the same) Trump horrors for a reason, and I believe emplacing corporate totalitarian 'law' over democracies on a global basis while using their militaries and other resources to invade/nuke others to be the major one.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Sorry, but 2M+ libertarians calling themselves Liberals
because they happen to live in California make a less than stellar argument.
Sure, she won more votes. But let's not kid ourselves who these votes were from: mainly libertarian leaning Californians who think they're liberals because they have a marginal tolerance in some social contexts.
They're just fine, mainly, with an economic system that oppresses the poor. Which, by the way, has a disproportionate impact on the marginalized groups they pretend to care so much about.
Simply put, my point is this: "the people" who put Hillary over put her over more because of her similarities to Trump than not. I assure you a good fraction of those folks only care that Trump won because of a "Team D" mentality.
Neoliberals, unconditional Democratic loyalists and
members of the LOTE left, like Senator Sanders, probably voted for Hillary.
One of my points was that Hillary lost precisely because so few (if any) who are not neoliberals, unconditional Democratic loyalists or members of the LOTE left would ever vote for Hillary.
I don't think there is evidence to show that over 2 million Californians who voted for her are Libertarians. FWIW, many Libertarians are racist, as were Ron Paul's early newsletters, and officially anti-choice. While there is evidence Hillary would trade both those issues for getting elected, I don't think Libertarians would ever vote for her, especially given her foreign policies.
If calling Democrats who voted for Hillary Libertarians is a variant of the "real Democrat" v. "fake Democrat" game, I pass. I see nothing to gained by playing it, even if I were to win; and I think political terms are already muddled enough.
IMO, FDR and LBJ were atypical. It's been almost a century since FDR took office; and, even then, FDR was fighting good portions of his own Party on every issue. (Which portion he was fighting at any given issue, of course, depended on the issue.) IMO, LBJ got the Great Society and Civil Rights Act passed partly because of his own formidable negotiating and browbeating skills and partly on the strength of JFK's assassination. Other Democrats have been responsible for dismantling a good part of both the New Deal and the Great Society.
The reality is that the vast majority of Democratic officeholders are either neoliberals or obedient to neoliberals, whether they started their career that way or not. And that has been true for quite some time. Most people who voted for Hillary in any state are probably registered Democratic or vote Democratic most or all the time. So, at this point in time, those who did not vote for Hillary.
Berkeley Rep Theater...
did a great production of "It Can't Happen Here" last fall. Saw the show three weeks before election day. Very poignant and certainly relevant eighty years later.
Afterward I looked up the history of the play (adapted by Lewis and others from the book). Turns out it was actually a fairly blatant piece of government sponsored propaganda itself, not so subtly aimed at Huey Long.
Of course, Long had the bad luck to be assassinated in 1935, which kinda put a damper on his chances of becoming President, but is is interesting to note the partisan use of Federal money and programs to support an incumbent party against a populist upstart.
What goes around comes around:
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
When 1984 was on my High School Reading List...
It was still Science Fiction...
Now it is a history book with the timeline dates wrong...
Another good read for the list will be Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 once you can't find a lot of books to download onto your Kindle...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
In a chapter of Hedges's "Death of the Liberal Class"
he describes the great Dismantling of it through the generations.
There was, however, one great flourishing period of artistic dissent during the years of the Great Depression, in which FDR's gov't created the WPA, which funded things like the Federal Theater Project. Radicals and liberals came together, were paid salaries, ticket prices were low, and they toured the country, providing a counterweight to the pro-business propaganda and Red Scare paranoia of the RW. "It Can't Happen Here" opened in 21 theaters in 17 states in Oct of 1936. Another play "The Cradle Will Rock" addressed the greed, corruption and abuses of capitalism.
The thing that creeped me out most about the prescient "It Can't Happen Here" was the eerie shutdown of dissent. Is weird to be on the precipice of such outrageous and blatant crushing of dissent again (i.e. all of these anti-protesting laws being proposed, goon-boy Drumpf's fascist flag-waving "Day of Patriotism" malarkey, and plans to bulk up the military, with the obligatory little biblical reference pandering in his inaugural speech to appease the easily-duped Christian Right extremists). They'll be looking for godless 'Muricans like us at C99. Fuck them. They don't have a fiber of the tenets of Christianity in their bodies, and wouldn't know the smelly hippie/dirty commie Jesus if he appeared on line next to them at their local Walmart.
It was, after all, Sinclair Lewis who also so presciently said, "Fascism will come to America wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
@Mark from Queens
Well, the other half of the Corporate Party was good with civil forces cracking down on dissent and working on increasingly extreme directly-corporate-applied internet and other censorship already, but it appears to me that the 'Greater Evil Side' got handed the US government/military/spy system, etc. by TPTB to complete the final step in the hope that some American citizens could still be conned into believing that democracy was still possible for Americans to achieve via (rigged) elections and The Other (once-gentler) Side of the Corporate Party and thereby into continuing to let proven injustice stand yet again and again, 'to be fixed next time', even as the corporate jaws close on all of our throats.
Our one consolation may be that they'll choke on our spurting industrially poisoned blood and the unregenerated air of the rotting planetary corpse forming our global life support system. But I'd say, 'Let them eat pitchforks' first.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Dirty fascists
they "can all go fuck themselves":
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H3KaLZsbv0]
Beware the bullshit factories.
The article you cite from CNN
presents no evidence whatsoever that the spike in sales is related to Trump. I'd say that they just assume it based on a correlation in time with the Inauguration--except they actually don't.
They know they have no evidence on which to base that claim, and they know that a mere assumption via coincidence in time is not good enough. How do I know that they know these things? From the words they use to present the claim.
This is how they present that claim:
It is hard to say for sure how much of the interest is related to Donald Trump's inauguration and the rise of "alternative facts," a term coined by Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday.
This way of introducing an idea as true while inoculating oneself against any challenges to produce evidence, via phrases like "it's hard to say for sure," signifies the media being an asshole weasel, in a manner pioneered by Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. It's such a classic use of the tactic that CNN Media should be put in running for the Weasel Award 2017. They had such a tight competition with MSNBC for Weasel Award 2016 that clearly they want to get a jump on them in 2017.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver