The Platner Debacle and the Struggle of Life Under Fascism: Dispatches Mailbag

The vibes…have been bad. The summer is hot, the war with Iran continues and all the associated crises and problems are worsening just beyond the horizon, the Democratic Party is at war with itself, and things are weird and turbulent. Naturally, people have a lot of questions.

In this edition of Dispatches Mailbag, I’m tackling four related reader questions, including some thoughts on exactly what happened with the Graham Platner debacle, why men in general are such a mess, how to navigate the ups and downs of this moment of crisis, and, finally, a question from a reader of The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis about what would potentially lie on the other side of this mess if we’re not able to come together and beat back the fascists.

Again, Dispatches Mailbag is regularly a subscriber-exclusive, but I’m giving a preview so people will consider becoming subscribers. This is a reader-supported enterprise and, once again, I want to say that I desperately need your support. If this matters to you, if these articles have helped you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I get no corporate backing, there are no shadowy benefactors, and, unlike some other commentators and personalities, I’m not getting money under the table from any parties or political action groups. Thank you for those who do support this endeavor. I can’t tell you what a difference you make.

---

Anonymous: What happened with the Graham Platner campaign? Of course I don’t mean all the scandals broke and he dropped out, but how does something this huge of a failure even take place?

I want to try and answer this question without really even engaging with Graham Platner the person because I think the reasons there are pretty self-evident and the context of why he, as a candidate, failed is more obvious with every passing day. I sincerely hope Platner takes this moment to go away and get some help. I worry that he’ll continue to seek out the public eye, likely as some kind of personality on some kind of platform, and I say that because his reaction to the accusations of sexual assault made it abundantly clear that this is a person who cannot pause and reflect out of sheer terror of what he might see or think or feel. I hope I’m wrong here, but this current environment and all the overwhelming financial incentives in this wretched economy are aimed at continuing to go and go and go and double and triple down while appealing to whatever consumer demographic is there to serve. In this case, it isn’t hard to see Platner becoming an influential personality for a group of aggrieved white men (more on that later) who aren’t won over by MAGA or the Groypers, who have socialist leanings but aren’t overly involved in politics because they’ve given up hope on changing the systems. That’s a sizable demographic without much in the way of representation and markets love filling vacuums.

Any campaign that fails, and especially any campaign that implodes this spectacularly, has several problems. Platner and his personal baggage will get the lion’s share of the blame, but he didn’t just wake up one day and throw his hat in the ring and run everything. He was recruited by Dan Moraff and Leanne Fan, who were searching for potential candidates, particularly a certain brand of potential candidates.

The intent was to find working-class, first-time politicians, but in Platner’s case the class element was aesthetic. The story was that he was a hardworking oyster farmer, but in truth he was supplying his mother’s Ironbound Restaurant in Hancock, where half a dozen oysters cost you $22. She served previously as a Democratic county chairwoman and fundraiser. His father was a real-estate attorney. His grandfather a prominent architect who worked on several notable projects. Platner cut his teeth at a pricey boarding school and then a private high school. What mattered to his recruiters was the image he presented which was, again, aesthetic. As a person who grew up impoverished and working-class, I can tell you there is no end to the people who want to portray that character through an assortment of costumes, presentations, and performances and that always sits rather unpleasantly and, in turn, often portends other problems.

Moraff, who it should be noted is both an heir to the Toys R Us fortune and was banned from Rep. Summer Lee’s campaign following multiple accusations, and Fan weren’t interested in scratching underneath the surface. They barely vetted him for the same reason they sold him as a working-class insurgent. What mattered was the presentation and the performance. The whole thing was slapdash and careless and that it was consumed by controversies and disturbing revelations they simply didn’t want to know is, in hindsight, rather inevitable.

Platner’s support grew in spite of himself and the team behind him. Voters are desperate for someone to speak in the way Platner spoke, to hear critiques of the Democratic Party and capitalism and the oligarchical class. Much like the Republicans who were willing to look past Donald Trump’s obvious faults and scandals in 2016 because he was vocalizing critiques of his party and the failures of globalism, though, again, this was all performance in and of itself, it didn’t matter who it was voicing them. The deep desire was being filled and people projected onto him both what they wanted to see and how he and the people behind him were selling him.

Over the past year I’ve had people constantly reaching out and asking whether I supported Platner and my answer was always that I didn’t know him, I am naturally suspicious of all political candidates, and that there were more than enough reasons not to trust him. This was my stance because while I desire a leftist turn in our politics, and I truly think it is necessary if we are to stave off disaster, I also recognize that all politics, no matter where it lands on the spectrum, is subject to manipulation and misplaced hope. Just because someone identifies as a Democratic, and we know this, doesn’t mean they are trustworthy. The same applies for leftists or socialists. And as more people become desirous of leftist politics, like what I said about Platner potentially becoming an influencer to fill a vacuum, the market is going to incentivize people like Platner and Moraff in presenting what the “consumer,” or voter in this case, desires.

This isn’t easy work, in any way shape or form, and all the entrenched power and all the monied interests are focused on continuing this status quo and worsening conditions. It’s a battle. We have to remain suspicious of politicians and those seeking power until they have proven themselves trustworthy. We’re all vulnerable to charismatic individuals, we can all be manipulated by well-choreographed propaganda, and, in the end, we are susceptible because we maintain hope that maybe things will change and a new class of leader will emerge. This is an awful situation, all the way around, but ideally it will serve as a reminder that these things are not easy or simple.

---

Todd: I appreciated The Man They Wanted Me To Be and I wanted to ask you about men. They’re not okay right now. I have a friend who is basically an ex friend now and the type of shit he’s into and he believes now is just off the charts crazy. I’ve known this guy for 34 years and he’s pretending to be someone he isn’t and I know who he has been. The conversations we used to have are gone, my friend is gone, and he’s not the only guy I know who’s like this now. What is going on and will people like this ever come back?

That book came out in 2019 and my god has a lot changed and a lot stayed the same since then. There’s a problem with writing a book like that and that’s that it has to end. What we were witnessing back then, seven years ago, was the rise of something that would eventually metastasize into a burgeoning fascism. Authoritarianism is intertwined with every type of poisonous ideology, but it is also a symptom of unchecked patriarchal aggressing, aggrievement, and hatred. You cannot understand what is going on unless you wrestle with the psychology of men, particularly white men.

I want to say, also, that I’m sorry about your friend. I’ve lost a good number of people to this and I know it hurts. There’s a frustration and a grief that is boundless. At times you can feel like you, yourself, have failed, or like maybe there’s something you could do. In that book, I talked about the need to communicate with people lost in this and to let them know they’re not alone. That helps. And it can do wonders, honestly. But sometimes there’s not much you can do.

The problem is the fantasy. Whether it’s sexism or racism or xenophobia or any related prejudice, the psychology is grounded in self-hatred and the need for a delusional worldview. As I’ve talked about prior, Right Wing reactionary worldviews begin with a self-hatred that is then projected onto others, creating a need for control and oppression and violence. The holder of the view doesn’t like themselves because they have been forced to “kill” within them anything that deviated from the tenets of their parents or families or communities or religious institutions. That dissonance, that hatred of one’s self, has to be expelled outward, creating a dangerous cycle of hatred of the other, attempts to hurt the other, and then, when the internal self-loathing doesn’t disappear, it has to then be projected onto others and on and on and on again.

The fairytale of “superiority” is what helps to soothe the pain. Racists believe they are better than others because their own self-image is so brittle that at least they have something about themselves that makes them better simply by being born into a group. Same goes with every other hatred and prejudice. In essence, we have a generation of men who live within a system that is making life hard on every one. They are then sold, by an entire world of influencers and politicians and grifters, a worldview that says they are the ones being discriminated against, that they are secretly warriors being held back by one conspiracy after another, that if only things were “fair” or “as they should be,” they would rule the world. You’ll notice in these sales jobs it’s always sprinkled with disdain and reminders of what’s “wrong” with them. You spend enough time watching someone like Andrew Tate and it becomes clear: they are both being built up and torn down simultaneously. The essence of the grift is to make them feel more and more insecure and like the next vote or next product or next seminar or next supplement will free them from the bonds that hold them back. But, like the cycle of self-hatred and projection, it always leaves them hollow and feeling the same dread and self-loathing.

I don’t know if your friend will come back. Hell, I don’t know if some of the people I’ve lost will come back. It is, in essence, an addiction spiral. You can’t make someone change, they have to reach a point where they themselves want to change. I hope, for your sake and your friend’s sake, that maybe he’ll reach a point where the whole thing is too exhausting and he wants to change. That clarity will arrive one day. But I can’t say for certain whether that will happen. Like the previous answer with Platner, you have to hope that maybe some rock bottom will arrive and that clarity will accompany it, but the need to perform some character of yourself, one that is strong and has “special knowledge” or “special skills,” is an incredibly powerful thing. It’s a shield, of sorts, to protect a vulnerable person from a possible collapse of identity. And when that’s happening, it feels like you could die or the world will fall apart. So the need to continue the performance and remain part of the scam is charged with so much meaning and importance.

I wrote about some more aspects of this in the ongoing Crisis of Meaning and Purpose mini-series. Authoritarianism existed well before the rise of the internet and social media, but the algorithmic economy has prioritized these things and reinforced them in white men to a degree that’s hard to comprehend. Millions of people are lost in a delusional fantasy about themselves and the world around them, marinating and cooking in conspiracy theories designed to prey upon their insecurities and fears, and as long as we let these oligarchs continue their agendas unchecked and unregulated it will only get worse.

---

Anonymous: I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I have to work four separate gig jobs to scrape together just enough money to not be able to afford my apartment and car. I don’t have the option to leave the country. What you’ve described on the Check In with the ebb and flow of the fascist moment is some of the most exhausting shit I’ve ever experienced. When does it feel better? When is life better?

That’s a hell of a question and it’s hard to answer. First of all, I’m so sorry it’s like this. It shouldn’t be. My heart breaks for everyone caught in this worsening mess. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s immoral. It’s unethical. And the people who created this and benefit from it should be punished. I have to believe they will.

I think the answer begins with separating ourselves from the fate of the world. That doesn’t mean to quit caring or tune out. We can’t do that. This crisis demands that we care and that we pay attention. But we have to somehow manage to find calm during the storm. To ground and to also find joy wherever we can. Social media and newsfeeds are intentionally designed to feel overwhelming and to give us the sense that our immediate attention is required. If you look away, all hell will break loose. But if we try an experiment, if we take a day where we don’t look, we don’t read, just one day, we find that we’re okay. We can go and do things that replenish us and everything won’t fall apart. Maybe something bad will happen and maybe a crisis will worsen, but our participation or attention had nothing to do with it one way or another. We are, by design, forcefully addicted to the dopamine rush and illusion of control, and it is wearing us the fuck out while it drains our capacity.

Personally, I struggle with it. This is my job. I have to stay on top of all the bullshit, talk about it, try and educate around it, and meanwhile I have one meeting after another that is either centered on explaining it or organizing against it. As I write this, I am so close to burnout that it’s an effort not to fall completely into it. I know I need to disconnect like I just explained and, yet, I struggle with it as well. That’s the crux of this thing. You can know it, understand it, recognize full and well what will help, and still come up short a lot of the time.

As for the rest of the question, I don’t know when life will get better in general. I know this is a harrowing time that can, as I was talking about earlier, provide moments of clarity during the chaos. It’s a good thing that you can name that this isn’t all right and that things need to get better. Naming it is one of the first steps. This status quo can’t continue. It’s too much. The precarity you’re describing isn’t just wrong, it’s unsustainable. Most people can’t keep up. Most people are struggling. And even if you’re a capitalist, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that this situation is too lopsided and too top-heavy to continue.

We’ve entered into yet another chapter in this whole mess. The vast majority of people recognize the direction we’re on is wrong. A majority now believe capitalism either isn’t working or isn’t the right system. They see the Republican Party as fascist and the Democratic Party as either complicit or incapable or unwilling to provide an alternative or fight. This is hopeful and it means we’ve reached something of a tipping point.

We’re now watching an obvious battled between entrenched wealth and the rest of us. It isn’t going to be a fair fight and it isn’t going to be pleasant. But the sentiment you’ve expressed is shared by the majority of people and when that happens there will be political realignment, the question is what direction that will go in. Like the burnout I talked about, the truth at the heart of the matter is that something has to change. And it’s going to.

I hope you’re able to find some joy and replenishment. Some rest. I’m going to try and do the same.

---

Jon: I read The Midnight Kingdom when it came out in 2023 so I’ve been pretty prepared for the past couple of years. But like most books like that one I am always waiting for what happens on the other side of it. Can you talk a little bit about how the new world order (sorry, can’t help using the phrase) is coming together and what it will look like if we don’t make changes?

When I do an interview it’s a pretty usual thing for the person to read the subtitle of the book and then say, “Well, I guess we’re in the crisis now,” and in the interest of time I usually say, “Yeah, we are,” but the answer is deeper. Crises aren’t simple. They have chapters and escalations, moments of pause and receding, and they tend to get more complicated and uglier.

Technically, we’re in a liminal stage. The conditions that are easily traceable have deteriorated, leading to political instability and a preparation by the wealth and oligarchical classes for the next step in their takeover. The tech class has cornered our economy, corrupted the political class, and more or less shoehorned themselves into the long-form theft project known as the military-industrial complex. Presently, they’re constructing the most advanced surveillance project in history, attempting to liquidate the middle class in order to enrich themselves, and have used a system of economic and political alliances to basically evolve beyond the nation state system of the modern age.

The Midnight Kingdom got its name from a quote originating from Aleksandr Dugin, the fascist Russian ideologue whose work has influenced Vladimir Putin and the international right wing conspiracy to destroy liberal democracy. In his vision, global capitalism and the American Order would fall apart, leaving major powers like the U.S., China, and Russia to control spheres of influence. That’s what’s happening presently and every new war and collapse of alliances and destruction of load baring components like the petrodollar and free trade brings us closer to that arrangement. Within those spheres, those powers would become more and more dominant of their neighbors - the Trump Administration is already doing this - while creating a caste system that prioritizes the powerful to the detriment of everyone else.

I don’t think I need to tell you, once more, that this is already happening.

This isn’t just something that Dugin cooked up and he’s not pulling the strings on everything that’s happening. It’s the natural evolution of neoliberal capitalism and the whims of capitalism itself if left unchecked. Dugin was simply correct in recognizing what was occurring or where it might be headed. History is a relentless teacher. All you have to do to understand the future is to look at where we are and consult the past. We’ll either head backwards with new wrinkles and new technology, or we’ll move forward after we have learned those lessons. Right now, it’s the former.

More or less, what is on the other side of this crisis is a neo-feudal age wherein resources are controlled by a small collection of powerful men who also control culture, information, and the imagination. Going back to the book, if you actually learn how feudalism worked, you’ll get a glimpse of what we’re now facing. It wasn’t just kings and knights and the like, it was a complex system of control in which the average person was captured by intricate systems of manipulation that were all intended to cement fealty and labor while undermining uprisings. I say a lot, you also need to understand colonialism and how those systems of control were then expanded to other peoples, using the violence of war and oppression and mixing it with religious domination. It’s not a coincidence that we’re seeing this conglomeration once more.

I describe this often as a trap. We’re heading for it. We feel it, we see it, we know it. We have a choice and really it is no choice at all. We cannot live in that world of the authoritarian’s choosing. We shouldn’t have to and, returning to the previous question, things are intolerable as they are. We have everything to win.