Recreational Outrage

The sociopolitical landscape of Western nations is a bizarre one. A highly polarized far left and a right wing base that doesn’t know what to do about them. This is not normal. Normalizing it is a terrible idea, I don’t care how many “likes” you get or what your engagement KPIs are. It is without precedent.

Bush 1

From ’89 to ’93, George H.W. Bush, a Republican, was president. The most controversial issue during his administration was The Gulf War, started after Iraq invaded Kuwait. There was a large international coalition, media coverage was patriotic and supportive. The debate came over the issue of whether to stop at pushing the Iraqis out of Kuwait, or pushing forward and removing Saddam Hussein from power. There were protests in places like San Francisco and Seattle, where people set bonfires, threw objects, that sort of thing. The largest protest had hundreds of thousands of people in attendance. The protests were overwhelmingly peaceful with no notable major injuries and no deaths.

Bush’s harshest critics felt he had betrayed his voter base by promising no new taxes, with his famous, “Read my lips; no new taxes.” line. Of course, he later agreed to tax hikes. Norquist called it “a knife in the back of the conservative base”. They used language like “a crisis of trust”, or “destroyed his credibility”. Critics said he was out of touch with the American people, that he was too focused on foreign policy, that he managed the economy poorly. His savings and loan bailout of $100 billion was attacked as supplying corporate welfare while ignoring the needs of the people. Democrats were heavily critical of him leaving Saddam Hussein in power.

The rhetoric was strong but very non-violent and with limited hyperbole.

Clinton

Obviously, the biggest controversy for ol’ Bill was that he was a philanderer. Quotes about this scandal were strong, but not hyperbolic.

“This is not about sex. This is about perjury, obstruction of justice, and the rule of law.”
“The president’s misconduct was serious and substantial.”
“A man without character cannot lead a nation.”
“The president placed himself above the law.”

And these were his worst enemies.

The Clinton era was the rise of partisan media. Fox News launched in ’96 and accused the mainstream media of protecting Clinton’s image, rather than reporting the objective facts. Angry quotes included:

“The press has become Clinton’s personal defence team.”
“The American people are being lied to by omission.”
“This is not journalism. This is propaganda.”

Clinton’s impeachment largely had him labelled as immoral, dishonourable, but not a monster. He’s still viewed positively by Democrats, or was until very recently. Under Clinton we was the rise of political correctness, the politics of victimhood, and the real start of the modern propaganda machine.

Clinton bombed Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, some limited campaigns against terrorist targets in Kenya and Tanzania. Many argued at the time that Clinton did not have congressional authorization, and that his interventionism was an overreach of power. There were protests over abortion, the government shutdown over the budget, WTO, and the Lewinsky scandal. His worst enemies called him without honour, immoral, a sexual predator, corrupt and dishonest. There were several major protests, no notable major injuries, no deaths.

Bush 2

George W. Bush aimed to finish what his dad had started, and 9/11 gave him license to do that and much, much more. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act spawned occupy-style anti-Bush rallies. Here’s where the language and action style change post-Clinton.

“George W. Bush is the most dangerous president in the history of the United States.”
“Bush is a war criminal”
“Bush lied, people died”
“Bush = Nazi”
“Bush’s administration is a rogue regime, systematically undermining international law.”

Words like fascist weren’t mainstream, but were floated in more extreme circles. The media covered the protests, and partisan networks were critical of Bush. Bush supporters were not attacked for voting Republican, pundits did not call for violence. No deaths attributable to protests, some minor injuries, mostly due to pepper spray.

Obama

Obama was quite active militarily. He conducted airstrikes in 7 countries, dropping an average of 3 bombs per hour, for every hour he was president. Many civilians were killed; he even dropped bombs on weddings. He was especially active in places like Libya and Syria. There were protests, but on a much smaller scale, and with very little violence. Rather than have big, angry protests about the record number of extrajudicial killings, they gave him the Nobel Peace Prize, despite ending zero wars and raining down drone strikes like Dre drops beats.

There were some large scale protests under Obama. The Tea Party movement hated that the Democrats pushed through the Affordable Care Act without needing a single republican vote, and despite many of their own people voting against it. There were also the Occupy Wall Street protests, which really launched the niche industry of professional protester. The Ferguson shooting was a big one, there were some Birther rallies, one arson-related death, and numerous minor injuries.

The rhetoric ticks up a bit:
“Obama is a Marxist.”
“This is an administration driven by hatred for America as founded.”
“He’s trying to fundamentally transform America.”

But then Donald J. Trump enters the picture and ho – lee shit.

Trump

It’s important to remember who Trump is as a person, and not some cartoonish icon of evil. He kept himself relevant for 50 years and made himself a brand. That brand stood for brash Americanism. Trump was about the excess of the 80s, and the burgeoning global market of the 90s. He was about winning – so much so that his name, his brand, became synonymous with it. His negotiating style, which is legendary, is aggressive, take-no-prisoners, and (over)uses leverage. The Art of the Deal was a best seller. Later, The Apprentice became pop culture legend. For the show, producers really had him lean in to exaggeration and air of boastful disdain. It was that character that people elected, and the idea of American Winning behind it.

I’m also going to mention January 6th just to state that I believe that was pure idiocy born of hyperbolic rhetoric, and represents the biggest blunder of the Right over the past decade. That being said, I don’t believe Trump was trying to incite a riot, and it’s a stretch to call it an insurrection. I’ll allow that it could be seen as such, but so could the actions in Minnesota or that “Don’t Obey Illegal Orders” PSA put out by the Seditious Six. Jail sentences of up to 22 years wasn’t justice – it was a warning, “This is what you get when you fuck with Big Brother.”

The protests are massive in scale, and contain a concerning number of people who can’t logically explain why they feel so much hate towards this guy they’ve known their whole life. The language is barbaric and poisonous. Assassinations are attempted and celebrated. There’s a certain disconnect from one’s humanity when you’re laughing about murder. On the Right there is a lot of residual anger over the Biden era, especially with respect to immigration and COVID that manifests in a mistrust of foreigners and the medical system, but wow, man, nothing like what we’re seeing now. Kicking over memorials? That’s pretty goddamned off the charts low there.

There have been serious injuries. There have been deaths. There have been premeditated murders. People are calling each other Nazi and Fascist and Retarded and Pedophile, which are pretty much the worst things you can call another human being. Many have cut off contact with friends and family who don’t share their screen-dictated world view, severing any organic support network there remained after COVID had us say our final goodbyes to grandma over FaceTime or risk getting arrested and put in camps. All while this ever more efficient and ever more effective propaganda machine pushes the action to extremes – more engagement, more influence, more monetization.

Trump is about excess. And him bringing that condescending, very much not politically correct style to the table, one would have thought the prudent thing to do would have been to have calmly pointed out his blunders and made him look the fool. Instead, his opponents went… I want to phrase this succinctly and descriptively… completely bong bong, apeshit, poop-flinging, hit-on-head-with-cartoon-mallet, frothing, writhing, Mad Hatter, Gary Busey, Brittany Spears, LSD-taking, upside down, knick knack paddywack-a-doodle insane. It’s as if millions of people all just simultaneously snapped and spazzed out.

The rhetoric is disgusting.

“Anyone who can’t see the threat to the republic… is living in a fantasy.”
“This is what happens when you elect a sociopathic narcissist.”
“I say fuck Trump. He’s a pig, a dog, a con, a bullshit artist.”
“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”
“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, you get out and you create a crowd.”
“Trump voters are angry, racist, misogynist white people.”
“MAGA is a mental illness.”
“The MAGA crowd is a racist sewer.”
“The Republican Party is a giant scam run by grifters and lunatics.”
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.”
“Is violence sometimes necessary? Yes.”
“Thoughts and prayers for the bullet.”

Jay Jones said he wanted his opponents children murdered in their mothers arms in front of him so that he would know suffering. Then the Left elected him. I could go on. Calls for citizens to arm themselves against law enforcement, talking heads on screen calling the president a Nazi pedophile, labelling anyone who voted for Trump as a racist monster.

Partisan politics has frequently been unfriendly, but you didn’t have families split or jobs lost or people assaulted based solely on who they voted for. That’s not bipartisan. That’s firmly on the Left. Half (well slightly more than half) of a country of 350 million people overnight viewed as subhuman. It seems a bit disingenuous to call Trump awful names for his hyperbolic rhetoric, then produce far more repulsive rhetoric of your own to pipe over every screen 24/7.

It’s not the same. People cheering for assassinations and assassination attempts. Frequent assaults over one’s democratic preference, with Leftist leaders repeatedly encouraging more violence. Disowning family, attacking federal agents, repeating bizarre claims as if they were fact, it really is unhinged. It’s not only from the Left, but it’s mostly from the Left, and it isn’t sane. Their brand of extremism is closer to ISIS than to historical US liberals. Dehumanizing your opponents with ugly labels is an excuse to ignore what they have to say, and in the worst cases, be violent towards them. Today’s political extremism is a powder keg waiting to explode into open war. If the propaganda machine doesn’t slow down or radically change course, that is where the US will be.