The Big Lie and Ye

Popourri of devolution in our times: Starting with this nifty bit of reporting from the NY Times: "Venezuela was once among the most affluent countries in Latin America, its economy buoyed by oil. But mismanagement and corruption by leaders claiming socialist ideals plunged the economy into disarray, while Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, gutted its democratic institutions." This did not come from an opinion piece mind you. It is the quintessential piece of ideological propaganda from the "paper of record". Love the bit where Ye and his posse crashed dinner at Mar a Lago. You can't make this stuff up. Kanye asked Trump to be his vice=president. This is the culmination of a process Guy Debord described in 1967 as The Society of the Spectacle. Thesis 111 says it pretty well: The "crumbling of the worldwide alliance founded on beureaucratic mystification". The veil is dropped, the mask removed. Of course Feuerbach saw its outlne much much earlier: But certainly for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence, this change, inasmuch as it does away with illusion, is an absolute annihilation, or at least a reckless profanation; for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness. I also think it is fascinating that when Louisiana resists Covid restrictions liberals call them reactionary hicks. But when Chinese people resist, they become valiant freedom fighters. And now we have an entire conservative cultural movement based on being asleep. They mock awareness and celebrate obtuseness and indifference. "The worst are filled with passionate intensity" as we slouch toward the outer limits of banality.