True Colors: The Real Faces of Politics
Three Archetypes in the War on Ideas (RIP 2016 Election)
“Politics is war by other means.” — Michel Foucault, inverting Clausewitz’ phrase
Memes are the democratic expression of ideas, so its essential we understand the logic behind them. We live in the age of so-called post-truth and psy-ops, hence a full-on meme war now defines US politics (ie. Pepe won, NSA/CIA hijacks devices/minds). Leaving aside the complexity of the meme narrative for now, this was/is my memetic attempt to influence the election by distilling the most unobjectionable contrast between the three frontrunners.
Here are twenty memes that I think show the true colors of these politicians, and their constituents and surrogates by extension. Most of this was written during the election, and now we are six weeks into the Trump Presidency and he’s still acting like he’s campaigning, Democrats are still acting like Clinton surrogates, and Bernie Sanders is still being progressive (thankfully). Hillary chimes in from the bushes occasionally, but is mostly out of the picture (thankfully).
Meanwhile, the mainstream media, who arguably swayed the election more to Trump than Russia could ever dream, still suffers from its own brainwashing and morally bankrupt business models. So I humbly hope to add some clarity by breaking down this 3-way ideological clusterfuck in meme form, as the three distinct archetypes, reflecting opposed attitudes, practices, worldviews, social agendas.
Although just one man is president, I believe my overdue post-mortem of the election is still absolutely critical for civic discourse and civil society. My aspirations are for the truth and reconciliation of competing narratives. My simple message to all (dis-)affected parties is to move to the center. Let the truth dictate your politics.
Let’s call the first (above) image On Nature, and the following memes are titled as follows (for quick reference): On Rights, On Truth and Lies, On Reality and Television, On Risk-Taking and Game Playing, On Bribery and Integrity, On Ethics, On Media Coverage, On the Environment, On Paradigms and Worldviews, On Foreign Policy, On Allegiance, On Women, Market Valuations, and Methodology.
Five more (bonus) memes follow at the bottom, which I am not compelled to detail. The above image is the most obvious caricature; Hillary is the lesser-of-two evils (an oft repeated voter-rationale during the general election), while Trump is actually evil, and Bernie is of course just “GOOD.” To be sure, Trump and Clinton are equally banal and evil, but in different ways.
Also, my goal is not to deify Bernie Sanders or disclose my own politics (I’ll always aim for centrism), but much of the animus towards Bernie is simply an irrational fear of his brand of totally moderate socialism (an ignorance of which is extremely dangerous). Bernie’s outstanding performance in these memes is merely the result of my triangulation between the three.
No. 2 On Rights
Donald Trump admitted that from the beginning that his campaign strategy was to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks — and it’s worked, and he’s proud of it. From his eponymous marketing gimmicks, to his self-aggrandizing best-sellers, to his reality/TV show where he ‘plays’ a cocky business guru, the Donald is obviously in it for bragging rights, less for the common good. Hillary overtly fights for corporate welfare at the expense of people’s needs.
Sure, she gives plenty of lip service to human and civil rights, but on paper she’s half the activist Bernie is. On paper. In reality, she’s 1/10th. I think this one is pretty self explanatory, for Bernie as well. In fact, I think many of these should require no explanation at all, but here we are. Now, to play devil’s advocate, they likely all care about human equality and justice, and Trump to his credit actually is a strong proponent of LGBTQ rights (cf. Peter Theil, Milo Yiannopolous), despite the fear and wasteful/hateful protesting against this phantom.
No. 3 On Truth and Lies
Trump bragged about bribing his fellow republicans with whom he shared the debate stage. The result: people respected his honesty. Trump also admits that he uses inflammatory rhetoric (and lies) purely to get ahead in the polls, and is able to scale it back at will. Hillary’s laundry list of lies is longer than Trump claims his dick is, and while she’ll concede some mistakes, she is programmatically unable to admit that she’s flat out lying in multiple cases. Shared months after the fact in the mainstream, the “Hillary Clinton Lying for 13 minutes…” video, which went viral last year, easily demonstrates her capacity for duplicity.
Hillary cries wolf, but Bernie is just straight up, the real deal. Easily verifiable. He tells it like it is, but it’s so rare that a politician does so, that the American people are dubious — it sounds too good to be true. Bernie not only the “good” candidate, but the only honest one. His “30 years of Speeches” video on YouTube, which is somehow deemed inadmissible evidence by detractors, is proof of his political heroism and speaking truth to power. I hope that anyone, regardless of where your allegiance is placed, can agree with these basic portrayals.
No. 4 On Reality and Television
Donald was literally the star of his own reality show, The Apprentice, and is now running the political game as if he was producing the election itself — and he got the corporate media to pick up the tab (for ratings of course; its win-win). Hillary and Bill Clinton, like the Bush family, are pursuing their dynasty. The Clintons have overstayed their welcome in government and now are largely shills for corporate influence, but can’t think of a better way to contribute to society than to shoehorn themselves back into the White House.
They are literally cashing in on name recognition, and trying to return, as a team, to the highest political office where Bill already had his term limit. Their media image is a complete facade, buttressed by ‘legitimate’ mainstream news organizations The New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, to name a few. I put ‘legitimate’ in air quotes because these organizations have undermined themselves in drastic ways, not limited to her hoisting to the throne.
The Clinton’s limitless ambition sees elections merely as a lock to be picked, rather than a door to knock on. Hillary’s disregard for true progressivism is her blue blood bonafides. Bernie’s idealism is realistic. His vision is grounded. He has little patience for the fantasies of Trump, or the fallacies of Clinton. The problem is that it challenges very powerful actors. Bernie was, and is, on the right side of history, and this is reflective of a worldview based in reality.
Did you know he’s a political scientist and taught at Harvard? That the revolution will not be televised is a truism, suggestive of the fact that the mainstream media prime directives are to entertain (profitably) and “manufacture consent,” not to broadcast disruptive narratives (though they do this occassionally).
No. 5 On Risk-Taking and Game Playing
Trump literally owns casinos, and is arguably both a dealer and player in this scenario. Hillary has the game rigged in her favour in numerous respects; the establishment’s loyatly to her status-quo agenda, superdelegates who she has basically laundered money to for their committed support, and the name recognition that she has over Bernie (who?). Partial credit to her President spouse too.
In terms of risk-taking, Hillary plays the political game which invariably produces negative externalities and sub-optimal policies (plays being the operative word). Such is the Stepford politician she has become, pragmatic to a fault, where she even doubles down on her bullshit defense over the Emailgate scandal just days after the IG report and the mainstream media critically come down on her. Bernie is a grassroots activist who avoids the trappings of dirty money all together. He’s a careful risk-taker, not a gambler.
No. 6 On Bribery and Integrity
Trump changed the game when he admitted in early Republican debates that the election was rigged — and he’d know, cuz he’d paid off all the politicians on stage with him. In that moment, he went all in with a pair of deuces, and the rest is history. Hillary’s head would explode by trying to process the cognitive dissonance that would occur upon realizing that the paid Wall Street speeches are ACTUALLY bribes. So big and smooth are those payments though, that it blinds her to the nature of capital’s subtle influence (quid pro quo is obvious, yet hard to ‘prove’). Hillary Clinton is truly the best candidate money can buy, making Bernie the best candidate that can’t be bought, because he is priceless.
No. 7 On Ethics
Trump has said more vicious things in the past 6 months than all politicians have in the past 6 years… but what power has he actually held? What policies has he affected? Hillary has blood on her hands for her support of unilateral illegal war, and specifically for covert ops she’s had her name attached to. There’s more, but again this is another instance I want to say ‘do your homework.’ This meme also reflects strongly back on the Evil — Less Evil — Good meme I opened with. Bernie Sanders says and does nice things. Regarding ethics, I’m referring more to their dispositions and actions rather than investigating their philosophies. Again, these comparisons are not absolute, but crystallize their identities in opposition to each other.
No. 8 On Media Coverage
These titles reflect not the individuals but the mainstream media’s (MSM) approach to coverage. For Trump, sensationalism = ratings = money. For Hillary, its about preserving the establishment, the corporate infrastructure, and hiding the media’s desperate and flailing attempts to stay relevant and profitable at the same time, amidst the social media revolution. The media is thus compelled to cover conflict over contradictions.
Scottie Nell Hughes of CNN actually quoted “if it bleeds, it leads” as journalistic protocol, and was ripped apart by TYT’s Ana Kasparian for it. It’s a pathetic excuse for ignoring the real issues. Showing (dis-)respect to Bernie, there has also been a media “Blackout” of egregious proportions, from his underdog beginnings, to packed stadiums, to social movements and global protests, the MSM has downplayed Bernie’s prospects as well as his actual success. The media also realizes that the more people know, the more they like Bernie.
No. 9 On the Environment
Whether Trump believes his own words or not, climate change denial is core dogma to Republican and conservative ideology, and this is central to his winning strategy. Climate change is a “hoax” according to his mass movement. However, pollution is undeniable, and this is the root cause of global warming. The negative impact of humans on Earth is catastrophic, but it is highly abstract, and therefore easy to ignore. Denial of the problem is in the service of fossil-fuel conglomerates that funded anti-science narratives, pure and simple. The practice of denial runs deep in politics, and nothing good can come of it.
Hillary of course is aware of climate change and wants to do something about it. However her environmental politics leave much to be desired. She supports the patently stupid pursuit of fracking (cost-benefit calculus says its okay; its not), and is generally cozy with her corporate sponsors of all industries. Rather than confront the urgency of climate change, she believes in more conciliatory baby-steps to get us to a green economy. Meanwhile other countries like Germany are soaring ahead in renewable energy.
Bernie has taken a stand to change the corrupt political culture and address environmental destruction, at the same time! His supplanting of traditional US foreign policy with a global climate change agenda is nothing short of enlightened, albeit shockingly fanciful to critics. But the realistic timeline dictates that we divert all our attention and resources now to facing the only real common threat to civilization, the negative externalities of pollution. A Manhattan project for energy has been proposed before, and Bernie would have been the first to pursue it. His avowed platform from the start has been to transcend the corrupt campaign finance system and to tell the American people the truth about our energy-starved model of perpetual war. Plus, a fucking bird landed on Bernie’s podium. A bug landed on Donald’s head. It’s only a matter of time before Hillary is attacked by squirrels.
No. 10 On Paradigms and Worldviews
This one warrants a more exposition than you have attention span, so I’ll keep it short. We are now in a historical era and philosophical paradigm called metamodernism (look it up). Modernism describes the period of industrialization and urbanization, breaking from classical and traditional norms, bringing us into the 20th century. Postmodernism reflects criticism of the ideology and metanarratives that bound us to the mistakes of modernity. It embraces ideas of existentialism and nuanced understanding of problems.
Metamodernism, a nascent thought movement, is about actually fixing problems, about transcending bullshit, about moving beyond the relativism and impotence of postmodernism. We’ve languished in a post-9/11 world with something called ‘post-post-modernism,’ now its time to go beyond, to go meta. These paradigms reflect how the candidates think and act in the world. Donald? He’s a great host.
No. 11 On Foreign Policy
War is another issue that defies summary, but at the extremes are those who embrace militarism and laugh off the prospect of pacifism, many of whom profit from such beliefs. Donald is a cartoonish trope of American exceptionalism, who happens to have ridiculous combed-over hair, so I think a bald eagle is beffiting for his animal spirit. He wants to Make America Great Again, through ‘great’ trade ‘deals’ and quasi-isolationist military strengthening. Maybe he’ll drop bombs on people, who knows.
Hillary is a proud liberal wolf in sheep’s clothing; negotiator at best, but a neocon when push comes to shove. Her foreign policy is not dissimilar from Bush doctrine, hawkish with a lot of collateral damage, although she is more diplomatic in speaking terms. Most damning is her Israel stance, which is decidedly immobile. There is no path forward when the very language we use to describe the situation is partisan. The semantics of the debate disallows the truth of “occupation” and “apartheid,” in favor of a stalemate. Bernie wants to extend the olive branch internationally and lead by example. And quite honestly, this is what the world wants and needs.
No. 12 On Allegiance
Here, Bernie and Donald [are] opposite wings of the righteous anti-establishment movement. There are Trump supporters who support Bernie, and vice-versa. The common ground among anti-establishment voters of left and right persuasion is that they hate Hillary, and rightly so, as she is the figurehead of the superclass in their last ditch effort at managerial liberalism. People have had enough. Bernie and Trump could have made the ultimate superhero team up, the latter the bully who sticks up for the nerdy kid.
Now that Trump is president though, we see more his true colors, and that he was obviously never anti-establishment in a way comparable to Bernie. Trump’s chosen elite who fill his cabinet mirror the main idea of Suicide Squad (haven’t seen it): recruit a team of villians to ‘drain the swamp.’ Unfortunately, there is just bland loyalty to another kind of establishment (ie. DeVos, Tillerson, etc..). But as Henry Kissinger said, Trump is actually beholden to no one, for better or worse. Bernie is still busy campaigning for actual justice, whether it be on pipelines or political reforms.
No. 13 On Women
Once again, Hillary pays a lot of lip service to feminism, but two startling facts undermine her role. First, many voters, sadly, have confirmed they’re voting her mainly because she’s a woman — for what this is supposed to symbolize. Because she has breasts and a vagina, she is considered an automatic feminist in the policy sense over Bernie.
Let the record show that Bernie pays his female staff more than Hillary does. Bernie was called an “honorary woman” by feminist icon Gloria Steinem. Bernie chained himself to a black woman to fight for civil rights 50 years ago while Hillary was campaigning for a racist man.
Trump… Trump has said a lot of nasty things about and to women. But he has also been vindicated by Fox News regarding a slam piece the New York Times wrote, falsely accusing Trump of being a misogynistic boyfriend. Between our three amigos, Trump is disrespectful to women, Bernie is an advocate for women, while Hillary simply is one.
No. 14 Market Valuations
Trump’s marketing game is something like schlock and awe. He produces garbage but generates excitement by speaking off the cuff and inverting political correctness. If he offends someone, ratings go up, and that is where his (and the networks) values are placed. Hillary sold out what virtuous knowledge and authenticity she had no later than the 90s, to become a very seasoned talking head, with a lot of experience lying. Therefore her value is superficial, and exactly what the establishment wants. She’s worth her salt, you might say. No more, no less.
Taken another way, her value can be seen in terms of her name and face recognition. But this is still worthless compared to use value. Use Value is a term that implies utility of a given product or service, as opposed to Exchange Value, which is based on the market price of a commodity. Use Value is real and concrete; food and shelter, etc., and exchange value is abstract and fungible. Bernie has made clear that his campaign is not about him. By addressing the needs of working people, the needs of our environment, and the need for truth disclosure in politics, he’s about utility, if he’s about anything.
No. 15 Methodology
Donald has forged a Republican rift by capitalizing on the instability of a party that has been dumbing down its own electorate (and its politicians) for over 50 years. This is traceable through a stark narrative of anti-intellectual policies that have gutted education and sensationalized politics. Donald, a former democrat and ally(?) of the Clinton’s, took his campaign strategy right out of the GOP playbook to attack his opponents and rally the masses behind authoritarian preaching.
Top Republicans were so enraged that they threw every insult at him in a last ditch effort to prevent his nomination, but it backfired because the rift they caused in their own voter base, sick of establishment politics, sided with Trump. Now neocons have courted both Trump and Clinton, but Bernie can not be seduced by the dark side. The Clintons, embroiled in one financial scandal after another, they’ve streamlined their political machine through the The Clinton Foundation, which post-election is in deep recession.
Hillary’s shameless acceptance of private donations and SuperPAC funds have all been funnelled into winning at all costs (a loser strategy). Let’s call this Democratic grift, and lo and behold, it includes ‘rift’ as well. Bernie both refuses dirty money and attempted to unite the Democratic party as well as the country as a whole. This is a paradigm shift. Again, this isn’t about Bernie. It’s about the paradigm shift that still has to happen — the world must find agreement and consensus on reality.
If my memetic characterizations are true — if politics were that simple, and the difference between right and wrong were obvious — why the hell would anyone vote for anybody but the best candidate? Why does democracy routinely fail to elect true progressives? Why do two pandering plutocrats each garner 60+M votes? Why do people vote against their own interests? In terms of political sociology, I have some answers to these questions, but virtually nobody wants to hear them. Today’s crusty intellectual elite apply their advanced mental models and tools to very banal and instrumental ends, namely the bullshit dichotomy of which loathsome celebrity should run the country.
Politics is dishonest and corrupt because we are all trapped in false-ish narratives (religion, nationalism, consumerism, market fundamentalism, etc.) which is to say, we all participate in systemic lies that undermine self-governance and democracy. In this sense, to understand the truth is to implicate yourself in a lie, and to be honest is to atone for it and speak against it. Where truth conflicts with someone’s belief, it causes mental or emotional discomfort called “cognitive dissonance.” However, something else is also going on, a sort of pain-free conflict, where people become happily ignorant and sign-up to serve their friendly fascist masters — Let’s call it “cognitive assonance” (because people as asses) even though the exact meaning of that term is something completely different.
We — in all positions on the political matrix — mask our own dark side, and must remove the veil of secrecy blocking sight and being seen. To hear the social scientific answer to the world’s problems may be to shatter your own worldview, or at least challenge your identity and status, so one must step out or abstract themselves from the situation to have clear judgment.
I’m not going to engage in any Nazi or Hitler comparisons to contemporary people… but as a thought experiment, try to imagine the moment a jubilant Nazi soldier realized that he was actually the “bad guy”. Or some boring Berliner bureaucrat Nazi realizing how his or her inaction was leading to the deaths of millions. Likewise for any American soldier ironically fighting for “freedom” abroad, or a terrorist killing innocent people; perhaps they could realize their co-option into violent systems and breakout. Likewise for any lemming voter, any ‘little Eichmann’ (to borrow Ward Churchill’s phrase), any horse-blinder wearing do-gooder: perhaps you are the bad guy; we all potentially are, simply by sleepwalking through the end times of late capitalism.
So, one should always reject outright the stupidity of politics on offer, because it plays to your inner moron, and has negative externalities with fatal consequences, and in many historical cases, leads to fascism. There is one exception on the political platter: Bernie Sanders and the mass movement behind him. This is where all the most progressive people have converged.
In truth, the world is not so simple that we can always make clear distinctions between good and evil. That is, unless we are operating in a new moral framework that primarily considers ‘the big picture.’ Thus, I am making the argument here that these caricatures are accurate enough. They are efficient abstractions of a much more complicated mosaic social fabric. If they were heeded, both traditional Democrats and Republicans would have lost, and the US could transition away from its two-party bipolar disorder. Bernie Sanders was the only purist running, imperfect he may (or may not) be. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are false prophets who sold you on themselves and are selling you out. If you have to lie to be elected, you don’t deserve to be elected.
I leave you with 5 more memes but without commentary:
No. 16 On New York Values
No. 17 On Personality
No. 18 On the State of Affairs
No. 19 On Power
No. 20 The Over-Under
Brent Cooper is the Executive Director of The Abs-Tract Organization (TATO), a nonprofit think tank dedicated to abstraction as a methodological critique. Our mantra is critical thinking for common sense to provide global solutions to systemic problems.
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