I have more attention freed up, since retiring from the PNWS Board of directors, just in time to see the US Federal government take a really bad turn. Chaos, destruction and cruelty are spewing forth from our government’s Executive branch, at a pace and scale, leaving most of us wondering WTF is happening? The following is an attempt at digesting that river of political BS, with the basic method of breaking down assumptions and revealing underlying truths. One fact that helps me frame all the chaos is that Donald Trump began his campaign as a PR stunt to get more money for the Apprentice TV show. He did not want to be President of the United States. His goal has always been to increase his own power, wealth and prestige. He only stayed in the race for the adoration and power, and will cling to the office for the immunity from prosecution it provides. He is not a statesman or a public servant, but he is talented at pretending to be one. He is also talented at committing crime without accountability. By turns he can play the tough guy, the victim, or the dummy and can improv riffs of word salads that carry a tone of confidence, while functioning as thought-numbing smokescreens.
Donald Trump is like an improvisational performance artist. He is working his audience, finding out what gets attention and shouting down hecklers. One assumes the script of the Donald Trump as President show would be How to run the country, but there’s no script for the DT show. He’s riffing it. He’s mostly repeated ideas from the past, or borrowing plans from others (Project 2025), or even letting other people (Musk) make Executive decisions. DT isn’t interested in truth. For him the meaning of everything revolves around the hollow core of his fabricated persona. In trumpworld up can be down, war is peace, slavery is freedom as much as those perversions of reality serve to hold his position as autocratic. The US can resemble a dictatorship because of DT’s relentless attention grabbing, but because he has no governing agenda, our government is better described as a collage of oligarchy, using the methods of fascism.
Fascism is not an ideology or a set of values, it’s a method of controlling social thought through fear, outright brutality, and scapegoating. It may take the form of a myth about who’s to blame and who will save us, but the details of that myth could change at anytime, the content is unimportant: it’s the cruelty and dominance that are essential. Fascism is like a bully in a schoolyard, targeting anyone vulnerable in order to assert it’s violence as a threat to everyone else. Trump poses as a patriot with moral beliefs, but he’s just an improvising showman, taking various ques from his maga minions, Faux news, Vladimir Putin, billionaire technocrats, and religious zealots, all of that with the sole intent of preserving the Trump brand. But it’s all a hollow show, a gold-plated feces. It’s a mistake to expect structure or logic to the grievances and “agenda” of the maga movement and it’s leader. Direct confrontation will often miss it’s mark, like boxing with smoke.
There are many ways to counteract fascism. Simply showing up and standing out, and being public with one’s truth are forms of resistance. This includes being public with your art. Being vulnerable, curious and humane, speaking up for others who are being targeted with oppression, all of these are proactive contradictions to fascism.
Fascism is afraid of freedom. Fascism is afraid of education. Fascism is afraid of Free Speech. Seeing through DT’s façade, and speaking truth to power, this is part of our role as artists. Fascism is afraid of kind and caring people joining together in great numbers and saying NO to the abuse of power. There will be peaceful protests gathering all across the US on April 5th at noon. Showing up is both easy and essential. I would love to see you there.
Stay true to your personal vision. +++Andy Kennedy
Featured cartoon by Portuguese artist Zez Vaz is a retelling of China’s tank man 1989.
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