This Petri dish of insanity

With logic that can only be referred to as “Trumpian,” Donald Trump has bafflingly linked the two recent violent incidents in Las Vegas and New Orleans to immigrants. This despite the fact that perpetrators of both incidents were American-born. Trump “explains”: “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership.”

In the MAGA world, where one is many and two is all, these incidents represent a “violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy.” Trump, of course, blames President Biden. The incidents, one where a man exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and the other, where a man drove a vehicle through a crowd in New Orleans killing at least 15 people, are still being investigated by police. No connection between the incidents is known. Curiously, both perpetrators were members of the US armed forces.

In the surreal world of MAGA, these incidents serve as flashpoints for justifying hatred of immigrants. They require little in sense and nothing in logic. Bad news, no matter how easily identifiable the cause, can and will become bad news for immigrants. For example, the blame for job shortages, homeless American veterans and elections that didn’t go MAGA’s way are easy to leave at the doorstep of immigrants, people who perform jobs Americans refuse to do, who are not eligible for benefits and who cannot vote.

Blaming the weak and voiceless for social ills is a common ploy of fascists. Human beings, as easy receptacles for this kind of rubbish, are too often quick to blame others for their problems. Blame travels fast, rational and nuanced explanations less so. Outrage is an addiction, fuelled by dopamine and a rush to hold others to account. It’s an age-old recipe for intolerance, one that the puppet masters of the flow of information have exploited for millennia.

Today’s miasma of social media, where entire world-views are too often informed by memes, is tailor-made for the spread of fascism. The world that Trump and his league of thugs are about to inherit in a little over two weeks couldn’t be more suited to them had they designed it themselves. It’s a world where, for millions of Americans, Truth will become whatever Trump proclaims it to be.

The more than 30,000 lies (that we know about) that Trump told during his first term of office are about to become quaint in their relative insignificance. Back then Trump was somewhat constrained by relatively rational voices inside his administration and a genuine prospect that he could later be prosecuted. Those constraints are gone this time, and, this time around, many of the people in Trump World are even crazier than he is.

This Petri dish of insanity that has incubated for four years is about to be unleashed upon the world. No one knows what insanity will come from it, but rest assured we are almost certainly going to be shocked and surprised, whatever it turns out to be. I only know that I won’t give up. That’s a resolve that each of us must make within ourselves. I have every faith, brothers and sisters, that you’re with me.

Robert Harrington

Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.