Its the final flowering of a half-century of fascism, with roots that go back all the way to the founding of the Republic, and perhaps even further. It is an evil tree now finally bearing fruit. And it is watered, not with the blood of patriots, but with fear, anger, ignorance, envy, greed and hatred. There are those, like the Russians, who feed and tend this tree, who exploit it for their own commercial, political or ideological purposes. But they did not plant it. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

America was ripe for this; cultivated for years. If not cultivated, then observed. “These idiots will believe anything! Let’s give them something to talk about.” And at this point in the late adolescence of the internet, it doesn’t take much. A nudge here, a push there, and we’ll dig our own damn rabbit hole.

I just finished watching the HBO series on Qanon. (recommended) And I cannot help but think about Foucault’s Pendulum, which we have discussed before. All it takes is a suggestion and a shopping list and people will buy into all kinds of silly things, to the point of murder.

The condiment that makes it all go down? Fear. And these people are fear merchants, whatever country they may inhabit. Fear is enticing. Fear is addictive. Fear controls the mob beyond careful thought. And money can be made. Governments toppled. Lead tossed into my neighbors at a local grocery store. MY local grocery store. Maybe yours.

I’ve been doing my best to counter this crap for more than thirty years, long before the internet became the means of propagation.

And I’m tired. Perhaps my tactics have been ineffective. Sun Tzu said that a nation has to believe in itself to succeed against its opponents. Convince a population that its government, or science, or fellow citizens are not to be trusted and you’ve cracked the foundation.

I don’t deny that there is a certain irony of warning against fear mongers as I post this commentary of the danger of fear mongers. But that’s where we are.

And its not just here. Similar campaigns are also being waged in Europe, picking on weak spots in the NATO alliance and in the former USSR Satellites. Brexit is a Putin baby, not to mention the right-wing resurgence in France and Germany. Racial, ethnic, immigration and Covid related themes have also appeared all over the Continent. The idea is not to promote or prevent any specific policy, but to induce confusion and conflict. Often, both sides of a local conflict or debate are targeted.

Why THIS wave? Well, they learned a lot during 2018-2019, and during the 2016 and 2020 elections, and now they are concentrating on what works, and employing strategies that seemed especially promising back then. And of course, they are applying everything they’ve learned from decades of studying Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley, both message and medium. The Iranians and Chinese are just getting into the game too, and the N Koreans, but they’re not as good at it as the Russians.

This is exactly what SDAI was trying to do when he was here. How are ya doin’, Marshal McLuhan?

Actually, I’m sort of impressed. This is a classic! Textbook, even. It would take you hours and a bottle of scotch to get through this point-by-point and you’d get nowhere except exsperationville.

I’ve been watching this. This is a fantastic distillation of lies filtered through bullshit then aged in casks of fear. It has it all. Well, almost. There some other things floating around that are even more ridiculous. He left out the eugenics and the genocide angle. Coming soon to an email or Facebook post near you.

So why this wave? Same sort of thing happened in 1918-1919 but it is different now. We have weaponized conspiracy theories now. But who exactly is pushing this? Is it just random hucksters looking for a buck from their YouTube ads, striving to build a holistic platform for future revenue? So they can sell their vitamins and colloidal silver while predicting the collapse of civilization – better buy some gold! Chiropractors, naturopaths, off-the-grid’s, preppers, libertarians, gun lobbies, real estate agents with just that spot out in the forest where you can establish your own compound and raise pigs you get to slaughter… Grifters thrive in chaos. Better makes some more.

Or, is it a concerted effort by actors with malicious intent to sow bullshit and reap disruption? Which, I have to say, becomes it’s own rabbit hole.

Why not both?

We are a seriously unserious culture right now.