A Nation in Total Collapse
A Nation in Total Collapse
Mass shootings, a total lack of trust in our institutions and leaders, and a building authoritarian movement promising to set things right again
Dispatches From A Collapsing State is the home for Jared Yates Sexton’s political, historical, and cultural writings. It depends on your support. Subscribe now for access to additional articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive Q&A’s, and to enable new features, including an upcoming lecture series designed to bring everyone up to speed about the crisis we’re in and potential solutions.
They were simply sitting along the street watching a parade on the Fourth of July.
It’s almost impossible to imagine something more insidious than such a scene devolving into a bloody massacre. It is, almost by definition, the very idea of what America is supposed to be about. And now it’s added to a disturbing list of tragedies.
Elementary schools. Grocery stores. Movie theaters. Shopping malls. Churches.
The very idea of an open society is disintegrating before our very eyes at a pace that honestly stuns the soul. There are no corners left untouched by this epidemic of madness. To live within the United States of America means to constantly face the threat of mass gun violence.
Over time, the consequence is constant vigilance. Demoralization. A feeling that bloodshed could bloom at any moment. Anger at leaders who have failed in their most basic duty to protect us that transforms to a nagging sense that to expect better is an act of self-harm in and of itself. Meanwhile, our lives are now spent confronted by a ceaseless stream of images and videos. A mass shooting at a workplace. A road rage incident that spirals into a gun battle. An argument in the express lane of a supermarket that leaves someone dead.
It leaves you both defeated and desperately seeking answers.
Well, Tucker Carlson and the authoritarian movement he represents have some.
That’s right. Carlson, who has recently showcased reactionary ideology framing the attack on masculinity as the main problem of Western Civilization, is once more peddling this nonsensical narrative. The problem isn’t guns or atomization or living in a culture that worships violence. It’s how we treat men, or rather, how we undermine masculinity and promote decadent ideologies.
For Carlson and his supporters, the problem is obvious. The traditions and values that have upheld civilization for generations - including gender roles, patriarchal power, Christian orthodoxy, and a reliance on white supremacy - have been displaced.
Intentionally.
Carlson has openly espoused White Replacement Theory, claiming that Democratic politicians and their handlers are intentionally replacing white American voters with illegal immigrants in order to effectively seize power. It should be mentioned, of course, that this concept has inspired multiple mass shooters.
Additionally, the idea that “drug addled young men” obsessed with “porn and video games” is one of his reoccurring narratives. He has borrowed it from Alex Jones and his cadre of conspiracy theorists who have sounded this ridiculous alarm for decades now, often mixing it with claims that mass shooters like the one who allegedly carried out the shooting in Highland Park on July 4th, are victims of “mind-control” carried out by the FBI and CIA in order to realize New World Order/Deep State political aims. The cultural blame on “porn and video games” is a favorite of the conservative Right, and has increasingly been a chorus by National Conservative Republicans like Josh Hawley and JD Vance.
The point of all this is very, very clear. America is in decline. Not because of economic or political choices, widespread corruption instituted by the wealthy and powerful, or the radicalization that has sprouted in order to protect the order of the system.
No. It is a matter of the rot of the soul. Degeneracy and decadence. A toxic combination of liberalism ran amok and dark, power-mad conspiracies that are intentionally destroying the nation and its people from the inside out. And, depressingly enough, it is a claim we have seen play out over and over throughout history with predictable “solutions.”
My newest book The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis is now available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. This is the story of how we have arrived at this moment and how our modern order was constructed by the wealthy and powerful. It spans the entirety of modern history, from the merging of the Roman Empire with Christianity to the present day, detailing how these white supremacist lies and conspiracy theories have continually guarded power and resulted in unbelievable suffering and oppression. The current order is crumbling and unless we learn from the past our future will be nightmarish.
Reactionary conservatives have one story. The past was better. Things were so much better when people knew their roles, approached life with a sense of duty and deference, and lived under the rigid constructs of hierarchical power and orthodox religion.
It is, of course, a total lie.
The past was never a settled time with golden periods of peace and stability. History is constantly in flux and rife with struggle and suffering, particularly when settling what roles people should play, what duty means and what deference entails, and who should hold power and whether orthodoxy was a benefit or a lash. Like “Make America Great Again,” the reactionary fantasy of a better past is an absurd lie, a weaponized fantasy that deals with current problems by perpetuating fairy-tales.
In the United States, the “golden period” Donald Trump and Republicans often gesture toward the boom period between World War II and the age of protest in the 1960s and 70s. What this framing omits, however, is that, despite the sheen of conventional American history focusing on suburbs and household luxuries, the “consensus” was built on the oppression of people of color, women, LGBTQ communities, and the poor. The protests and outrage to follow weren’t wrong turns or aberrations. They were flareups from generations of oppression.
The Right makes use of these fantasies in moments like these. As America declines - again, from a spate of choices furthering inequality and destabilizing the political environment - they need to offer an alternative. The fantasy is the vehicle. A cleaned-up, distorted version of the past that even some of the participants understand or at least suspect is make-believe. But it enables attacks on liberal democracy and culture and serves as a means to an end.
Times of crisis necessitate answers. As liberals remain incapable of reckoning with the fallout of decades of neoliberalism and systemic rot, the Right is telling stories about Satanic evil, progressivism gone too far, and insidious conspiracies intentionally harming the nation. It is the same tactic we have seen time and time again with authoritarians, fascists, and Nazis. In some cases, it was a conspiracy between Jews, the Illuminati, and the Freemasons. Later, a result of a Jewish and Bolshevik plan to plunge the world into chaos. The Communists.
It is a singular story told and retold. And the answer is always a return to the past. To past orders. Past religions. Past hierarchies. A return to a system ruled by the same entrenched wealth and power that currently populates the GOP and its system of donors. It is a rolling back the progress of the 20th century.
What’s most disturbing is that it is not limited to the Right. They are the tellers of the story, the warriors for the story. Like Tucker Carlson and his authoritarian friend Viktor Orbán, they cite the defense of Western Civilization as an excuse for violence and oppression. But meanwhile, moderates and even some liberals come to accept the measures. The chaos of the moment grows and grows until it is so perilous that they begin looking for strongmen to return order.
At the heart is a need for a protection of wealth, property, and power. The middle class, the commentary class, the political class, the financial elite, all of them are more interested in protecting the status quo in order to protect their own status. When the order is threatened, as it is now, both by destabilization and the rising call for equality, they will turn to the authoritarians to protect them.
With the overturn of Roe V. Wade, we are already seeing the beginnings of this. As I discussed on the most recent episode of The Muckrake Podcast, the major liberal publications, including The New York Times and The Atlantic, are already featuring articles re-framing the fallout and preparing readers for a post-Roe America. Included in these appeals is a lingering question waiting for an answer: has progress gone too far?
The blaming of trans and gay people for the Supreme Court and the authoritarian trend is sadly predictable. The idea of “cultural degeneracy” is at the heart of all these movements, and when the violence and oppression multiplies it is almost immediate that the blame gets shifted to the most marginalized and vulnerable communities. This can mean the Jews, gays, people of color, literally anyone who can be scapegoated and further marginalized.
What is happening is easily decipherable. The moment of chaos and disorder, decline and suffering, is being cast as the result of conspiracies and evil plots. It is a matter of projection. Of narratives. The Right is already using this confusion and fear to peddle its regular stories in order to reassert itself and dismantle the progress it so loathes. We’re watching that story gain purchase and power. And unless we confront it full on, it will only grow in size, scope, and violence.
If there ever was a white man that should be replaced it is Tucker Carlson. His smug, privileged attitude enabled by the TV dinners of the 1950s, that he glorifies, puts himself so out of touch with reality it is only accepted by incels, evangelicals and others in an alternate universe.
Yes, but. We need to talk. We MUST vote. Sometimes we need to protest. But all are fatal distractions if we don’t address the root causes NOW. Humanity Needs A Plan B. Humanity needs the DEMOS Project.
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