Bring on the nihilists / MAGA shouldn’t try to build a new moral order |
Americans increasingly suspect that the entire social order is a sort of elaborate swindle. Billions of their taxpayer dollars were found to have gone to mysterious “learing centers” with no students. Federal agencies have paid $2.8 trillion in such mistaken transfers since 2003, according to government figures. There is serious discussion about whether a clique of pedophiles was ensconced at the highest levels of society. When asked, “Do you think the system is rigged in America?” 70 percent of citizens reply “Yes.” They are waiting for someone to tell them what has gone wrong and who is to blame.
So naturally, America’s populist movement has decided that what the moment really calls for is religious Pharisaism and family values. According to the supposedly more highbrow parts of MAGA-land, America’s real problem is disenchantment and postmodernism. The reason people are unhappy is because they are irony-poisoned and atomized – possibly under demonic influence. They are addicted to doomscrolling and are being mentally frazzled by the internet.
MAGA should be destroying things for the sake of it – offering discord, a burning-away of the deadwood
MAGA should be destroying things for the sake of it – offering discord, a burning-away of the deadwood
It is taken for granted by various factions, some gathered around J.D. Vance, that they only have to wait for Trump to get out of the way so that they can commence the real work of populism: the moral revival of........