
One of the suckiest aspects of living in an autocracy is being asked to accept what you know to be unreal. There are a million examples and daily we are being asked over and over to believe an endless torrent of lies. Just take any sliver of one of Trump’s days to get a sense of it. Yesterday, In North Carolina, he told people who lost their homes that FEMA never showed up, and that the Federal government’s involvement made the situation worse. Of course, that’s a lie, in reality, FEMA had to temporarily refrain from going door to door at one point because a tirade of Republican-led misinformation resulted in an assessment that crews might be targeted by militia members. Once the threat was assessed properly they resumed. But still, months later Trump is continuing to spread the same disinformation that put FEMA crews, and the people of North Carolina, in danger in the first place.
In a roundtable in Los Angeles the same day, Trump was spewing easily disproved disinformation about how the water infrastructure in California works. He talked over the Mayor of L.A. making claims that actions she had taken had never happened and insinuated that people can’t believe whatever promises she might make. The room was filled with people ready to applaud and cheer whenever Trump made wild claims about how he would fix the wildfires and change the supposed mismanagement of California. Which just translates to putting conditions on sending federal aid. If you’ve noticed, Trump now almost always has an audience wherever he goes ready to laugh, clap and cheer him on. That’s because he has an insatiable need for adoration, which is always the sign of a man of integrity whose only goal is to fight for the welfare of others. Oh, wait, that is exactly the opposite of what I meant. And that makes for a perfect segue to talk about an upside-down and backward term we’re being confronted with a lot these days, and that would be the word merit.
We’ve been hearing a lot about merit from some pretty unworthy dudes lately don’t you think? During his confirmation hearing to be the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth said “Every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality and commitment to lawful orders they will be given.” Uhm, so I guess they’ll have to be held to a different standard than he was? Or Trump? Or Vance? Because there is nothing in this guy’s resume that merits him having this job. Just another example of the upside-down and backward things that we are being asked to take as reality. And given that the role he was just given, and I do mean given because he didn’t earn it in any meaningful way, this is an immensely dangerous bit of obfuscation. After all, this is the guy who’s going to decide who will make up the leadership of our military. So now, the blackout drunk, it wasn’t rape it was consensual, can’t stay married but has a thousand kids guy—sporting his racist tattoos—is going to decide who sits in the top positions of our military. That’s not meritocracy, that’s idiocracy.
Hegseth also wants to get rid of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which he claims runs counter to the notion of meritocracy. Of course, he does, but why did DEI exist in the first place? Because of guys like Pete Hegseth, that’s why. That’s how the boy’s club works. The boss liked him and he upheld the values the boss likes. And what are those values? That some people get to live outside of the rules that they enforce on others. And who do these people generally look like? Guys like Pete Hegseth that’s who. And to be fair, anyone who is willing to defend the construct of white supremacy, which unfortunately, there are a lot of.
But Pete especially looks the part because he’s sporting multiple openly racist tattoos that are associated with white supremacy groups. Of course, he denies it and claims he’s just expressing his love of Christianity. But let’s get real, he’s got a Jeruselum Cross, a “Deus Vult” and a “We The People” tattoo. Mein Gott! I know he thinks he can say anything and get away with it, and granted he kind of is, but anyone who knows anything knows all of that stuff is associated with white nationalist hate groups. The only question is why did he think it was okay to be so openly brazen in expressing his association with these groups?
So, I think to Hegseth and Trump and Vance, et al., getting rid of DEI is just a way to send a wink and nod to everyone who wants to uphold the power structure and give them license to discriminate as they see fit. Which means, that nothing will be decided by ‘merit’, and under Pete Hegseth the kind of senior officials that will be deemed meritless will be the ones that Pete Hegseth feels won’t tow the party line. And when I say party I mean the Republican party, not party as in the phrase: Pete Hegseth really likes to party. Because Pete Hegseth does really like to party, maybe that was one of the merits that Trump liked. Or maybe it was the infidelity, or how easy he made it look to spread disinformation, or how loyal Trump knew he would be. Not sure, but in any case, when Pete Hegseth says the word merit he means upholding White Supremacy. That’s the party line.
And that’s how language works in an autocracy. It’s all upside-down and backward and we should never accept the unreality of it all.