Idioteque—Radiohead
#365Songs: October 26th
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” — attributed to Sinclair Lewis, but it’s believed to be fake news that he actually ever said this, but who can you really trust anymore so I’m posting this because it’s a great fucking quote for our moment.
This IS really happening.
What was previously unthinkable is now our reality. One could argue, as I’ve done at times, that Fascism is already here. There are signs, after all, the constant claims of “fake news,” Trump’s daily false flags, the Big Lie around the Election, the fact that over 75 million Americans wave a MAGA flag higher on the mast than the good ole’ Red White and Blue.
A lot of us are reliving the morning of November 9th, 2016. The eerie silence, the eye contact on public transportation, the global tears, the shock and awe of it all. Then, it was believable to think, “This is not happening.” But it did happen, and it was bad beyond imagination. And yet, it wasn’t quite as bad as it could’ve been. The institutions held, the checks checked and the balances balanced, we wore pussy hats and held signs in the streets, we protested, and, for the most part, survived intact. Battered and bruised, broken-hearted and forever traumatized, but we survived to see another day.
That was then, this is now.
Who’s in a bunker? Who’s in a bunker?
Women and children first
And the children first, and the children
I’ll laugh until my head comes off
I’ll swallow ’til I burst
Until I burst, until I
November 6th, 2024 won’t feel that way if we lose. The institutions meant to protect us already have been compromised. To quote Trump, the system is rigged, but against us, not him.
Let’s be honest here: we DO know now that the institutions have been compromised, the levees HAVE broken, (insert metaphor here). When Democracy falls, so do our rights: to be free, to protest, to speak up, to challenge religion, to be queer, to own our bodies, to read books on all those topics and weaponize ourselves against misinformation.
I miss the days when I could read about the Holocaust and truly believe “never again,” back when I couldn’t imagine how the Nazi Party could ever happen here. Not here. Never. Now, I look around and wonder which of my family, friends, and neighbors are the sympathizers and which are the Schutzstaffel, and how far they’ll go to please their Furor.
Who’s in a bunker? Who’s in a bunker?
I have seen too much
I haven’t seen enough, you haven’t seen it
I’ll laugh until my head comes off
Women and children first
And children first, and children
I do this thing where I often focus on the background details rather than the foreground. Perhaps it’s an ADHD thing, but it often throws people off. Like, I’ll miss the point of an entire scene because I’m looking at a small detail in the right corner and thinking, “there’s no way this character would ever hang that painting.”
But sometimes that detail is all we need to know to understand what’s really happening. Take, for instance, Tucker Carlson’s speech at Trump’s Georgia rally the other day, where he compared Trump “coming home” to “discipline a bad little girl” with a “vigorous spanking.” Look, I expect that little trust fund prep school faux Christian pinhead punch-worthy prick to say terrible things, as he’s been doing it for a long time. But my eyes naturally gravitated to the crowd behind him, to the mothers and fathers, the grandmothers and CHILDREN in the audience, who hooted and hollered, laughed with raised fists to the sky, as if their local high school football team just scored a touchdown against their rival. It’s as if they couldn’t actually hear what was being said, focused instead on how it was said, who it was being said about. In the audience’s dark, hypnotized eyes there was no sign that they thought for even a second of ‘the scared little girl getting brutally beaten by her father’ in the metaphor, all they heard was their Furor’s name coming back to power.
Y’all, in an era of terrifying moments this one really rattled me. Yes, the insurrection felt like the end of America, but in retrospect that was a little playground hair-pulling, sleeve-tugging fist fight compared to what this crowd was ready to do.
This is how the Nazis came to power.
Here I’m alive
Everything all of the time
Here I’m alive
Everything all of the time
Ice Age coming, Ice Age coming
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides, let me hear both
Ice Age coming, Ice Age coming
Throw it in the fire
Throw it in the fire, throw it on the
On February 20, 1939, there was a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. No shit. Look it up. 20,000 people attended what was dubbed a “pro-Americanism rally,” set to a portrait of George Washington surrounded by swastikas.
This ain’t fake news. Look it up.
100,000 anti-Nazis — or as the Right would call us today, Antifa — counter-protested on the streets. Readers, (or reader?), we are on the right side of history, for now, because this is still (sort of) a Democracy, where our votes matter (sort of), a country where we can still reject the ominous shadow hovering around us.
To my sister and brother-in-law, there’s still time to be on the right side of history. To my extended family, you’re how we got here but it’s not too late to imagine yourself saluting Hitler in the days leading up to the mass slaughtering of your neighbors. To my home state of Ohio, I have no hope for you any longer, so yeah, I’ve got nothing more to say to you.
To be at war with oneself is a dark feeling, but here I am.
According to 23andMe, a desperate organization on the verge of bankruptcy that any day now will likely sell to a private equity firm that could easily compromise all of our genetic information by handing it over to Trump, I’m 34% German, 29% Ashkenazi Jew, and 35% Southern European / Lebanese & Syrian. I am a heritage at war with itself, German against Jew, Israel against Lebanon.
I am the target at the center of a Nazi rally, but I also could’ve been the German slaughtering his other half.
We’re not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening
We’re not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening
Mobiles skwerking, mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take our money and run, take our money
All I’m saying, reader(s), is that we’re on the brink here. This ain’t no joke. When a Fascist stands in front of a camera and says “Hi, I’m a Fascist,” it only takes a fool to shrug it off. Problem is, America breeds fools. We believe in Capitalism, after all. So at this stage, Fascism is a coin flip away, and if Trump gets his way, both sides of the coin are the Heads that will roll if he wins.
Here I’m alive
Everything all of the time
Here I’m alive
Everything all of the time
Here I’m alive
Everything all of the time
Here I’m alive
Everything all of the time
~
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