It was just a couple of weeks ago that President Trump was both inciting and praising anti-lockdown protesters around the country. These included armed white militia men who stormed state capitol buildings demanding an end to public health measures to curb the spread of the deadly Covid-19 virus. Many of them were filmed harassing nurses and blocking ambulances from reaching hospitals, but to Trump they were all just “good people.” He did this all while the deaths in the US from the pandemic lurched toward the 100,000 mark, the highest recorded death toll for any nation on the planet.

But in just the span of a few days Trump’s rhetoric shifted. After the sadistic murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, he labeled the protesters against police brutality “thugs” and tweeted “once the looting starts the shooting starts.” A clear call for state violence. Floyd was a Black man who was accused of using a $20 counterfeit bill. For this he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by several white officers. One of them, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for an agonizing 8 minutes and 46 seconds, as he gasped for air, begged for his life, and called out for his late mother. At no time did Floyd appear to be resisting and bystanders pleaded with the officers to stop their assault. Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck for 2 minutes and 53 seconds after he lost consciousness.

Trump’s shift in tone regarding the protests of this horrific act of brutality shouldn’t come as any surprise. One of his most consistent traits has been to incite violence. At his rallies he has reveled in ridiculing the most vulnerable and has encouraged his feckless fans to “beat the crap” out of those who oppose him. “The man who once said that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” was not kidding. More recently, Trump threatened protesters against police brutality outside the White House:

“The front line was replaced with fresh agents, like magic. Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action. ‘We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and … good practice.”

But Trump is the odious symptom of a grave disease. One which has inflicted far more damage than any virus. The systemic violence of the American project has always been rooted in sadistic racism. For instance, the demonstrations that formed after the footage of George Floyd’s killing was released were largely non-violent. Despite this, they have been met with the full force of state violence. Police used tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades, and rubber bullets, not only at protesters but also members of the press. One Black reporter for CNN was arrested while his white colleagues were not despite them being together. There were also many credible reports of agents provocateurs among the protesters. One video shows a white man in a gas mask smashing windows. The US Customs and Border Patrol even flew one of its predator drones around Minneapolis amidst the protests. Like the tanks used at Standing Rock, this is an ominous sign that America’s war machine, that has made life a misery for millions abroad, is being turned inward.

There were no such police responses to the anti-lockdown protests which were composed mostly of white people. On the contrary, multiple videos show cops gently dealing with unruly white protesters despite many of them wielding assault rifles. It is a textbook example of structural racism at work. Given the armed nature of these demonstrations, one would guess that had there been a forceful approach by the police they would have been far more destruction than the “I Can’t Breathe” protests in Minneapolis and other US cities.

Trump’s blatant racism and belligerence are not anomalies to American culture. And those tempted to say “this is not us,” yet again, should pause before doing so. At a certain point there must be a reckoning to what America started out as and what it has become. The United States was founded upon white supremacy and violence. And it is not something of the distant past. Its tendrils reach deep into the very fabric of American society today.

Like all colonial empires, sadism has always been the driving force of American power. Not freedom. Not liberty. From genocide of the native population to centuries of slavery, from Jim Crow and the internment of Japanese citizens, from the carpet bombing of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to drone strikes in Afghanistan and Somalia, from Wounded Knee, to the Trail of Tears, to the Tulsa Massacre, to My Lai, to Abu Ghraib, to Guantanamo, the message has always been one of coercion through sadistic cruelty and violence. It explains how 48% of Americans can justify torture. It explains how so many Americans can easily forgive their war criminals. It explains how the US military could use Agent Orange, and white phosphorus, and depleted uranium in its warfare. It explains how immigrant children can be separated from their parents with nearly 70,000 of them held in squalid detention camps. And it has always thrived on supremacy. This is demonstrable in its abysmal response to the pandemic. Most of the victims in the US are people of color, immigrants, Native Americans, and the poor. It is no accident that they are being forced back to work in many states and abandoned to die should they become ill.

The knee that mercilessly crushed the neck of George Floyd is the same knee that has crushed the global south everywhere, both in the US and abroad. The US is not alone in this, but it surpasses every one else in terms of capital and brute strength. To think that Trump is some kind of glitch is both ahistorical and ludicrous. Indeed, there have been scores of Trumps throughout the bloody history of the US and before. There are scores of them now, and many in positions of power, from the military, to ICE, to the CBP, to the judiciary, to the police, to correctional officers, to corporate executives. Trump has definitely emboldened them. But, in truth, they do not need much encouragement to begin with, because there is a long legacy of barbarism for any of them to draw from.

Kenn Orphan  May 2020

At a certain point in an age of absurdity the normalization of madness becomes so common that it is almost indiscernible to most in the thick of it. Indeed, late capitalism, the stage which is undoubtedly preceding complete barbarism, has produced an endless stream of absurdities which not only insult the senses of those who possess a conscience and a modicum of critical thinking skills, but can also deliver a fatal injury as we are seeing unfold in real time with tepid or reckless responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Donald Trump’s ceaseless spin of the truth is already legendary. But his indifference to the deadliness of the virus has been amplified by groups like the far-right Freedom Works who have quietly supported anti-shutdown protests around the country. The malignancy of Trump’s sowing confusion via baseless accusations and endless deflection is exacting an extraordinary toll in American lives. And the dissonance is equally jarring. At many of these protests, socially liberal leaning anti-vaxxers are uniting with white supremacists and gun wielding militias in a bizarre display of solidarity.

The demand has not been for increased financial support, rent freezes, hazard pay, student debt forgiveness or universal healthcare as other protests have been doing. It has been for the government to “open up” businesses for non-essential services where working people are potentially exposed to the deadly pathogen. Some of the signs at these demonstrations speak volumes about the privilege of many of the protesters, saying they want a haircut, or their nails done, or to play a round of golf. Theories with little to no evidence on how the virus came about or if it is even a real thing, are peddled generously.

Unsurprisingly, many of the theories being thrown around these days scapegoat China; and this only feeds into Trump’s ramped up war of propaganda against the nuclear armed country and his unabashed racism at home. The latter was on display this month when he told an Asian American reporter to “ask China” about the United States’ record on addressing the pandemic. It is no coincidence that these rallies to end the supposed “lock down” are primarily made up of white middle-class Americans either. After all, many of them have been untouched. The worst of this pandemic has disproportionately impacted people of color, indigenous communities and migrants.

The economic landscape has also tipped the scale into utter absurdity, even more so than ever before. Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, will likely become the world’s first trillionaire. And much of this is due to him profiting from the desperation and social conditions of the pandemic. That we, as denizens of this planet, can hear that bit of insanity without revolt is quite telling. While tens of millions of people have lost their livelihoods in this time of unprecedented crisis, the wealthiest have only become wealthier, and much of that thanks to direct government bailouts. It is worth noting that as Bezos gets closer to the trillion dollar mark, his business has been cutting hazard pay as his workers become ill with Covid-19. They were given thank you t-shirts as compensation for the life threatening risks they take to gain him his wealth. Even prior to the deadly pandemic, Amazon was a dangerous place to work. Long hours, injuries from heavy lifting and machinery failures were common. The pandemic has only amplified these things in far more deadly ways.

Indeed, over the past couple months, we have witnessed the depths that the uberwealthy can sink to.  Elon Musk, the man who wants to colonize Mars and whose net worth is approximately 36 billion dollars, has tweeted endlessly about the pandemic. Originally likening it to the common cold, he has been relentless in demanding the “opening up” of the economy, linking health measures to prevent contagion to idiotic claims of tyranny, all while he remains safely at home at his palatial estate. Of course, Trump adored his sickening online sycophancy. Along with a cadre of senators, Glenn Beck, and most of the staff of Fox News, the calls for working people to get back to work has echoed down the corridors of power. Meanwhile, almost all of them remain safely at home, comfortably tweeting and airing their opinions to the beleaguered masses.

In a country built upon land theft and slavery by the elite ruling class, which has hardly had a year without attacking another nation, the words of the wealthy are taken with almost as much reverence as the utterances of high priests were in ancient civilizations. In fact, there is no separation of church and state because capitalism is the state religion. And far too many Americans have been conditioned to adore their billionaires and celebrities as demigods, even when they continually rob them of the fruit of their labor. There are signs that this adoration is fraying as each day passes. Vapid Twitter posts from celebrities saying, erroneously, that “we are all in the same boat” are growing tedious; and the so-called titans of industry are being seen more as the parasites they are.

But there is also a rising tide of distrust in officials in charge of major and critical institutions like the CDC. For instance, the viral video segment from the upcoming, so-called “documentary” Plandemic revolves around one central figure, the discredited scientist Judy Mikovits, and attempts to weave a complicated tale of conspiracy about Anthony Fauci and other officials with virtually zero evidence to back any of it up. But the blame for most of this public dubiety lies at the doorstep of the establishment itself.

Scores of atrocities have come from the unholy union of the state, corporations and the military. Even though it may not be discussed widely in mainstream circles, there is some public memory of the multitude of crimes committed by powerful state actors and agencies, from the Tuskegee experiments on Black men, to COINTELPRO, to infiltration of the Civil Rights and antiwar movements, to the nuclear tests that contaminated the Marshall Islands and exiled its indigenous population, to the radiation experiments on unsuspecting soldiers and pregnant women, and beyond. These crimes, along with those committed against non-Americans during war, as in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya, have eroded the public’s confidence in the nation’s established institutions. Indeed, all those incidents have led us to this moment. And Trump has used all of this to his advantage. He continues to distract from his initial denialism and ongoing anemic response to the pandemic by playing on rampant paranoia we are seeing in many places, especially online.

The United States leads the world in cases and deaths from Covid-19 and this is, at least in part, due to a culture of entrenched, willful ignorance where science is concerned. The rampant denial over climate change in an era where there is literally no debate on the subject among the majority of the world’s scientists, is a glaring example of this. But it is also due to a long legacy of brutal betrayals and crimes, and a culture which values the stock portfolios of the wealthy over the health and lives of the working class, people of color, the disabled and the elderly. There is no end in sight for this pandemic thanks to this arrangement. And no coherent or humane plan is in the works to address the enormous human suffering that will result.

Absurdity is a luxury of the powerful, but a misery for everyone else. Under the rubric of capitalism, the ludicrous becomes a tool in fomenting distrust, disenfranchisement, alienation, fear and confusion. It is used to divide and conquer. But because of its corrosive effect, it can only go on for so long before the very fabric of a society disintegrates. We are not there yet, but we should not kid ourselves in thinking we are far from it.

Kenn Orphan  May 2020