What do you believe?

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

I confused things with their names: that is belief
- Jean-Paul Satre, 1964

(9/2018) There’s a story about a man who gets mistaken for the new owner of a large business. He is whisked up to the board room and asked to tell them his plan for the future. He’s flummoxed, as he is actually just a salesman, but not wanting to tell them that because he sees his chance at the big time, he jumps right in and says the most unlikely things which are put into place with huge success. He’s hailed as a genius, showered with honours, but it soon becomes clear he actually has no idea of what he’s doing, and the company slides down into bankruptcy. I think the protagonist was played by was Mickey Rooney

Remind you of anyone?

Honestly, doesn’t Donald fit that picture? The pitches, the tweets come thick and fast, seemingly reaping instant success, the up swell of approbation hits the media, and he’s more famous than Midas. His speech is so far out of the park, so crazy that ‘normal’ people raise their hands in horror, the establishment vent their distress not knowing what to do, and the 30% or so of people who are so alienated by the system don’t care what he says.

They have been exploited, taken for idiots, and pandered to more cynically than ever before. They don’t care, they are sick and tired of promises that were made of shadows, so they stick to their president come what may. He can do little that is wrong, and even if it’s so blatant that they can’t ignore it, it only proves he’s human.

Much of the media love the way he boosts sales. They too don’t much care, they want their share price to keep going up, and are so bitten by the cynic bug that their image is unimportant. Politicians seek veins of gold, making sure they only join the Trumpish team when they have lost sight of morality, honesty and why they are there, and are prepared to get a boot in the face if their conscience lights up.

Adherents to Mr. Trump and his message now have a new weapon: Q, or Qanon is a group that believes, among other things, that the earth is flat. They have one very simple foundation: It does not exist if you haven’t seen it. You see that the earth is flat, ergo it is. If you haven’t been to Canada then for you it is absent from the landscape. They see conspiracies everywhere when there are none. This is paranoia gone mad and so unbelievable that it really does say something profound about society today.

You have to be ill-educated, incredulous and faithful to the strangest of fairy tales to even jokingly accept this stuff. I wonder if they believe in cattle - they will not have seen a cow, but steak arrives on the plate. Manna? Miracle?

I‘m sure everyone reading this cannot believe their eyes, but they are among you. They might even be Republicans, but they sure are cut off from reality. This, of course, may be because reality is too awful, and they have retreated into a fugue state, total denial of actuality for which there are no pills. It also says a lot about the supporters of the current President.

And about the president himself. His own style of Qanon beliefs are obvious: The Deep State - you can’t see or find it, but you can blame it for trying to undermine me; Russia doesn’t matter; Bannon is a liar who’s frenzied commentary is not worthy of any consideration. (This last one is a projection, unconscious or not, of himself).

His foreign adventures are straight out of the Qanon bin also: Kim Jong-Un is a god guy; Putin is no threat; Turkey wont give our terrorist back; The EU are a bunch of nitwits; China better behave or I’ll cut it’s nuts off; I won’t back a free trade deal because I don’t understand it. All my friends love me.

You do not need to be a psychologist to see the gaps in his comprehension, but you do need to share similar traits to be blind to the future he is creating. It’s one in which we will all suffer far more than we can currently imagine because China is creating ways to take over countries, one by one, placing them in debt prisons from which there is no escape. They are totally bemused by the ease with which has been done, have been allowed to control his responses. They are in close alliance with Russia, the undermining of American democracy possibly planned well in advance. Who better could they install as president than the current man? Given their ability in cyber espionage and skullduggery it could have been done. They aim to dictate their ways to all of us, they are not nice ways, and they are being helped by the president.

The brilliance of America in these areas is unmatched, the will, the need and the expertise to counter such machinations is unquestioned – but when you have someone like Trump in charge they might as well be looking for water in the desert. That’s not to say he’s doing this deliberately; I’m sure he believes he’s he only answer available, but that is truly a Qanon fiction.

Already the countries that considered themselves absolute allies, who admired, shared beliefs and had pacts that were both profitable and strong are turning their backs. What else can they do? Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, the EU – they all are looking elsewhere, excluding America from deals and planning how to survive without you. Your president is worried about the economy. Fair enough, but you do not improve trade by bullying your partners. You do not earn respect by flinging tweets and creating smoke screens. You surely do not earn trust by changing policy and vital personnel. Instead, you garner suspicion, dislike and even hatred.

And your reaction has shown the rest of the world just how powerless you seem to be to undo this mistake. It’s more than constitutional constraints, it’s the will of the Republican party, the determination of the press and the power of the people to take action and dismiss this priest of perversion.