I was ready to write another post equivocating the two political parties when I saw that John Bolton had released his memoirs, where he claims Trump is a danger to the republic. Well that did it. I’ve been on the fence but if John Bolton says that Trump is a danger to the republic then it’s time I joined the resistance.

Hah, hah, hah!

In his memoir Bolton also informs us that President Trump is erratic. Who knew? Bolton, the former National Security Advisor who once threatened the children of a UN official, joins former president George W. Bush as the latest hero of the resistance. Maybe Ellen will have him on her show for a hug?

Anyway, lately I’ve been getting a lot of push-back about being a Trump supporter. Let me reiterate something longtime readers know. I despise Trump and the Republicans just as I despise Biden and the Democrats. What can I say? I’m an equal opportunity hater.

America is a violent empire that rules the world while pretending to be a beacon for peace and democracy. Only people who are willing to keep these psychopathic mechanisms in place are permitted to ascend to the highest political office. While the corporate media focuses on the relatively minor differences between candidates, you can learn a lot more about our political process and what drives it by looking at their similarities.

But that’s not what most Americans believe. They’ve been propagandized to embrace the tribalism that the billionaires that control both political parties use to divide and rule.

You know–Team Red vs Team Blue.

For instance, I’m supposed to mindlessly support Team Blue Team even as they perpetuate their lesser evil shtick. For decades the Democrats have offered solutions that don’t work, and have exhausted the number of times they can tell people, vote for us now and we will deliver for you later. However, for 2020 election they’ve selected Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. Joe-fucking-Biden? His whole record is one of monstrous policies and decisions. If you thought Hillary was bad, you haven’t seen anything.

And this is not a Democratic or Republican issue, it’s quite simply that the billionaires have bought the government, and it no longer works for us. Biden won’t really do anything different, he’ll just have better PR, and the corporate media will signal that everything is now “normal”. This is hardly a surprise. We are currently living in the failed-state that Biden has worked his whole career to create.

But he’s the Team Blue product and that’s what they are selling.

Political messaging is similar to product advertising. Economic theories of rationality posit that consumers are rational but everyday this theory is disproved by advertising designed to make consumers irrational. It’s the same with political messaging and propaganda.

Regarding the vast U.S. media propaganda machine, Chomsky famously said long ago that propaganda was even more crucial in democratic societies. In a totalitarian regime, the government can control the population with force and violence, imprisoning or executing dissidents. But in a democratic society, citizens have the power to vote and change the government. Therefore, it is more necessary in a democratic society to control how the public thinks using advertising and propaganda.

The ad men in politics who are able to capture the imaginations of these lied-to, thwarted people rely upon tropes that were first promulgated in selling used cars. Call it what you like—relativism, postmodernism, deconstruction. The lesson is one and the same: The truth is not out there waiting to be objectively uncovered. The truth is made. Facts are fabricated as seen fit by the powers that be, and then consent for those facts is manufactured, enforced.

Thus we are bombarded by advertising for shitty products, and propaganda for shitty candidates and policies because it works.