The Battle For Control Over Reality
We do ourselves a disservice by treating hot-button debates as simple and immediate. What we are dealing with is a complicated crisis that requires more from us
If you haven’t already, I’d recommend checking out the lastest episode of The Muckrake Podcast in which I talk with Democratic strategist Max Burns about the state of the presidential race and where the party has fallen behind in dealing with the threat of the Right, as well as letting down the needs of the people
This analysis is available for subscribers of Dispatches From A Collapsing State. To gain access to it, as well as special articles like the ongoing series The Stakes (covering what the authoritarians aim to do, what is on the line in November, and why pundits and politicians have been unable to wrap their heads around the actual threat), please subscribe today.
A couple of weeks ago I was having a meeting with some organizers in a state controlled by Republicans. Lately this has constituted a lot of my work. In these states the GOP has used fearmongering and conspiracy theories generated by think-tanks and institutes funded by donors dead-set on destroying democracy to dominate local elections, creating laboratories for oppression. To a person, the people fighting them are tired. Every day is filled with showdowns and attacks. Their very lives are endangered. And, culturally, there’s almost nowhere to turn where the vestiges of this ongoing battle aren’t readily apparent.
Nestled within the chosen battles - including fights over curricula, books, targeting CRT/DEI/SEL, scapegoating gay/trans/bipoc people - are obvious goals. These include utterly destroying public education in order to privatize it, eliminating barries to the exploitation of the poor and children, and expediting the cultivation of resources and profit. But there are other components that hint at something else taking place.
It is true that the Right’s voracious desire for control is wrapped up in a desire to continue profiting and expanding their power. These are the material motivations that have guided them for centuries. As I documented in The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis, control over reality via religious mythology, nationalist narratives, and white, patriarchal supremacist fearmongering has been the key component in perpetuating power. This point isn’t even debatable.
What is debatable, however, is how we arrive at that point. We can look at the actions and strategies without troubling the root causes. This delivers us to the doorstep of resistance without explicitly diagnosing the problem or stepping toward solutions. It welcomes us to a world where the opposition is defined as a body but also curses us with simplistic and stereotypical narratives that often trap us in detestable cycles.
Often, when I leave these meetings and events, I’m left with a comment or conversation that sits with me for a while and demands further consideration. In this instance, it was a man who caught me during a break. In his experience as a teacher he had come face-to-face with astroturfed, Right Wing-organized “concerned parents,” campaigns to remove books, and endless pressure to change lesson plans and more or less treat his teaching as a bypass around actual history and verifiable facts. We had been discussing the manufactured outrages and strategies behind his experiences, the traceable efforts of the Right Wing ecosystem, the relationship between agents like Christopher Rufo, the media echo chamber, and armies of local and regional politicians.
The conversation then moved from that terrain to a deeper level of interrogation. There were obviously opportunists like Ron DeSantis who believed it was in the best interests of their careers to push this in order to bolster their relationships with donors and backers. Donald Trump had built his entire power base and cult on a shamelessness we had never especially seen before.
But what about the true believers?
Exactly what were they after? And what was it that wed them to those donors, those institutes and think-tanks? What kept them turning on Fox News, following the ugly parade of provocateurs on social media, and throwing in their lives and fortunes with third-rate grifters and a neofascist campaign?
What was it about acceptance of gay and trans lifestyles that activated them? Why were they so afraid of colleges “indoctrinating” their kids or teachers who lived next door to them “preying” on students? And what was at the root of all these crazy ass conspiracy theories?
The answer to all these questions is the key to not only fending off these oppressive attacks, but also how we might turn this country around before it burns to ash.