The Poisonous Fruit of the Politics of Conservatism

I am not usually so... specific. I rarely zoom in... without ambiguity. And as a general rule... I am not a side-taker per se.

But.

I do not know how to say this important thing... without being unambiguous, without granular specificity, and without standing on a side.

So...

The Poisonous Fruit of the Politics of Conservatism

Generally, an 'argument' like this is presented with an 'opening' that defends an opposing position. You'll often hear someone say "to be fair" and what'll follow will be a kind of "strawman" or "steelman" reasoning that casts broad superficial nets that vaguely resemble an opposing position... the way an orange and an asteroid belt are the same and interchangeable.

I won't be doing that here.

Not because there are no 'fair' points of conservatism, but because the politics of conservatism are wobbly, plagued with "rhetorical fallacies" and frequent 'pivots' to irrationalism, and incoherent.

*

Which is to say, I won't be defending what is insupportable.

That... is the opposing position: a fixed state of friction, frothing at the mouth, anchored and fueled by sanctimonious and wrongheaded snobbery, to proclaim my position as the enemy, so objectionable as to possess zero 'fair' points

Such that the first fruit of the politics of conservatism is the unmistakable consequences to public discourse, from local town halls to global town squares, when earnest swells of public engagement are met with hostile rabid refusal to allow disagreement as a normal and reasonable feature of pursuing common ground.

Because the first fruit of the politics of conservatism is to venomously deny the legitimacy of common ground; to not only double down on its outright unacceptability, if not its moral reprehensibility as undoubtedly evil, but to fanatically villainize any collaborative path to walk or collective aspiration by which to be guided or shared win to achieve... that appears to exemplify, horror of horrors, mutual reciprocity.

*

This fruit is more than poisonous... it is perniciously corrosive to a plural democracy. For common ground is where cooperative solutions are... to real problems faced by real people living in the real world.

To categorically spurn common ground... regardless of why... absurdly dismisses from 'the table' every multilateral solution that is inclusive in favor of every solution that is not.

As if inclusivity itself, is offensive and loathsome and impermissible.

Such that any reason for such fruit... cannot be believed to be sublimely rooted in sincere or abundant comity or sacrosanctity... except within fantastical imaginations that make-believe oranges and asteroid belts are plainly identical in every way.

*

Needless to say, this first fruit sets in motion a dismal cascade of... 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods, which is to say... realities.

It refuses mutual coalitions... then blames the exhaustive litany of dysfunctions that occur as a predictable and unsurprising result, on my position as the enemy. Because everyday people believe blamers who proclaim themselves "victims", when everyday people believe falsehoods that declare themselves "truths".

Mutual coalitions are a 'safeguard' of representative government; a 'safeguard' against 'majorities' that steamroll 'minority' interests. But when they're necessary "to keep the lights on", they're not a guarantee that 'minority' interests will not subvert the utility of mutual coalitions to protect the public good... to hold a representative government hostage to 'minority' interests... including diverting resources from public institutions to pseudo-religious nationalist and supremacist causes; starving public health care in favor of private, profit-driven, "group health care" that employers may elect to sponsor as a "benefit" or deny as a "costs-savings-measure" or "conscience refusal"; juicing the shareholder value of lucrative and exploitative industries by asymmetrically favoring donors that 'grease hands' and 'line pockets' and dispense flattery in the tried-and-true language of luxurious extravagant 'largesse'; etc.

It espouses maniacal screeds and apocalyptic jeremiads that insist... 'only they see' what's really happening here; 'only they listen' to real people; 'only they keep their promises' to real 'nations' under real 'gods'; while my position as the opposition is a fraud to beguile the trusting, a pretense to bewitch the unwary, a house of candy to lead astray the innocent.

As if it is not a betrayal of the public trust... to refuse to tell the truth... about how conservatism stands behind, with, and for the mighty and "the meritorious" at the expense of everyday people and the public good and global amity; how conservatism stands behind, with, and for unconscionable apologetics of unrepentant abuse, from trust to power to people; how conservatism stands behind, with, and for a passionate disavowal of consensual reality and consensual facts, because "vibes"; etc.

It sabotages the public good with "ghost-vacancies" of essential work and 'molasses-paced' allocation of appropriated funds... that are experienced by everyday people as infinite loops of gordian hoops and actual harms. But rather than own their gleeful inaction or confess to their dissembling obfuscation... conservatives proclaim 'the real villains': boneheaded flies in their ointment. Even as that which 'obstructs' them from hiring competent and ethical essential workers and that which 'bars' them from rapidly activating vital services and promptly distributing assistance... is no one and nothing, glorious or noble.

When consensual reality is inexhaustibly 'negotiable', when consensual facts are inexhaustibly 'negotiable'... because "my vibes, my truths"... how simple is it, how easy? To witness wrongdoing... and not see wrongdoing? To believe wrongdoers... because "their vibes, their truths" validate and condone unreal "vibes" and untrue "truths"? For they promise a wish-giving representative government, blessed by a wish-giving 'god' and I... I say "a god that's a wish-giver isn't a god; it's a fantastical imagination that makes-believe an elected servant with a god-complex serves not themself first, last, forever"; etc.

Which is to say, this first fruit sets in motion a hereafter... calculated for maximal suffering, because the politics of conservatism 'takes no prisoners'.

* 

Such that if and when people who profess to be of my position smugly declare that "they are not conservatives"... therefore: they will "cross the aisle"; they will absolutely "work together" with conservatives; because liberals and conservatives "believe in the same people" and "truly live by the same fair and just, laws of the land" and "share deeply, the same values and visions" as voters who voted for wars and nightmares -

such that if and when people who profess to be of my position recommend policies of appeasement that are called "necessary compromises" for the people and the economy and "the good of the nation"; or endorse policies of appeasement that are called "now look, this is how the sausage is made, okay" and woe to chaos-unleashing "reforms, unnecessary and unrealistic"; or vote "yea" for policies of appeasement nakedly and unapologetically rooted in supremacism, despotism, justification -

this, this, THIS, is not how the politics of conservatism is defeated -

no -

this, this, THIS, is how the politics of conservatism become the bars to a cage that nobody, nobody, NOBODY voted for. 

Epilogue

I don't know if anybody reading this is wondering... what about liberals? Is there 'a poisonous fruit of the politics of liberalism' like the poisonous fruit of the politics of conservatism?

Uhm... for what it's worth, no... it's neither deeply nor profoundly philosophically nor spiritually, destructive and cruel. On the other hand, conservatism is both.

In other words - it isn't that liberalism is 'the handout party' - any more than conservatism is the 'hand up party' - because please: campaign slogans are at best stupid; at worst they wear ignorance like a suit-of-knowledge that stuffs self-superiority and self-righteousness into vapid quips cos-playing as 'common sense wisdom'.

Rather... conservatism is to "the meritorious" go the spoils, and its politics are no kinder to everyday people than its policies. Such that everyday people who support conservatism... invariably believe themselves among "the meritorious" for whom 'the spoils' are worth the squeeze.

Which is to say - there is a throughline of sadistic justification that excludes the public and 'the many' from the promises and the blessings of a robust plural democracy - that is part and parcel to the 'platform' and 'vision' of conservatism - that liberalism opposes deeply and profoundly, philosophically and spiritually.

*

Which is to say:

The "one measuring stick for us that declares our iniquities practically perfect; another measuring stick for you that declares your iniquities practically demonic" and "one set of rules and laws for us that permit our carte blanche to abuse and trespass and exploit others to and for our own ends; another set of rules and laws for you that withhold from you, humanity and fairness and compassion without exception" and "one flotilla of privileges and entitlements for us that protect and advance our platform and vision; another flotilla of infinite loops of gordian hoops and actual harms that inflict maximal suffering at the pleasure of the privileged and the whim of the entitled"... is not a cornerstone of a 'hand-up party'... so much as it is a cornerstone of supremacism, despotism, justification. 

Such that if this pear-shaped shitshow should come to pass, as it has before... because blueprints of dead and gone polities aren't in our DNA still for nothing...

then two hereafters shall face us:

the one seeded by the poisonous fruit of the politics of conservatism; and

the one seeded by we the people, witnessing in real time, what is happening, as it is actually happening, and DOING SOMETHING other than nothing that changes the future set in motion by "the meritorious", to the future set in motion by everyday people sick of being 'the spoils'.

M

*

Note & Further Reading

(i) The "preface", if you will, of The Poisonous Fruit of the Politics of Conservatism (November 7, 2026, tvfs), is my responses from 10/24/2026 - 10/29/2026, @ MG XI, to comments to Tests of Faith that Aren't (October 23, 2026).

(ii) While this post is granular with respect to "the politics of conservatism", for more granularity with respect to the 'vision' of conservatism, which is to say, with respect to "The promise and hope of a 'meritocracy'...", see No Gods Before Ate (February 14, 2025, tvfs).

M

Tests of Faith that Aren't

Why do the mighty enrich themselves and their own, never mind the suffering they inflict as defenders of "might makes right"? Why do self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" extol denying and prohibiting generosity and empathy towards sufferers? Why do howlers and roarers proclaim enforced conformity evidence of unity and this unity evidence of solidarity and this solidarity evidence of consent to be dominated? Why do the inheritors of eternal flames lionize abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people?

Why are blueprints of dead and gone polities in our DNA still?

Tests of Faith that Aren't

The mighty love...

tests of faith

for you - not for them - because duh. 

After all, tests of faith are how the mighty...

stress test loyalty

under 100-year-heat-storms that scorch hides like slabs of meat on spits, as tears threaten to leak loose from eyes stupefied by scars seared like railroad ties, knee-deep in receipts as unfathomable and leaden as anvils - not candy floss narratives spun for campaign pitches flung at voters like cheap carnival prizes - because come on.

*

You see...

tests of faith

ask you to feel what no one should feel, see what no one should see, experience what no one should experience - 

notwithstanding to walk through lives so charmed as to not know what I mean by "tests of faith" is a kind of privilege that is not what I... know (iykyk) -

neither out of some kind of indifferent thoughtlessness because you don't matter nor out of some kind of sadistic carelessness that abandons you to misery;

for

tests of faith

challenge you to trust the hands that cradle you as you fight for survival under 100-year-floods of pitiless realities are neither neglectful nor cruel, but rather

the hands that reward the just, damn the wicked, and anoint believers with eternal grace and salvation.

* 

Such that

I have to ask:

without self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames to tell you that 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods are tests of faith...

what are these putative "tests of faith"

if not evidence?

of (i) shamelessly grandiose ambition - not to humbly serve as servants of the people - but to unapologetically enrich, empower, and deify the mighty and "the meritorious"? (ii) never mind the capacious spigot of taxpayer funds - unrestricted and unregulated like a prodigious firehose - that gleefully serves unscrupulously personal, vain, and trifling "interests"? (iii) as if being elected and appointed and confirmed to serve as servants of the people is a "lawful" license to "might makes right" from coast to coast, pole to pole, ad mortem? 

I mean, if such grievous abuses of power and trust and people are not plain proofs of acts of wrongdoing by the hands of wrongdoers, 

what are they...?

Such that

I have to ask:

what if these putative "tests of faith" are invitations 

genially extended to self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames 

to do nothing but trust that power does not corrupt? 

for the mighty and "the meritorious" are "the faithful" and so are self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames and everybody knows

"the faithful" are sinners and love the sinners and blah blah blah and so what anyways?

Such that

I have to ask:

do you see 

how... an opportunity like that

does not go... to waste? I mean, an opportunity to get away with it, shall not go to waste... shall it? so long as shamelessly grandiose ambition, not to humbly serve as servants of the people, but to unapologetically enrich, empower, and deify the mighty and "the meritorious"... flowers like Babylonian blooms within the prosperous bosoms of the jubilantly sinful?

Such that

I have to ask:

do you see

how "the faithful"... let the mighty and "the meritorious" be

who they are?

without unflinching scrutiny? without cogent criticism? without fearlessly questioning whether fast and furious pressure to blindly obey, be uncompromisingly loyal, joyously believe without pause 

is a moment seized to get away with a callous repudiation of the public good and its stewardship and its governance? in broad daylight? a vicious disavowal of a nation of many peoples and more laws? which is to say, a moment seized to get away with 

 

murder?

* 

The mighty wax rapturously

on putative "tests of faith",

because there's no bolder swing than the smug swagger that unrepentantly proclaims: evidence of grievous abuses of power and trust and people are not plain proofs of acts of wrongdoing by the hands of wrongdoers;

for

everybody knows 

fighting for survival under 100-year-floods of pitiless realities is how "true believers" win their tests of faith that aren't

because "the faithful" never mind 100-year-heat-storms that scorch hides like slabs of meat on spits, as tears threaten to leak loose from eyes stupefied by scars seared like railroad ties, knee-deep in receipts as unfathomable and leaden as anvils - because amen.

 

More

When people tell you "to trust the process", that 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods are "tests of faith", that "they know what they're doing" and "what they're doing" is "good for you and God and party and country", that "now is not the time to waver" because "this moment demands unprecedented loyalty",

I know "true believers" lean into belief and "the faithful" lean into faith -

but I?

I've felt what no one should feel, seen what no one should see, experienced what no one should experience, and I don't believe first and ask questions later -

because come on.

I ask:

why do the mighty enrich themselves and their own, never mind the suffering they inflict as defenders of "might makes right"? why do self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" extol denying and prohibiting generosity and empathy towards sufferers? why do howlers and roarers proclaim enforced conformity evidence of unity and this unity evidence of solidarity and this solidarity evidence of consent to be dominated? why do the inheritors of eternal flames lionize abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people?

why are blueprints of dead and gone polities in our DNA still? 

because their getting away with murder shall be as frictionless as let them?

I have to say

to wit:

if being "true believers" in belief and "the faithful" in faith means you do not know what I mean by putative "tests of faith" that aren't... 

then when the hands that scorch and the hands that drown are the hands of the mighty and "the meritorious"... what are you? 

I mean, is standing behind, with, and for the jubilantly sinful a kind of privilege that is not what I... know? because what I... know is the hands that anoint believers with eternal grace and salvation are not the hands that

not-see enrichers who never mind the suffering they unapologetically inflict; or not-hear extollers whose denials and prohibitions of generosity and empathy are indifferently thoughtless and sadistically careless; or not-speak as dominators promote falsehoods and disinformation as "truths" for you and "God" and "party" and "country"; or sanctify unconscionable apologetics of abuse and vile lionization of abusers as "the faithful" and "true believers".

Surely

you and I and everybody knows

blueprints of dead and gone polities, of their let them murder, were no more our predestined past than they are our preordained future - because duh 

and amen.

M

Independence

How do you fight the same battle... over and over...? 

new place... same battle; new time... same battle;

how do you overcome the same opponents...? 

every place... it's the same opponents; every time... it's the same opponents;

how do you prevail... with the same people... on your side and against...?

there and then... the same people; here and now... the same people;

...when every war is the war to end all wars?

Independence

Why do you believe your side is telling the truth... and the side that opposes you is lying? Is it really because your side professes the same values as you? Is it really because your side affirms the same beliefs as you?

Is it really because you are commanded to obey divine laws that govern all lives that ever were, all lives that ever are, all lives that ever will be?

Is it really because you are loyal to a people?

Is it really... honorable? ...or noble? to trust your side... and to mistrust the side that is not yours? Is it really... moral? ...or right? to obey... a divinity? ...or its followers who are human? ...or its extremists who justify their harms and their cruelties... as swords in the hands of divine will?

Or is this a smokescreen? A clever thing. A cute thing. A warm sugary blanket. That covers the truth?

*

There is a deceit...

in saying "it is really so"

and

there is a dishonesty... 

in listening to "it is really so" and not hearing the lie pretending to be real. 

*

Do I in fact disbelieve... that shared values and beliefs, unify? that mandates are the backbone of religious observation and practice? that to be a member of a people, to belong, inspires patriotic fidelity? that morality alone divides unjust acts from righteous ones?

Yes. 

*

Because saying a thing, doesn't make a thing so;

and saying a lie, doesn't make a lie real;

and to listen to a thing being said and hear it made so;

and to listen to a lie being said and hear it made real;

is:

neither being just

nor being fair 

nor being kind 

nor being generous.

*

Yet here we are.

Saying shared values and beliefs, unify. Saying mandates are the backbone of religious observation and practice. Saying being a member of a people, belonging, inspires patriotic fidelity. Saying morality alone divides unjust acts from righteous ones.

Because

why not? 

vibes trump proof anyway; 

the appearance of unity; the affectation of piety; the presumption of loyalty; the plausibility of legitimacy; matters!

...not reality.

*

Indeed here we are. 

Listening to deceivers and their deceits and hearing their simulated unity; their false piety; their illusory loyalty; their veneered legitimacy; not as smokescreens for wrongdoers and their wrongdoing! 

And

why not? 

vibes trump proof anyway;

and a warm sugary blanket that covers the truth is really... real;

...right?

*

How do you know what is really happening... is existential? ...a threat to your way of life and all that matters you? ...a peril that demands a maximal war?

How do you know a lie pretending to be real is... really as real as reality?

How do you know... your enemy?

*

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation know what is really happening... is not existential; ...not a threat to your way of life and all that matters to you; ...not a peril that demands a maximal war.

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation know a lie pretending to be real is... not as real as reality.

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation know... their enemy; for lies and liars know... their enemy

is not you who believe the side that opposes you is lying; not you who are commanded to obey divine laws; not you who are loyal and honorable and moral; not you who deceitfully say "this is really so";

nor you who are dishonestly just and fair and kind and generous and listen to lies and liars and hear not smokescreens and clever things and cute things and warm sugary blankets that cover the truth.

If... their enemy is your enemy

who and what are you really fighting for?

More or

Like Hell's a Paradise

Tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation are swallowing the world whole...

while all of us under their sharpies and their gavels are compulsively over-sharing on platforms and gossiping about strangers with our neighbors and numbly swallowing deliriously grim content from newsfluencers...

as if torpidity is natural;

as if not caring one whit is a fine way to live;

as if refusing a moral duty to rise against the theft of our power to oppose tyranny and despotism and exploitation is smart;

as if it is a waste to reason, to witness, to defy abuses of power... but it is a profound comfort! to revel in witless nonsense and it is a joyous pleasure! to indulge in self-serving socialization and it is a sacrosanct privilege! to be as cruel and as harmful as tyrants and their tyrannies, despots and their despotism, exploiters and their exploitation...

for God willing:

as their wrongdoers and wrongdoing are ours... 

so shall their ill gains be! 

M

*

Further Reading

You and I and the Truth (May 23, 2025, tvfs)

M

Call Me No One

There is no one called

'The Giver'. 'The Taker'. 'The Maker'. 'The Breaker'.

There is only The One God.

Call Me No One

Long ago before The One God, 

The Giver and The Taker and The Maker and The Breaker ruled as Many. For you see, we were ruled by Many. The Giver gave. The Taker took. The Maker made. The Breaker broke. And when we gave and when we took and when we made and when we broke, we knew The Truth of things.

We knew we did not do this on our own.

We knew we did this because we were ruled by Many greater than us.

And so we gave and we took and we made and we broke until the Many no longer ruled us. For one day The Truth of things revealed to us that we ruled ourselves while the Many served us. Until one day they did not. Until one day The One God became ours.

Not because it appeared to us.

Not because it saved us.

For The One God did not exist until we made The One God to serve us. To be The One who had been the Many. To be cast in our image as givers who gave and as takers who took and as makers who made and as breakers who broke. To rule.

For The Truth of things revealed to us that ruling ourselves subjected us all to each other. The Many were blamed until they were not. Then we blamed each other for our giving and our taking and our making and our breaking. This

was no way to live. This

was no way to die. So

The One God became the new ruler who bore our blame. our responsibility. our will. in the wake of giving and taking and making and breaking and breaking and breaking. none our doing. all The One God's doing. The One God greater than us.

Why?

Why??

Why not???

When Many served us all, a few of us with imagination, a few of us with mettle, a few of us with vision saw that Many served and served tirelessly giving and taking and making and breaking for too many of us rather than too few of us. And this

did not serve us who were few, us who dreamed our kingdoms into being and our selves into power, us haloed by our One greater than Many, us for whom The Truth of things revealed untold power and immortality for

us with imagination, us with mettle, us with vision. And this

is how we who were many were denied grace from Many by The One God who serves us who are few and not we who are many.

⇜ ⇝

Long ago before The One God, Many never envisioned the end of power and the end of immortality, because the Many who were greater than us knew only The Truth of things that were and not The Truth of Things that would be.

Tomorrow The Truth of things that are will face The One God and a few of us with imagination, a few of us with mettle, a few of us with vision will see that The One God was cast in our image because The One God was always

us

dreaming into being someone to believe in, someone to trust, someone to stand with, someone instead of no one but each other.

⇜ Epilogue ⇝

The Many serve the many but The One God serves the one.

The one who claims The One God their own personal license to be the one haloed by The Divine One to rule the many.

How could this One God serve the many? when this Divine One serves the one who gives and the one who takes and the one who makes and the one who breaks? sanctifying all doing in the name of the one and The One, unified in will by the one and The One?

Before this Divine One, Many are forbidden and denied and refuted and damned for The One God is the only One.

The only One who gives and the only One who takes and the only One who makes and the only One who breaks. The only One

who calls the one Master.

M

How to Serve We the People

The latest smug 'truth', sanguinely delivered as a 'calm' and 'rational' balm to the 'outrageous' nonsense vomited by 'know-nothings' and 'alarmists', is

"this is better than the alternative".

As if "the alternative" isn't moral terror baiting slop, flambéed tableside like Hell's best baked Alaska serves seductive lipstick wearing pig because of course it does!

How to Serve We the People

A lot of what appears to be 'organized' as 'civil disobedience' today is not civil disobedience and importantly, this 'version' of 'civil disobedience' is not solving problems.

Not to rain on a parade;

or kill a moment;

or spit in the face of spirit;

but 'parades' and 'moments' and 'spirits' that lean into performative and theatrical noise are not nonviolent paths towards change.

*

While some protests are acts of civil disobedience, many 'protests' are outlets where we vent our outrages, violations, injustices, etc.

Needless to say, the difference between the latter and the former is the latter serves our feelings; the former serves our cause.

*

If our cause is cruelty and harm -

then our 'protests' may be mobs pretending to exercise 'a right to assemble';

if our cause is change -

then we cannot be what we oppose.

We cannot embody cruelty like an administration that despises human rights as unnatural demonic inventions. Nor can we represent harm like an administration that gilds wrongdoing in its name with gross legalistic license. 

This is why nonviolence powerfully serves a cause of change - while never serving a cause of cruelty or harm.

* 

Moreover, if our cause is change, nonviolence alone is not how change is achieved. Because nonviolence alone is not a revolution.

*

Nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, on the other hand -

nonviolent solutions that invite everyone to agree to an alternative to ideological callousness and indifference and unwholesome calculations of state-sponsored harm -

nonviolent stands of a plurality of people, altogether aligned against the myth that a duck isn't a duck if it denies being a duck -

that is more than a spectacle;

that is more than a reaction;

that is more than a gesture;

that is how our cause rejects the hypnotic thrall of moral terror baiting slop and seductive lipstick wearing piggery to serve we the people.

 

More

We live in a reality that values policies of appeasement throughout every sphere of life and living. 

Which is to say, to be human is to tolerate at best and champion at worst: normative placidity, bottomless pools of optimism, and of course, loyalty and surrender.

*

It goes without saying that this reality is not a kingdom that values courage,

or change,

or freedom to believe in a secular terra worth fighting for,

or the like.

*

Such that when the price for real world peace is to be meek and mute multitudes of this kingdom -

this isn't peace;

this is real world capitulation;

for what? 

for who?

*

As if we live in a reality enchanted by illusions of policies of appeasement delivering big beautiful real world bubbles! like Hell's best baked Alaska serves the truth!

M

Enter the Police State

With the best of intentions, I hear people repeatedly bellow "'the algorithm' makes things seem worse than they really are";

inflexibly I see people trot the same tired overplayed litanies of "evidence" to this point, "research" and "studies" and "polls" that definitively "prove" that "we 'overestimate' the differences between us and them";

as if optimism at all costs is the solution to hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths.

:eyeroll:

Enter the Police State

(i)

There isn't "a side" that sold us on the "promises" of the "strengths" of the police state. Nor "a side" that guaranteed "protections" from the "weaknesses" of the police state. 

For every "side" sold us.

The "side" that wanted "to save" the "children";

the "side" that wanted "to lock up" the "criminals";

the "side" that wanted "justice" to be "fair" and "informed" by "facts";

the "side" that wanted "to live" without "fear";

the "side" that wanted "to feel safe" within "big beautiful bubbles";

and every "side" that wanted "to swear and affirm": 

"law and order" by definition, will always mean "to serve and uphold" here, where the grass is green and the sky is blue.

(ii)

Such that all the word-wrangling to explain this "house" "promises" built -

to moralize the reality of this "bed" "protections" made -

because what really happens in police states is what is really happening now -

is after-the-fact bullshit laid brick by brick by all of us -

because what really happens in police states is "the public" is pacified by hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths,

until optimism at all costs is at once compulsory and "reasonable". 

(iii)

As for what prayers and what winks and what promises sold us this "house" and this "bed" and this brick "road" of bullshit -

see (i) above and

case in point:

the police state's solution to "a public demand 'to save' the 'children'" isn't to efficiently and materially address "harms" to non-adults across public and institutional environments, but rather, to criminalize any and every non-adult based on "institutional policies and practices" and "official rules and recommendations" that allow disproportionate, asymmetric, prejudicial, etc. treatment of non-adults, as if 

when a police state answers our "payers", we should see nothing but wholesomeness and decency and say nothing but praise and apologisms and do nothing but be grateful and submit; 

the police state's solution to "a public demand that 'justice' be 'fair' and 'informed' by 'facts'" isn't to exemplify transparency or integrity, but rather, to criminalize any and every individual human being and corporation à la fictional "personhood" and organization à la collective of autonomous beings because unilateral power without tangible, realized, actual unitarian power isn't powerful at all! as if 

when a police state "winks", we should laugh at the "joke" because everybody knows that a police state's ride or die is absolute power, hahaha; 

the police state's solution to "a public demand that 'law and order' by definition, will always mean 'to serve and uphold' here" isn't to abide or respect a fair or just legality or jurisprudence in a republic or a democracy, but rather, to criminalize any and every act that defies, opposes, rejects, etc. "legalism" and its dominion in all but name over free people, free states, and free nations everywhere; as if 

when a police state "promises" us the world and everything therein, we should not trust in the sincerity of plainly despot-adjacent hyperbole but fake-adjacent piety should be believed;

etc. 

(iv) 

Such that it bears iterating clearly:

police states are indefensible

because what really happens in police states is not a joke;

it is a reality laid by prayer by wink by promise by all of us sold on "powerful" and "anointed" mortals on gilded thrones 

and it can be undone

when we face what is worse than what wind-up plastic rictus-faced monkeys say things seem, when we face things as they really are, including the differences between us and casually evil cheerleaders of police states because "our differences", at once profound and granular, are self-evident "disunions" between us

and a representative government that disavows its oaths, including, the oath of every republic and every democracy to serve the people;

as if optimism at all costs isn't a gift to police states, arising from the hearts and shores of republics and democracies everywhere,

a gift repaid in hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths, including the hallucinatory homily that

we the people approve a police state for our children, our neighbors, and ourselves because we the people voted for a joke of a republic and a farce of a democracy.

 

More

On "optimism at all costs", #policestatepacifier and #policestateally.

(i)

First, "early adopters" or "forerunners" or "target softeners" of the police state break everything.

Institutions, e.g. traditional or linear news media, public early and higher education, safety nets (food banks, homeless shelters, addiction resources), the economy (banking, currencies, exchange markets), foreign aid (medical supplies, disaster assistance, refugee resources); and

governments, e.g. the legislative branch (à la because an allegiance to "their God" or "their Leader" is "higher" - forswearing an oath "to serve the people"), the judicial branch (à la exploiting asymmetric "lawfare" to prejudicially uphold or "strike down" laws at will), the executive branch (à la despite such "power" not explicitly conferred to "the executive office" - acting unilaterally); and

so on and so forth.

(ii)

Then, the police state declares its "revolutionary" solution:

itself.

It parades litanies and homilies and sermons and preaches the "glorious righteousness" of the police state -

and -

it violently attacks any and all opposition with disproportionate hostility and militancy.

(iii)

Then, all of us

see nothing and say nothing and do nothing - 

or - 

we cheerlead the police state, including, as amplifiers of hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths. 

(iv) 

Which is to say, when we are encouraged or compelled to leap into a bottomless pool of "optimism at all costs" because this repels apathy and paralysis, hopelessness and despair, cynicism and pessimism, and the like -

this is a kind of dishonesty and deception that treats us like we can't handle the truth,

this is a kind of untruth and mistruth that infantilizes us -

such that buying this is little different than buying the hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths of every police state

and tell me: what happens when this illusion is exposed? as a fiction? a fraud? a lie? buyers of illusions simply buy another, including every police state's tried and true 

illusions of success, illusions of approval, illusions of gratitude, that is, 

fictions, frauds, lies -

for this is a willful rejection, if not repudiation, of the truth that police states dismiss and redact and expunge and rewrite, the truth that's worth fighting for, the truth that's real.

M

*

Note or Further Reading

On "the politics" that presage police states and "autocracy-adjacent" precursors of police states, see Seed Con (January 19, 2025, tca).

M