They say calling Trump what he is – a pedant authoritarian, a convicted criminal, an enabler of the worst and most dangerous elements of our body politic – constitutes a death threat, not a description. Sorry, MAGA, but if the jackboot fits, wear it: he is an authoritarian, a statist, a racist, an aspiring fascist, a hateful, mendacious, corrupt traitor, a fool, mentally ill, and frankly evil. (Rick Wilson)
We stand at a pivotal juncture, a moment of profound reckoning where the fate of global democracy teeters on the edge of the capitalist abyss. The threads of our democratic ideals, once robust and unyielding, are now frayed and strained beyond repair, threatened by the rising tide of barbarism that relentlessly gathers strength. As the forces of chaos and division grow ever more formidable, the future of democratic governance hangs precariously in the balance, its survival uncertain amid the encroaching fascist darkness that temporarily hides the revenant hellhounds chasing human history down the dark paths of capitalist flight.
In the fading light of our present age, the beast of global capitalism stumbles, shedding its skin in a vile dance towards barbarism, reminiscent of the blackest eras in human memory. Like a decaying titan, it wreaks havoc across the world, its bleeding tendrils stretching from continent to continent. Nowhere is this descent more vividly painted than in the blood-streaked lands of Palestine, where Israel’s genocidal fury sweeps over the people like a malevolent storm, and, in Ukraine, where Russia’s iron fist attempts to crush all in its path – for instance, the cluster bombing of residential areas and humanitarian corridors, indiscriminate missile strikes on maternity wards, central hospitals, children’s hospitals and playgrounds, bus stops, energy grids, shopping centres, restaurants, metro stations, railway stations, civilian intersections, utility grids, theatres, churches, communication towers, humanitarian aid centres, land mines used to target civilians – without mercy. The globe trembles under the weight of human rights violations and international outlawry, each more brutal than the last: from the silencing of uprisings in Peru and Iran to the crackdowns in Sudan, Myanmar and numerous other countries.
Russia, under the rule of Putin, looms like a colossal behemoth that tramples the very foundations of moral decency. An imperialistic leviathan, it crushes all that dares to stir or breathe, smothering its own populace in a relentless torrent of violent repression. This juggernaut of tyranny advances with unyielding force, suffocating the spirit of its people beneath an oppressive weight of brutality and fear.
Like the worshippers of old, who once breathed life into their gods of wood and stone, we, too, in our age of modern idols, animate the inanimate, conjuring from the raw materials of the earth the sacred objects of capital. To these creations, we offer sacrifices – not of blood and flame, but of labour, toil and the essence of human life – surrendered at the slaughter bench of profit. In this relentless exchange, the unpaid labour that breathes beneath the skin of every commodity finds its grim realisation in the rag-and-bone shop of surplus value, where the scraps of human effort are forged into wealth for the few.
We are bound to this logic as if by some ancient rite, stewards not of the earth in its abundance but of its reduction, its dismemberment, harnessing its riches only to feed the ever-hungering maw of capital. The fruits of nature, once a bounty for all, are now channelled toward those who already sit fat at the feast, beneficiaries of the invisible but ever-present surplus labour extracted from the hands of the many by the few. In this ceaseless cycle, we mimic the rituals of the past, offering up the world itself to our modern gods as though the logic of profit were a law carved in stone, immovable, eternal, beyond question.
Capitalism is the unseen lifeblood that courses through the veins of human existence, entwining us all within the intricate arteries of planetary life. It is the engine that propels the metrics and algorithms through which we sculpt the very social relations that ensnare us – relations that nourish our militarism, drive our productive forces and underpin our means of survival. In this grand design, capitalism serves as both the conduit and the crucible, shaping our collective fate with the relentless precision of its invisible hand.
Though the global economy has narrowly skirted the abyss of a profound recession – a spectre that loomed ominously just a year past – it now lumbers toward its third consecutive year of deceleration, like a mighty ship whose sails have lost the winds of prosperity. The approaching horizon of 2025 promises no brighter dawn as the world trudges through what may become the most tepid half-decade since the early 1990s. The twin albatrosses of burgeoning debt and waning labour productivity encircle this sluggish behemoth, dragging it inexorably into the murky depths of stagnation. The meagre growth that dares to emerge withers like a fragile, pallid blossom, struggling to find light beneath the shadow of a grotesque and gnarled tree of inequality – an ironic mockery of Darwin’s grand, universal tree of life, portending the extinction of the species. Rural workers, once bound to the earth, are being uprooted like withering plants, cast aside by the relentless machinery of progress. Meanwhile, climate change, that ruthless sculptor of landscapes and lives, propels waves of migrants across borders, seeking refuge where stability crumbles. Tens of millions more, in the factories and fields of the world, are displaced by the cold, mechanical hands of robotics and AI – relics of a labour force sacrificed on the altar of technological advancement.
Yet it is not solely the economic tempest that drives the rise of the far-right, though it fuels the fires of discontent. The far-right surges like a poisonous tide, empowered not by its own virtue but by the flaccid and tepid resistance of neoliberals and social democrats. Their efforts, mere whispers in the storm, offer no remedy for the festering wounds of global capitalism, leaving fertile ground for the seeds of division to take root. And so, the far-right thrives, feeding on the fears and frustrations of a world adrift, while those who should steer the course merely wring their hands in futile indecision.
To set one’s sights on crafting a socialist alternative, one that dares to soar above the dim horizons of Social-Democratic compromise or the stifling confines of neo-Stalinist ‘justice’ – those schemes that merely shift the spoils of surplus value like pawns upon a chessboard – may seem like an ambition so distant, so ethereal, that one might question the very sanity of embarking upon such a course. Yet, it is precisely in the vastness of this dream, in the unreachable shimmer of that distant star, that its profound necessity gleams with a clarity untouched by despair.
We have echoed, like a persistent clarion in the wilderness, that the most grievous malady afflicting the struggles of our age is not a failure of tactics or even of courage but the spectral void where there should be a radiant vision – an alternative to every manifestation of capitalism’s manifold hydra, whether the cold, iron hand of the statist or the rapacious frenzy of the ‘free market.’ Both paths, though adorned in differing banners, lead to the same dark valley, where the human spirit is shackled to the machinery of profit and the soul itself is traded as mere currency.
To focus on forging such a vision, though it may seem as remote as Atlantis beneath the waves, is to refuse the tepid surrenders of the present age, those half-measures that serve only to prolong the dominion of alienation. For what liberation can be found in the mere redistribution of chains? What salvation lies in dividing the spoils of our own servitude? No, this vision must transcend, must rise on wings woven of boldness and imagination, toward a world where exploitation itself crumbles like ancient ruins beneath the march of time.
To dream of such an alternative is to reject the siren song of disillusionment, to defy the bleakness of a future bound in capitalist cycles that return us ever to the same shores. It is to proclaim, in the face of all doubt, that beyond the storm lies a land untouched by the weary hands of exploitation, where the fruits of human labour and creativity bloom not as commodities but as offerings to a life lived fully, freely and in radiant harmony.
Peter Hudis and his comrades at the International Marxist Humanist Organisation have sounded an urgent clarion, a warning that the spectre of neo-fascism is not merely a distant threat but a dark storm gathering strength, ready to break over the fragile shores of once-stable democracies. In nations such as India, France and Germany, the beast of fascism rears its head with ferocious resolve, its talons sinking deep into the earth, rooting itself in the very fabric of society. But nowhere does this spectre loom more ominously than in the United States, where the figure of Donald Trump, a dark avatar of hatred and division, rises once more from the festering swamps of bigotry. He returns like a tempest bent on vengeance, poised to hurl the world back into the eye of the storm, where fear and fury reign supreme.
For too long, Americans have allowed Trump’s venomous rhetoric to colonise their minds, festering unchecked, living rent-free in the psyche of a people who seek emotional release in the scapegoating of the vulnerable. The fabric of human empathy, once the binding thread of society, has unravelled, leaving behind a barren wasteland where cruelty festers and absurdities thrive. In this desolate landscape, senseless attacks on Haitian immigrant communities multiply, amplified by grotesque conspiracies that cast these victims of systemic violence as monsters – wild accusations that they are somehow consuming the pets of American citizens.
Such delusions are the fever dreams of a nation spiralling into the delirium of hate, a nation where the very soul of compassion is under siege and where the lines between reality and nightmare blur in the venomous grip of fascism’s rising tide. This is the barbarism of our era – a time when the sacredness of life is ground beneath the ruthless wheels of power, profit and political fabrication. A world that seems to have forgotten its heart, lost in the relentless pursuit of its own undoing.
As Putin tightens his iron grip on Ukraine, his gaze stretches beyond the immediate battlefield, envisioning a future where the return of Donald Trump to power will spell the death knell for US military aid to Kyiv. The fragile lifeline of Western support, once the backbone of Ukraine’s defence, now flickers like a dying ember while Russia gathers strength in the shadows. A swelling alliance with Iran fortifies Putin’s resolve as arms from North Korea stream into his arsenal, and his bond with China deepens, fusing their economic and strategic interests in a pact of mutual gain. With every pact signed and every shipment received from Iran or North Korea, Russia’s engines of conflict roar with greater intensity, heralding a new era of bellicose audacity.
No longer the outcast on the world stage, Putin now basks in the warmth of carefully nurtured alliances, intertwining Russia’s destiny with those of formidable powers. Together, they spin a vast and intricate weaving of influence, with each new thread tightening the noose around the crumbling edifice of the old world order. The geopolitical landscape quakes beneath the weight of this shifting balance as Putin’s dark shadow stretches ever wider, its tendrils creeping across continents, poised to reshape the world in his own image.
Where once stood the spectre of isolation, now there unfolds a vast web of power – unyielding, impenetrable – woven from alliances born of mutual ambition. In this new paradigm, Russia no longer moves in the periphery but stands at the heart of a global chessboard, every move calculated, every piece advancing toward a vision that challenges the very foundations of the established powers. It is a world teetering on the edge as Putin’s influence grows, relentless and undeniable.
If Ukraine falls, the far-right will find itself invigorated, emboldened by the triumph of Putin’s imperial ambitions and his hatred for the LGBTQ community. His war of conquest is not confined to the battlefields of Eastern Europe; it sends shockwaves across the globe, its poison seeping into the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In these regions, Russia props up military juntas in countries like Libya and Mali while lending its iron hand to Bashar al-Assad, enabling his brutal repression in Syria. With every success, Putin’s influence spreads like a malignancy, emboldening authoritarian regimes and strengthening the global far-right.
This far-right, a hydra with many heads, both intertwined with and opposed to US imperialism, flourishes in the ashes of capitalism’s failures. Economic devastation, born of a system that privileges the few while abandoning the many, provides fertile ground for extremism. In this chaotic soil, the far-right finds its roots, thriving on the disillusionment and despair that contemporary capitalism has sown. As Putin’s vision of authoritarian conquest reverberates, it fans the flames of this global resurgence, uniting reactionary forces in a shared dream of domination.
Hudis et al. write:
Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu are united when it comes to at least one thing – both insist that the peoples they are violently suppressing (Ukraine in one case, Palestine in the other) have no right to exist as national entities. For years prior to Russia’s imperialist invasion (which actually started in 2014), Putin insisted, ‘Ukraine is a fiction. It has never been a real nation’ – the same kind of verbiage employed for decades by leading Zionists about Palestine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov let the cat out of the bag in February in stating, ‘Israel’s declared goals in Gaza are similar to Russia’s in Ukraine.’ Ramzy Baroud, an editor of Palestine Chronicle and who supports Ukraine’s right to defend itself from Russia and also condemns the West for opposing Russia while supporting Israel’s war against Palestine, responded, ‘Lavrov’s position is bizarre and greatly offensive…because it resembles some kind of a political nod for Israel to continue with its lethal war on Palestinian civilians without worrying about a strong Russian response.’
Lavrov’s comment may indicate that Putin is looking ahead to a Trump presidency, which would almost certainly pull the plug on US military aid to Ukraine. Toning down criticism of Israel for the sake of cementing an alliance with Trump’s white nationalism is not a big step for Putin since he is a white nationalist himself (as is Netanyahu, who has refrained from criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine).
While the Ukrainians fight on, they have clearly been set back on their heels in recent months by declining military support from the West. Russia, on the other hand, is obtaining huge amounts of armaments from Iran and North Korea while evading the impact of US and EU sanctions by expanding economic links to China. Last year, China’s exports to Russia increased 54%, and half of Russia’s oil was exported to China. Overall, trade between the two countries has increased 64% since the 2022 invasion. As a result, Russia’s economy is expected to grow 2.6% this year, outpacing each of the major industrial economies in the G7.
If Ukraine is defeated by Russia, it will embolden the far right everywhere – not only in Europe but also in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, where Putin is providing support to military regimes in Libya, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and the Central African Republic after having enabled Bashir Assad to crush the opposition in Syria.
Global capitalism, groaning beneath the crushing weight of debt and the stagnation of productivity, has shattered even its modest promises of growth, casting millions into a life of uncertainty and precarity. Displaced workers, rural migrants and climate refugees surge across borders in desperate waves, their suffering met with a ferocious backlash of nationalist rage. As these tides of human despair rise, so too does the far-right, feeding off fear and division, while those entrusted with leadership falter.
Neoliberal and social democratic elites, frozen in the amber of their own inertia, watch helplessly as the world crumbles around them. Their cowardice was put on full display earlier this year when the Biden administration, in an astonishing act of political surrender, unveiled an immigration reform bill that mirrored Trump’s draconian anti-immigrant policies. In seeking to placate the very forces of xenophobia, they found themselves outmanoeuvred, their feeble efforts collapsing beneath the weight of the same reactionary forces they sought to appease.
Paralysed by indecision, these elites stand as hollow figures, offering no real solutions to the crises tearing at the fabric of society. As capitalism’s promises wither and collapse, the far-right surges forward, unchecked and unchallenged, while the people remain trapped in a system that neither protects nor serves them.
Thus, the liberal order, once heralded as a steadfast guardian against the encroachments of authoritarianism, now finds itself entangled in the unravelling of the very democratic principles it once championed. The ascent of the far-right is not an isolated anomaly but rather the inevitable consequence of a faltering system, a system that has betrayed its own promises and left its citizens vulnerable to the siren call of demagogues who offer the false solace of restored order through violence and exclusion.
On the threat posed by the ascendency of the far Right, Peter Hudis expands upon its two main determinants: anti-Enlightenment irrationalism and the social differentiation and separation related to the logic of capital and the self-destructive nature of the law of value:
No less serious, and not unrelated to the above, is the threat posed by the rising power of the far right. But the far right is far from a unified entity. It includes tendencies that favour an enhanced welfare state that can provide benefits to traditional male-dominated households, as well as unbridled neoliberals out to end social welfare programs and free the market from all constraints; it includes Evangelical Christians who embrace the gospel of unlimited wealth acquisition as well as right-wing Catholics who reject such crass materialism. Most of the far Right is thoroughly racist – as clearly expressed in its anti-immigrant hysteria – but some, like the Islamic fundamentalists, are not: they accept anyone committed to ridding the world of those they view as infidels. The forms assumed by today’s far Right – fascist, neo-fascist, or otherwise – are multifaceted.
Nevertheless, two major determinants characterise the far right.
First, they all react against what they perceive as the hollowness of modern life, its atomisation, insecurity and sense of anomie, by seeking a return to a pristine past that re-establishes solidity, substantiality and tradition. If classical liberalism, with its ethos that each person is free to pursue their own meaning in an untethered world, posits subjectivity without substance, the authoritarian anti-liberals embrace substance without subjectivity. Abstract ‘freedom’ gives way to a concrete hierarchy. In sum, the far right is a modern iteration of the counter-Enlightenment. One reason a lot of academic leftwing discourse has had a hard time understanding the attraction of the far right is that it spent so much time critiquing Enlightenment rationalism that it forgot that the driving force of all fascist movements has been anti-Enlightenment irrationalism.
Second, the increasingly hollow, atomised and alienated nature of modern life that the far right both reacts against and reflects is a direct product of the logic of capital. As Marx shows in Capital, the law of value not only homogenises human activity by subjecting it to an abstract time determination – socially necessary labour time. In doing so, it also generates profound social differentiation and separation – between classes, between individuals and between individuals and society. As commodification and the drive for profit colonise ever more dimensions of the lifeworld, the bounds that connect humans become pulled apart. This dialectic of dissolution applies to conditions inside as well as outside of the labour process. There is a reason the Communist Manifesto proclaims that nothing does more to undermine the family than bourgeois society. ‘All that is solid melts into air.’ Everyday life becomes increasingly abstracted from nature and our human nature – the capacity for intersubjective purposeful activity. Reactionary movements – from authoritarian rightists to fascists seeking to renew the ‘volk’ through blood and soil – reach for an immediate resolution of the crisis of modernity (in terms of its tendency toward greater homogenisation and differentiation) by forcefully imposing traditional hierarchies based on tribe, race and male domination.
Many Americans, trapped in the thrall of the cult of MAGA, and who are bolstered by far-right ideologies and conspiracy theories, profess to be Christians. So why do they persist in demonising and repressing others rather than extend to others mutual aid and care while seeking to build a new world free from alienation instead of seeking a return to an old one that was never free? Could it be that they have embodied the demon seed of Donald Trump, one born of a malignant narcissism, where it has festered since 2016? Does Trump’s brain function like the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis? Is it similarly capable of turning us all into zombie ants? According to Jennifer Lu of National Geographic magazine, they walk among us, the living dead – creatures not of nightmare but of nature’s most grotesque design. In the shadowed depths of tropical forests, ants become unwitting vessels for the parasitic ambitions of a sinister fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Its sole, relentless purpose? Self-propagation, through the meticulous hijacking of its host’s mind and body.
Lu writes that in the tropical forests where Ophiocordyceps thrives, the infected ants walk among their kin, not as living creatures, but as grotesque shells, animated by the parasitic fungus that has taken control of their every movement. Their sole purpose is no longer survival but the propagation of the very thing that destroys them. And so, one wonders, have many Americans become like these living dead, marching in lockstep with the twisted ambitions of a man whose sole purpose is the self-perpetuation of his own power?
In both cases, the parasitic force – whether fungus or ideology – manipulates its host with a terrifying precision, ensuring that the infected spread its reach, even at the cost of their own humanity. Like the ants enthralled by Ophiocordyceps, they walk among us, outwardly human, yet driven by forces that hollow out their capacity for empathy, care and the recognition of others as equal, deserving souls.
This parasitic dance begins with the unassuming spores of the fungus, clinging to a foraging ant like a malignant seed. Piercing through the hard armour of the exoskeleton, the fungus silently invades, infiltrating its host’s very essence. What unfolds next is the slow erosion of will as the fungus tightens its invisible grip. The ant, still outwardly appearing a dutiful member of the colony, gradually succumbs to the fungus’s commands. Its mind, once autonomous, is now enthralled by a force far beyond its comprehension.
As the infection deepens, the ant is compelled by an alien urge to abandon its colony and seek a humid microclimate – one tailored to the fungus’s insidious needs. It is driven not by instinct but by an invisible hand to descend to a perfect height of about 10 inches above the forest floor, where it sinks its jaws into a leaf vein. Immobilised, it waits, unaware that it is preparing to become a tomb.
Even in death, the fungus is far from finished with its host. From the shrivelled husk of the ant, a grotesque fruiting body erupts, pushing through the base of the ant’s head – a grotesque stalk that soon bursts open, releasing spores to drift through the air, searching for new hosts to infect. The cycle of possession continues.
Indeed, like the lore of zombies, there is an incubation period, a macabre waiting game, where the infected ant moves undetected among its comrades. This ability to remain camouflaged in its own community is striking, for social insects like ants typically exhibit social immunity, ruthlessly expelling any member showing signs of sickness. But with Ophiocordyceps, there is no defence, no refuge from its insidious grip. The fungus invades with silent malevolence, siphoning every vital drop of sustenance from its host, leaving behind nothing but a hollowed shell. Once the host is depleted, the parasite completes its dark purpose, filling the lifeless body with spores – a grim harvest to ensure its own proliferation, spreading its parasitic dominion far beyond the victim’s grave. Despite its lethal grip, the fungus does not seek total annihilation. Balance is its dark calculus. Only a select few ants in any colony are ever infected, ensuring that the ecosystem, this dance of life and death, remains in fragile equilibrium.
In this twisted vision, Trump functions not unlike Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the parasitic fungus that hijacks the minds and bodies of ants. Much like the fungus, Trump’s influence on some members of his cult appears to infect and manipulate his followers, transforming them into unwitting vessels of hate, driven by compulsions that no longer seem their own. Just as the fungus forces its host to act against its own instincts, Trump’s rhetoric and persona seem to twist the minds of his supporters, turning them into ‘antis’ – anti-immigrant, anti-democratic, anti-compassionate, anti-liberal, anti-rational – rendering them incapable of seeing beyond the narrow and destructive logic of exclusion and dominance.
Trump has been the victim of two assassination attempts. And how the strings of fate have woven a deadly irony so rich in contradiction that even the most astute observer could only marvel at its tragic absurdity! Former President Donald Trump, in a grand display of rhetorical flourish, stands before the nation on the airwaves of Fox News, accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of none less than orchestrating assassination attempts upon his very person. ‘He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,’ said Trump while speaking to Fox News Digital. ‘Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out.’ […] ‘These are people that want to destroy our country,’ Trump claimed in the interview. ‘It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.’ He added that Democrats use highly inflammatory language. I can use it too – far better than they can – but I don’t.’ ‘Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,’ Trump told Fox. ‘They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in.… These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to – that is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.’ Trump has blamed the violence on Democratic arguments that have painted the ex-president as a ‘threat to democracy’ because he sought to prevent the electoral count in 2020. Yet he fails to mention that he did so by means of a violent coup.
Trump declares, his voice dripping with the self-assured righteousness of a saviour, and with all the fervour of a man wronged, that there must be a ‘de-escalation’ of political fire, while, in the same breath, he fans the flames with accusations and hyperbole, his words a torrent of venomous blame. He denounces Harris as if casting her in the role of some dark conspirator, her rhetoric, he claims, driving the bullets that now take aim at his life. In the same breath, he claims that he is the one to deliver this land from its torment, and they – oh, they are the architects of its ruination! How brazen his claim, how stark his blindness to the irony that his own words, his own posturing as a martyr for the nation, mirrors that very incitement he decries. Is this not, one must ask, a case of the pot calling the kettle black? For in his accusation of Harris labelling him a threat to democracy, he swiftly turns around and names her the ‘enemy within.’ What exquisite hypocrisy, what fatal contradiction! David Edward reports:
Former President Donald Trump suggested that attempts to assassinate him would ‘only get worse’ due to migrants coming to the United States.
In a post to his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump began by blaming Sunday’s attempted assassination on ‘the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate.’
He said, ‘[A]ll of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse and Distrust.’
‘Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!’
Trump then veered into an all-caps rant against migrants without explaining their connection to the gunman, who was a white man.
‘OUR BORDERS MUST BE CLOSED, AND THE TERRORISTS, CRIMINALS AND MENTALLY INSANE, IMMEDIATELY REMOVED FROM AMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS, DEPORTED BACK TO THEIR COUNTIES OF ORIGIN,’ he wrote. ‘THE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT US AS FOOLS, THEY ARE STEALING OUR JOBS AND OUR WEALTH. WE CANNOT LET THEM LAUGH ANY LONGER. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
Yet, in truth, no evidence has yet surfaced to suggest that Ryan Wesley Routh, the alleged gunman seen skulking near the lush greens of Mar-a-Lago, armed with an AK-47, was driven by the words of either President Joe Biden or Vice President Harris. The twisted threads of his mind, perhaps, were pulled by different forces. His digital footprint, now vanished, once told of a man who voted for Trump in 2016, only to later renounce him and shift allegiance to Tulsi Gabbard, before entertaining the thought of a Haley-Ramaswamy ticket. A curious mosaic of political shifts – none of which point directly to the rhetoric of the Democratic camp, according to Mathew Chapman.
Yet Trump persists in his casting of blame, raising his voice in indignation, asserting that it is the Democrats who stoke the fires of civil unrest, who have painted him as a villain in the grand drama of American democracy. He claims that Biden and Harris are the ones who would see our nation crumble, he warns darkly, invoking the spectre of an enemy within. He claims they, with their reckless words and endless lawsuits, are seeking to destroy what he alone has built, what he alone can save. And yet, despite his grand proclamations, the irony remains ever-present, like a dagger hidden beneath his own cloak – his language, laced with the very heat and fury he condemns, continues to ripple through the air, a symphony of contradiction. Is Trump so blind to basic Cartesian logic that when he demands a de-escalation of ‘rhetoric’ from Harris, he cannot see how he is escalating his own language against her?
As yet, no evidence has surfaced to suggest that Ryan Wesley Routh, the shadowed figure seen prowling the hallowed grounds of Mar-a-Lago with an AK-47 slung ominously across his shoulders, was stirred to action by the rhetoric of President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. His motivations, murky as the dusk on that fateful evening, remain untethered to their words. Indeed, his trail on X, now silenced and scrubbed from the ether, painted a far more complex portrait of shifting allegiances. Once a staunch supporter of Trump in the fateful election of 2016, Routh had since turned away from the former president’s banner, finding himself drawn into the orbit of Tulsi Gabbard during the 2020 Democratic primary. His political desires, a strange cocktail of disillusionment, had even led him to envision a future helmed by Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy in this year’s contest.
Such a mosaic of shifting loyalties tells of a man not easily swayed by the single cadence of any political faction but rather one caught in the ebb and flow of America’s fractured discourse. Whatever forces led him to the greens of Trump’s golf course, with rifle in hand, they do not appear to echo the voices of Biden or Harris but are instead the twisted chords of a personal symphony, shaped by disillusionment, rebellion and perhaps a thirst for something yet undefined. More information will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Media influencers who create the biggest moral panics are rewarded by the GOP establishment. Jared Holt, an expert on hate groups, writes:
Conservative influencers have consistently found success in peddling moral panics to their audiences. Media-fuelled scare campaigns vilifying antifascist activists, critical race theory, LGBTQ education, DEI programs and immigrants have catapulted countless conservative influencers’ careers. Many such moral panic campaigns, like the one that alleged Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs, rely on sensationalised, distorted and sometimes outright falsified information.
When influencers pair those falsehoods with extreme rhetoric, their lies can become dangerous. Right-wing influencers popularise paranoid and existential fears among their audiences, feeding them a steady diet of hateful content that consistently elicits abuse, threats and violent attacks against the people they vilify. And for their part, right-wing social media starlets have been totally unrepentant for those consequences.
Instead of facing ostracisation for perpetuating these hateful panics, pro-Trump social media audiences have rewarded many influencers with social media engagement and financial support. The GOP establishment has made media darlings of a handful of these influencers, hosting glowing interviews with them and writing news articles about their posts. Institutional Republican Party powers have even welcomed some influencers to mingle in the halls of power, apparently recognising the utility in having a perpetually terrified voter base that is ready to attack the party’s enemies.
Just this week, influencers who perpetuated myths about Haitian immigrants eating animals brushed shoulders with GOP elites. Self-described ‘pro-white nationalism’ influencer Laura Loomer flew with Trump to the presidential debate in Philadelphia and cheered him on as he posted memes referencing the racist internet rumours ‘from the plane.’ Turning Point USA influencer Benny Johnson, who took a huge payday from a multimillion-dollar Russian influence operation, was granted an interview with Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump one day after sharing the rumours.
Ah, I recall well the not-so-distant days when even the briefest brush with a figure like Laura Loomer would cast a shadow so dark that it spelled the swift and ignoble end to a politician’s career. Loomer – self-professed Islamophobe, provocateur of the vilest strain of hate – whose very name conjures an aura of discord, prejudice and the most unsavoury fringes of political discourse – is notorious for spewing venomous rhetoric, targeting not only Democrats but entire communities with slanderous vitriol. She represents a figure so polarising that any association with her was once akin to embracing the brink of political suicide.
Her racist slurs, dripping with hatred and steeped in bigotry, have painted her as a pariah in the mainstream, her name whispered with distaste even in circles where extremity was often tolerated. She has been called out by both sides of the aisle, a symbol of a politics so corrosive, so morally bankrupt, that to be seen in her orbit was to be marked as irrevocably tainted. Yet, how times have shifted! What was once a death knell now seems, to some, a mere whisper in the cacophony of our modern political landscape, where alliances with the most infamous figures can still thrive, under the guise of controversy as strategy. In the past, Loomer’s association would have spelled ruin – now, it often simply amplifies the noise. How tragically far we have wandered from the days when such disgrace could still carry the weight of consequence.
Charlie Kirk, the figurehead of Turning Point USA, stands as yet another polarising instigator of moral panics, whose name has become synonymous with a particularly virulent strain of right-wing outrage. His ire, especially when directed toward the realm of education, is relentless. With calculated precision, he crafts narratives that paint the nation’s educators not as stewards of knowledge but as agents of indoctrination, casting suspicion and vitriol upon them with a brutal hand. His attacks, often draped in hyperbolic invective, are designed to foster hatred, to inflame the passions of those who would see teachers as the enemy within – a convenient scapegoat for a nation grappling with cultural shifts and ideological divides.
Kirk’s rhetoric turns classrooms into battlegrounds, where he imagines teachers sowing seeds of leftist propaganda. He accuses them of undermining the values of America’s youth, perpetuating a moral decay through what he perceives as liberal indoctrination. These accusations are delivered with a fervour meant to stir the deepest anxieties in his audience, creating an atmosphere of distrust and hostility toward the very individuals entrusted with educating future generations.
In his relentless crusade, Kirk doesn’t just critique educational policies; he demonises those who stand on the front lines of teaching, using language designed to rally followers to a cause built on fear, division and suspicion. His approach, which thrives on outrage, often eclipses thoughtful debate, replacing it with an orchestrated campaign of blame and fury. It is a pernicious strategy, one that corrodes the social fabric, driving a wedge between educators and communities, turning classrooms into ideological battlefields.
His crusade, steeped in misinformation and ideological warfare, is an affront to the very principles of education: the pursuit of knowledge, the fostering of inquiry and the liberation of the human mind. And the moral panics created by the likes of Loomer and Kirk are duly awarded by their fawning embrace by the GOP.
Indeed, we find ourselves once more in the throes of a political atmosphere reminiscent of George Wallace’s dark legacy – an era marked by the kind of brazen racism and vitriol that now, in the age of Donald Trump, has resurfaced with a vengeance. Yet, what makes this resurgence all the more unbearable is the maddening endurance of it, the way Trump’s unrelenting barrage of bigotry, misogyny and narcissistic grandeur has been ‘sane washed’ by the right-wing media machine. His every offence is either excused, downplayed, or, worse, rebranded as a legitimate expression of a man supposedly misunderstood by his detractors.
Are we not exhausted – utterly spent – by the spectacle of Donald Trump, a man who has, time and time again, beclowned himself on the national stage? How many more racist slurs, sexist jabs and delusions of grandeur must we endure before the collective fatigue sets in? How many more times must we hear him proclaim himself to be God’s ‘chosen one,’ the saviour of a nation he so often divides and defiles? His antics have long passed the point of absurdity, and, yet they persist, dragging the public consciousness into the gutter with him while the nation itself teeters on the edge of weariness and disgust.
And what of the frenzied loyalty of Christian evangelicals, who continue to rally behind him as though he were some messianic figure? Even Paula White, spiritual advisor to Trump, who frantically called upon ‘angelic reinforcement’ from the continents of Africa and South America to bring victory to Trump in 2020, was unable to rescue America from its madness. White is certainly one of the many spiritual personifications of MAGA madness.
This blind devotion, this fevered embrace of a man so morally bankrupt, leaves us questioning not only Trump but the integrity of those who claim to follow a faith rooted in compassion and humility. The sight of these evangelicals, so fervent in their praise, defending his every vulgar utterance, every insult and lie, is a testament to how far we have strayed from any semblance of decency.
Have we not had enough? Enough of the chaos, the divisiveness, the spectacle? The toll of Trump’s toxic presence weighs heavily on the nation, and, yet, he persists. But as the echoes of George Wallace fade into history, so too must Trump’s hateful legacy find its end. The weariness of the public grows, and, with it, a longing for something better, something more dignified, more just. Will we finally summon the strength to turn away from this carnival of madness, or are we condemned to remain in its thrall, forever repeating the same old dance of destruction?
The image of Americans today is far removed from Bruegel’s cheerful peasants, joyously spinning in their village squares. Instead, we find ourselves captivated by Trump’s stiff, hand-pumping parody of a dance – a grotesque mimicry that more closely resembles the macabre than the merry. Like the Danse Macabre of old, where death summons souls from all walks of life to join a fatal procession, his movements seem to guide us toward our own undoing.
His dance is not one of celebration but of compulsion, a sombre rhythm that pulls the nation into step. With every exaggerated gesture, every rigid pose, he leads the throng toward a grave destiny as if the very soul of the country is swaying to a grim, unseen beat. And yet, as we cheer and follow, it’s hard to tell if we are merely participants – or prisoners – of this deadly choreography.
It’s as if we are ensnared in a dance choreographed by our own fears and frustrations, drawn ever closer to a precipice while believing we can still control the rhythm. It is a dark reflection of the Danse Macabre, where society is lured into a grotesque waltz toward collective ruin.
But will we find the strength to break free from this enthralling yet destructive pattern, this grim ballet, until exhaustion claims us? When will we stop dancing to Trump’s malevolent tune? The image of death beckoning every soul, regardless of station, mirrors the indifferent pull of modern chaos, as if fate itself whispers to each of us, demanding that we take our place in the great procession.
I declaim my view of Trump’s unhinged embrace by evangelicals by citing journalist Thom Hartmann as follows:
Begin bloc quotation
In The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke in the plural when he predicted ‘false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.’ After warning that grifters and con artists (in secular terms) would try to exploit His followers, He said, ‘by their fruits, ye shall know them.’
Trump’s ‘fruits’ are pretty obvious:
- More than twenty women have accused him of rape and sexual assault.
- Hundreds of contractors, customers and employees have accused him of stealing from them or refusing to pay them (or both), as have members of his own family
- Throughout his presidency, he lied over 30,000 times and continues to lie daily
- He pits Americans against each other by race, religion and region in an effort to tear our country apart and thus weaken opposition to his authoritarian rule
- He openly encouraged violence against unarmed people at multiple rallies and encouraged state violence at a speech to chiefs of police; most recently, he encouraged an assault on members of the press
- He tried to overthrow and end our democracy
- He embraced depraved, ungodly murderers, kleptocrats and ‘strongman’ rulers while ridiculing Western democracies and their elected leaders
- He tried to damage or dismantle political and military systems designed to keep peace in the world, including the UN, NATO and the Iran JCPOA
- He reaches out to Jesus’s followers and then directs them toward bigotry, violence and hatred
- As an object of admiration and a role model, he’s replaced Jesus in many white evangelical congregations
- He delighted in tearing children from their parents and putting them in cages
- He tried to end Americans’ access to lifesaving medical care by killing Obamacare and privatising Medicare
- He watched on TV, like a delighted child, as his followers killed three police officers, sent 140 others to the hospital and tried to murder the Vice President and Speaker of the House
- He lied about Covid (after disclosing the truth to Bob Woodward), causing more disease and deaths in America than any other nation in the world except Peru
Hartmann cites Matthew 25, which reminds him of everything we need to know about today’s ‘Christian’ politics:
Jesus’ disciples had gathered around him in a private and intimate setting.
Finally, they thought, they could ask him, straight up, the question that had been haunting them, particularly now that the Roman authorities were starting to talk about punishing or even executing them: How could they be sure to hang out with Him in the afterlife?
Jesus told them that, at the end of days, He’d be sitting on His throne separating the sheep from the goats ‘as a shepherd divideth.’
The nations of ‘sheep’ would go with Him to heaven, the ‘goats’ to hell.
‘For I was an hungred, and ye gave me food,’ he told his disciples he would say to the sheep. ‘I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.’
At this point, His disciples – who had never, ever seen Jesus hungry, thirsty, homeless, sick, or naked – freaked out. Whoa! they shouted. We’re screwed!
‘When saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee?’ they asked, panicked. ‘Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?’
‘Verily I say unto you,’ Jesus replied, reassuring them, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’This is the only place in the Bible where Jesus explicitly tells His disciples what acts they must perform, in their entirety, to get into heaven.
Feed the hungry, care for refugees, house and clothe the homeless, heal the sick, have compassion on those in prison.
That’s it.
And it’s a list that is quite literally the opposite of everything that Donald Trump advocates, stands for, and has done in his careers, both business and political.
Many Americans, ensnared in the thrall of the MAGA cult and fortified by the iron bars of far-right ideologies and conspiracy theories, paradoxically proclaim themselves to be devout Christians. And yet, in place of Christ’s call for love, compassion and mutual aid, they persist in demonising and repressing others, fostering division rather than solidarity. Why, one must ask, do they not seek to extend care to their fellow humans, to build a new world that transcends the alienation of modern life, instead of yearning to return to an imagined past that was never truly free? Could it be that they have internalised the poison of Donald Trump – a malignant narcissist fungus that has festered within the American psyche since 2016? Trump represents the antithesis of the values and works Jesus laid out in the Sermon on the Mount and in Matthew 25.
Liberation theology seeks to understand Christianity through the lens of liberation, aiming not only to reflect on the world but actively transform it. According to Gustavo Gutiérrez, this theology encompasses three levels: liberation from economic exploitation, liberation from fatalism (affirming free will), and, ultimately, theological liberation from sin, leading to communion with God. It emphasises that the poor must be empowered to free themselves from injustice, merging spiritual and worldly liberation in a holistic approach to social and theological transformation.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, Paulo Freire contributed to the process of developing liberation theology:
Freire famously called for a type of class suicide in which the bourgeoisie take on a new apprenticeship of dying to their own class interests. He likened this to experiencing one’s own Easter moment through a willing transcendence. Freire believed that dominant class interests must be replaced by the interests of the suffering poor if Christians are to experience ‘death’ as an oppressed class and be born again to liberation. Otherwise, Catholics will be implicated within a Church’ which forbids itself the Easter which it preaches.’ In this regard, Freire wrote:
‘I cannot permit myself to be a mere spectator. On the contrary, I must demand my place in the process of change. So, the dramatic tension between the past and the future, death and life, being and non-being, is no longer a kind of dead-end for me; I can see it for what it really is: a permanent challenge to which I must respond. And my response can be none other than my historical praxis – in other words, revolutionary praxis.’
Gustavo Gutierrez, considered one of the founders of liberation theology, invited Freire to work on some components related to liberation theology, and Freire began to analyse the distinct differences between what he called the traditional church, the modern church and the prophetic church. Freire was a proponent of the prophetic church, and, in this role, he made considerable contributions to liberation theology, a movement that continues to this day and whose proponents risk their lives for the sake of the well-being of the poor, the exploited, those who were the targets of a brutal military regime. Paulo refused to exhort others to follow a path of political activism that he, himself, was unwilling to follow. His life as a metaphysical wayfarer, scholar and advocate for poor and suffering peoples was guided by a search for justice that could only be realised through authentic dialogue. Such a dialogue stipulated engaging both politically and pedagogically the internal contradictions that plagued society. A refusal to enter such dialogue has allowed an anti-Kingdom of God to stand against immigrants seeking a better life, against migrant workers, against refugees and the intergenerationally reproduced barrios of planet slum. Freireans today, both in Brazil and the United States, are currently under the scrutiny of political forces averse to the very concept of dialogue.
Liberation theologians do not shy away from including the contributions of Karl Marx to the larger project of liberation. Marx’s vast and intricate works weave together a vision of a future society that hinges upon the radical reshaping of labour and social relations. For Marx, the true measure of such a transformation lies not merely in political upheaval or the seizure of power but in the complete abolition of the law of value and the systems of value production that bind individuals to the chains of alienation. In place of the suffocating chains of profit and survival, he envisioned a realm where freely associated individuals come together to create and produce, not for personal gain, but for the sheer joy of collective well-being. This vision is not merely utopian fancy; it finds tangible form in the IMPA factory of Buenos Aires. Industrias Metalúrgicas y Plásticas Argentina (IMPA), a historical aluminium factory in which I was privileged to present talks on socialism, was reclaimed by its workers in 1998 after a valiant struggle by workers, students and community members to wrest control from the forces of capital and law enforcement. Years of tireless resistance, enduring countless attempts by the police to uproot them, finally culminated in the legal transfer of production management to the workers themselves, now united in a cooperative. Here, in the very heart of Buenos Aires, social relations are redefined, embodied in a living experiment of human solidarity and shared purpose.
Yet the expansion of this lofty goal cannot be reached through sheer revolutionary fervour alone. It is not the result of a singular, explosive act of will but rather the careful discernment and cultivation of the new society that already lies nascent within the decaying husk of the old. Marx calls for a deeper understanding of the forces of liberation that emerge from within the very heart of capitalist alienation. These forces do not solely reside in the working class but also in the manifold others who suffer under the oppressive weight of capitalist society – national minorities, women, the youth – all of whom, Marx contended, are the ‘new forces and passions’ yearning for the reconstruction of a world yet to be born.
In these concealed elements – hidden beneath the surface of capitalist life – Marx saw the seeds of liberation, ready to blossom once nurtured by the consciousness and action of those who dare to dream beyond the confines of exploitation and oppression. Only by unearthing these forces, by fostering the ‘passions’ for a new mode of existence, can society be transformed into something wholly new, a society free of the chains that capitalism has wrapped around human potential.
It’s easy to understand why so many are struggling to find their footing in today’s world. The instinct to rage against capitalist social relations is natural, yet supporting Trump, as if enduring the chaos of the MAGA era might lead to something better, is a dangerous delusion. A true alternative lies not in Social-Democratic or neo-Stalinist redistribution schemes but in transcending them altogether. As Peter Hudis argues, today’s movements lack a bold, holistic vision beyond capitalism – one that reclaims humanity and labour from systems of exploitation, whether statist or market-driven.
In this age of tumult and disquiet, it is as if countless souls are ensnared in the mire of existential uncertainty. The instinct to rail against the very edifice of capitalist social relations – like a tempestuous wind howling against an immovable mountain – is profoundly natural. Yet, to seek refuge in the chaotic embrace of Trump, as though weathering the storm of the MAGA era might yield some salvific promise, is but a perilous mirage. This pursuit, fraught with delusion, is akin to grasping at shadows in the hope that they will coalesce into a beacon of light.
The true sanctuary lies not in the quixotic schemes of Social-Democracy or the draconian promises of neo-Stalinist (state capitalist) redistribution – mere attempts to apportion the spoils of exploitation more ‘equitably.’ Rather, it is found in the audacious transcendence of these very schemes. As Peter Hudis cogently argues [Hudis, Peter. 2012. Marx’s concept of the alternative to capitalism. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-22197-0], the crux of today’s strife is not merely a quest for reform or redistribution. It is the glaring absence of a grand, unifying vision – one that seeks to reclaim the essence of humanity and labour from the throes of exploitation.
This noble endeavour may appear as a Herculean task, distant and sublime, casting shadows of doubt upon its worth. Yet, it is precisely within the seeming impossibility of this quest that its profound necessity becomes illuminated. For Hudis, and, rightly so, the heart of the contemporary struggle is not merely about redistributing the spoils or enacting superficial reforms. It is about the urgent need for a holistic vision that transcends the constraints of capitalism in all its guises – be it the stifling grip of statist control or the unchecked frenzy of the so-called ‘free market.’ Both paths, though cloaked in differing vestments, lead inexorably to the same fundamental oppression, the same alienation of the human spirit from the fruits of its labour and the essence of its being.
Let us press forward, like a cutter cleaving through a frozen sea, forging a path where transformation lies ahead. Our schools and universities, once rigid institutions of hierarchy and control, must be reshaped into vibrant cooperatives – living laboratories of shared governance and collective learning. Winn and Neary champion this noble cause, envisioning a future where education is not merely the transmission of knowledge but the creation of a communal space where all partake in the pursuit of wisdom and the flourishing of humanity. Research-engaged teaching reimagines the very foundation of education, structuring the curriculum around the dynamic forces of inquiry and problem-solving rather than adhering to the passive transfer of knowledge from lecturer to student. This approach breathes life into the democratic essence of the student as producer, a model that champions collaboration and cooperative learning as the bedrock of a democratic university.
Research-engaged teaching, in its most audacious reimagining, seeks to dismantle the ossified pillars of traditional education, replacing the staid transmission of knowledge from lecturer to student with a vibrant choreography of inquiry and problem-solving. Like the delicate workings of a grand celestial clock, this pedagogy sets into motion the dynamic gears of intellect and creativity, imbuing the curriculum with the living pulse of discovery. According to Neary and Winn, it revives the democratic spirit of student as producer, a model that extols the virtues of collaboration and cooperative Endeavour, casting these as the cornerstone upon which a truly democratic university might stand. This vision rises defiantly against the stifling grip of neoliberalism, whose iron hold, argue Neary and Winn, now threatens to suffocate higher education in England.
At its heart, according to Winn and Neary, the concept of student as producer draws its lineage from the revolutionary musings of Walter Benjamin, whose 1934 essay, ‘The Author as Producer,’ serves as a clarion call to radical intellectuals in moments of crisis. Benjamin posed the urgent question: how should the enlightened minds of an era act when the world teeters on the brink of collapse? The echoes of his inquiry reverberate through the halls of our present moment, as student as producer wrestles with the same haunting dilemma – how, in the face of global emergencies and the rise of fascistic currents, must the intellectuals of our time respond?
Guided by the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin envisioned a politics of emancipation so radical that it would transform the passive witnesses of history into its active architects. In this Brechtian metamorphosis, the audience would ascend the stage as actors, the reader would seize the pen as author and, most profoundly, the student would emerge as the teacher. The challenge is to prevent the revolutionary potential of this model from becoming constrained by the very forces it sought to overthrow. I see the role of Freirean critical pedagogy as a powerful complement to this model, in strengthening its epistemological and ontological foundations.
To focus on developing an alternative to capitalism, no matter how elusive it may seem, is to refuse the shallow compromises that, sadly, have become the hallmark of contemporary politics. It is to acknowledge that any movement seeking real liberation must offer more than an equitable division of the spoils of exploitation – it must provide a vision of a society where exploitation itself is rendered obsolete. This is no small task, but it is the only task worth pursuing if we are to escape the cyclical trap of capitalist reform and counter-revolution. Without such a vision, we are left to tread water in a sea of disillusionment, where the promise of change is forever deferred.
