That’s exactly what it’s like.

The indulgence of incompetent power. You could be describing a cybertruck or a movie with a big mechanical spider...

Interesting to me the portrait of him with the word 'First' illustrates his obsession with winning. He does not, and cannot win in fact or policy. We all know the wins he has are cheats. Sad but comical his desperation, an attempt to ram down throats of all who see this the idea that he is a winner.

I do wonder if people watching the rise of prior authoritarian regimes said the same sort of thing. “Oh, they’re just trying to copy the glory of Rome. Kind of sad” they say as the Blackshirts goosestep through the town square on their way to beat up some labor organizers.

Only if you leave out how to stamp out concurrence Mussolini hunted the mob and in Albania hunted vendetta which is why so many went along with it.

Sure—Trump targets immigrants and minorities for the same reason.

When mussolini went after the mob, again for selfish reasons to stamp out concurrence, he actually went after hard criminals. It would be correct to point that was also bigotry against southern Italians.

This is why the mob in America changed. Where in the 1916-1919 mafia wars were framed by sicilian control over the American assets the subsequent second war during prohibition was marked by Italian Americans wresting control

This allowed for cooperation with the outlet under Meyer lanski, a cooperation unimaginable in Europe. Once RFK turned onto the mob the importance of Sicily grew again and lasted until the 1990s

If you pretend you have already won, the onus shifts to others to defy your narrative

I think this is going to be a trend, and not just in Trumpist politics. We won't be able to recognize quality anymore.

I've seen "cargo cult authoritarianism" referenced here a bunch of times and "plastering your leader's face on buildings" is a textbook example of it

Where’s the uproar from the “taking our jobs” crowd?

These guys all follow the same “authoritarian playbook.” Is there a book? How to they all manage to check the same boxes? Even down to the garish and filigreed decor?

Speaking of Hyperreal Simulacra... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewvR...

Many such cases of reality aligning with slop

Really so much to process here but yea... agree

If enough people believe this is true, then it functionally becomes true to them and people can act off of it. Even though, it's completely false.

It matches his decorations in the white house.

It's a cargo cult.

Donald’s dressing for the authoritarian state he wants to make his dreams a reality.

That describes every right-wing/conservative/fascist brain worm ever. Complain about problem, create said problem, "solve" said problem.

I think it works because of the nondescript cars in the photo, I always look to that for dating purposes (also helpful with AI) but the timing/framing in this shot is perfect in that sense

Mutilating my hands so the AI likes me more

Baudrillard would have a field day with this

Baudrillard's increasing relevance is not in any way unsettling, nope, not at all

fwiw, i think this every time i see gavin newsom’s face in a tiktok these days, too

imo AI slop sounds a lot like Azerbaijan's PR campaign too, except that they've payed actual marketing companies for it. There's been coverage at that other site, which I haven't been checking in to lately. Recent news, minus the revolving door on the WH press releases www.unilad.com/news/politic...

Right. It's called "propaganda".

The presence of National Guardsmen who mostly seem bored fits that nicely. The terrifying and the banal.

The troops standing around in front of huge portraits of Bashar al-Assad also looked bored when I saw them in Damascus.

Until they actually had to fight…

It's Vonnegut's "In the long run we are all what we pretend to be, so we must be very careful about what we pretend to be," only writ large and stupidly.

Factamundo

this from @lioneltrolling.bsky.social summed things up pretty succinctly www.unpopularfront.news/p/the-cracke...

I'm thirding the two earlier endorsements. Thanks for the link. "fascism, that overdose of a strong referential in a society that cannot terminate its mourning." Fuck, man.

Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting reading

I feel a bit smarter after reading that, thank you for sharing.

It's fascism via the way long-running media franchises eventually only reference themselves and no longer say anything

Guessed with the mention of *simulacrum* the spectacle quote was Beaudrillard, but looks like a contemporary of his, Guy Debord www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/1....

as @jessehawken.bsky.social pointed out yesterday, it's also extremely Alex Garland Civil War

It’s insane how much Garland is vindicated this year

For… calling that we were going down the authoritarian rabbit hole? Like that didn’t take any sort of genius. And the biggest sin that Civil War commits is that it fails to actually *say* anything about the country. Nothing about why we get there, nothing about what we could have done differently.

The “impartiality of journalism” is so thoroughly embedded in this movie that it forgets to say anything else, or justify why that is even good. How the fuck is he vindicated?

It's one of those movies that is more concerned with -feeling- like a movie with something to say than having something to say. Takes the trappings of modern events and better movies and pretends there is something behind it.

in a word: pretentious.

In the actual sense of the word, yes.

Why the fuck did he have the young next generation journalist shooting black and white 35mm instead of livestreaming on an iPhone. Fucking stupid boomer shit. The movie is supposed to be about journalism and he's like "kids love film"

i know he was trying for an aesthetic with the camera's viewfinder on screen, but at least the reporter guy should have been getting video while they were running around b/c it's not like he was writing stories. i mean weddings these days usually have a videographer and a photographer together

I love black and white film photography but Getty isn't going to buy her photos for publication. And I doubt she's a Magnum photographer yet. She's just out there doing it for funsies.

Civil War is a film about what happens when America treats America like it treats the rest of the world. I can assure you it’s all pretty obvious to anyone outside the borders.

I’d believe that if it ever bothered to distinguish between American soldiers, the civilian militias fighting with them, and the civilian militias fighting each other

You are so fucking close to getting it

If you think those are all the same thing you're a lot dumber than you think you could be

You’re so close fam

I'm closer than you are that's for fuckin sure

I know the point you’re trying to be witty about and it breaks down because it just wound up being Some Guys shooting at Some Guys and they all suck and that’s pretty fundamentally different from “These guys came in, rained death, deposed our government, and shot anyone who looked at them wrong.”

There is a way to do that story and it’s not by following a war journalist who doesn’t give a shit about anything and is heralded as noble for her unbiased documentation of Some Guys killing Some Guys for no clear reason while slowly making her way to the US capitol.

If that was directorial intent he sucks at putting his intent to film.

Maybe you’re just too blissed out in the slop to see it - sucks to see

Fuck, you’re almost there

Go jerk off somewhere else

Yeah, it all is pretty stupid

I bet Trump just watched that movie and thought huh I should try that

Temu Muammar Gaddafi over here.

I love your analysis. Reading your content never fails to broaden my vocabulary!

Shorter Janelle: Fake it til you make it.

If I hadn't known it was real, I absolutely would have thought it was AI.

Life will imitate art

You stuck the landing. Well said.

a perfect summation of our present moment

So you're saying he's manifesting? One also wonders if he only sees things as real when they are in the media. It would explain a lot.

This is a brilliant analysis.

Nails it

This is why public acts of mockery, contempt, silliness, and other aesthetic counter-displays are a valuable form of political organizing right now Nothing busts this spectacle up like a bunch of weirdos dressed in funny clothes prancing around yelling "King Trump! King Trump!" and throwing glitter

That was the purpose behind the court jester in Renaissance times--to keep the king from getting too many big ideas of himself. King Trump would never allow such a thing in the WH.

My prayer for today: May the jesters gather outside the White House; may they put on silly costumes and dance; may they surround the White House with multicolored toilet paper

Luvin' it

This banner is up there alongside one of Teddy Roosevelt. Both say “workers first” which I don’t think is true for either man??

That kinda sounds like what meta, Google, and quite a few others are trying to do with their platforms and GenAI. Or maybe they’re just helping a whole larger project

Even Hitler was not so vain as to put his image on his banners.

this is not exactly mentioned in your bio -- but -- why should we pass it up ? it's either really really bad or really really good -- or bad bad good. maybe even good good bad. and i enjoy your posts. response not necessary, especially if you got sad from it ... here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0K...

The reality show president doing what he does best, creating PR illusions that people are supposed to think are real to help transform reality, just like how The Apprentice gave him money and power well beyond what he had at the time and how they portrayed him.

🎯🎯🎯

I will never forgive Mark Burnett may every single Yiddish curse happen to him and his descendants for generations.

They’re actually saying what a fucking disgrace.

How do we know it’s tRump? I don’t see his poxxed hand

Yes, it's all a simulation but the intent is to win over, by conditioning, the weaker minded amongst the occupiers. Slowly they turn, inch by inch, step by step...

And sometimes not all that slowly!

Yup. The speed at which they're moving is oftputting. I just had to get in that line from the Niagra skit.

Niagara. Just to be particular.

He hired nothing but media creatures like himself. Even if this is Hesgreth staging a Fox News shoot, he’s only there because Trump is there weaving the reality show around himself like he always does while everyone else rushes to execute their most racist, sexist, pro-slavery policy of their dreams

Agreed!

With the prompts inspired by reality television. Lots of reflection on the reality TV aesthetics of Trumpism, but the artificial power dynamics of voting off, firing, etc play a key role too

📌

Prop Joe’s “look the part, be the part” (derogatory).