Pause and think about this for a minute. Since the beginning of the 21st century, over the past 18 years alone, we have witnessed an endless array of malevolence that is truly hard to fathom. Consider the following events that have taken place in less than two decades:
- The dot com bubble burst that witnessed the layoff of millions of Americans and the eradication of their life savings
- The horrific events of 9/11 that took the lives of 2,996 Americans and traumatized a nation
- Being lied into a war in Iraq that led to the death of more than 5,000 American service men and women and led directly or indirectly to the killing of more than one million Iraqis
- The Great Recession of 2008 that witnessed the grandest theft in recorded history as millions of Americans were dispossessed of their homes while the same Wall Street crooks who gambled with our savings and livelihood were rewarded with trillions in bailouts and golden parachutes
This is but the surface layer of breathtaking malfeasance and corruption which have never been accounted for. In each instance, not one executive or high level government official was held responsible as blame was shifted to underlings while victims were left out in the cold. There are many people who are complicit in this ongoing fleecing and bleeding of America and the world by extension; from politicians who insidiously present half truths through partisan blinders, mainstream media pundits who perpetuate a fraud by way of sensationalism and manufactured outrage to corporations that bankroll a litany of charlatans on all sides, we are continually conditioned and distracted from the true malevolence of the courtier class.
The foundation is crumbling and the infrastructure is rotting but people change the color of window curtains and think they voted for change:: #OH12 #TuesdayThoughts #ElectionDay
— Teodrose Fikre ✒ (@TeodroseFikre) August 8, 2018
This is why Donald Trump is the perfect man for the job; he has managed to drive America into a collective delusion—his detractors and worshipers alike can’t get enough of the petulant president. While all sides are focused on Trump’s sophomoric antics and his over-the-top carnival act, the corporate-state complex continues to tighten the screws and transfer our wealth and public resources to the plutocrat class. Over the past ten years, more than 95% of the wealth created has gone to the top 1% while the bottom 90% of Americans have witnessed their buying power, savings and incomes regress relative to inflation as skyrocketing cost of living kicks all of our butts. While the rich keep getting richer, the rest of society is slowly sinking into the abyss of economic anxieties or being entombed in the pits of financial insolvency.
In any other time, this level of disconnect between the aristocracy and the citizenry would have led to a mass insurrection. We are living in a time comparable to the French Revolution where the gentry lead lives of mind blowing opulence while more and more are being driven into dependency and uncertainty about the future. This is why media has been weaponized and our politics has become so poisonous. These things are not occurring by happenstance, we are being medicated by a never ending stream of antagonism in order to keep us perpetually riled up. The best way to divert the public’s attention is by injecting politics and splintering society based on ideological and identity lines. The same tactics of divide and conquer that have been perfected in far off lands have been unleashed with ruthless efficiency in America against us.
What better way to keep us confounded than to derange us with a man who has the charm of Rasputin and the grace of Caligula. The mere mention of Trump’s name is enough to drive both his supporters and haters into a froth. Donald Trump gives voice to the frustrations of some and evokes the fury of others, both sides are getting duped as they fixate on 45 while they overlook the continuous criminality of the ruling class. Though we are often led to believe otherwise, the truth is that presidents are but faces of a wider and more surreptitious bureaucracy that sets domestic and foreign policies without our consent. As long as we focus on Trump, we can waste our energy yapping or clapping at him. One man has become the bug zapper of America—we just can't seem to quit Trump. Click To Tweet
We keep consuming what is meant to delude us. Wall to wall coverage of Trump on almost every channel and publication is meant to keep us transfixed and glued to this ongoing theater of absurdity that our politics has become. The buffoonery of Donald and the duplicity of both Democrats and Republicans is nothing more than a reality show where wealthy self-servants incite their followers and alienate the other side. The same is true of pundits and social actorvists who limit their indignation in order to maximize their exposure; they refuse to go at the source and would rather hack at branches while collecting checks from the same purveyors of injustice they speak against. The great Trump delusion is a profitable business to pundits, politicians and opinion leaders, each time they instigate the masses, they increase their social capital and earning potential at our cost.
Alas the rest of us keep getting the short end of the stick while getting shivs stuck in our backs. Our collective Agitated Delusion Disorder comes at a cost, we keep jumping from one injustice to the next and bouncing between anger and outrage only to render our power irrelevant. Each day, more and more people are sucked into the chasm of hopelessness. It’s a matter of time before another cataclysmic event takes place by way of falling markets that signal the next recession or streaming rockets that could birth a global conflagration. We will only know of these moments when they jarringly intrude in our lives. History will note that the warning signs were always there, we would know too if we were not busy salivating like Pavlov’s dog at the sound of Trump. #PavlovingPolitics
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Teodrose Fikremariam
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