Re: <nettime> made for TV, made for social media

["Kurtz, Steven" <sjkurtz@buffalo.edu>]

6 January…Now that was an inept coup…for the most part.

A president just can’t rely on an angry mob to disrupt democratic process any more, but within that mob was something more dangerous and sinister. While we saw a lot of Trumpists having the best day of their life bathing in the pleasure of transgression, there were others hiding in that mob who knew what they were doing. They knew how to build bombs and brought them to DC. (Two were actually placed at RNC and DNC headquarters, and the Michigan and Georgia legislatures were evacuated due to a bomb threat for MI and an armed militia presence in GA.) They were prepared for capture and kill with smuggled firearms, bulletproof vests, and zip ties. I don’t even want to speculate on what would have happened had they reached any congressional representatives, but the Michigan plot to capture and kill the governor gives us a clue. These revolutionaries are not play soldiers. They understand distributed leadership and have for years. (If the cult loses its leader, can it continue? For the truly committed, yes.) They have military training, and are training others. 

How many there are is hard to know because no one knows how to separate the real soldiers from the toys, but I feel confident saying there are enough to cause a lot of trouble for a long time to come. The question for me is how did they interpret the day’s events? Trump gave them the go-code with “Fight for Trump.” Did that mean for just that day, or is the US going to have a decade of revolutionary adventurism akin to what the Left did in the 70s. The US has conveniently forgotten how much violent activity there was from radical groups in the 70s (over 2,500 bombs detonated in ’71 and ’72 and hundreds thereafter), and it looks like the US could soon be getting a reminder what that is like. Chatter about a new attack three days before inauguration day is already underway.

The other key element to come out of this day is that there is a high probability that it marks the end of Trumpist populism. The off ramp has arrived, and now two key realignments are going to accelerate. (I have no idea what the final outcome will be.) There will be a reorganizing of the racial order (not just BLM, but also an institutional one symbolized by the Georgia election). A reorganization of the political order is also about to happen. These two events will occur in the context of the economic order of inequality continuing to intensify. So what is the political calculation? What will it mean to be conservative and what will it mean to be a Republican? How will these new coalitions take form, and what new contradictions will be tolerated or rejected?

The anti-Trump Neoconservatives and Reagan conservatives are ecstatic, believing they may have a chance to recapture the Republican Party. A lot of back-slapping and congratulatory rhetoric is going around—they were on the “right side of history.” This could indicate that their unlikely alliance with the Democrats could be ending. Now that the all-out effort to rid the country of Trump and Trumpism seems to be accomplished, they can go their separate ways. The neocons can go back to warmongering and torture, and Reaganites can get on with ending the federal government and the social safety net (such as it is). These contradictions no longer have to be ignored. What they will continue to agree on is that populism (as opposed to rule by the elite) is the ultimate enemy. Yes, there could be a struggle over who will be the party of the elite.

As for populism after Trump, it will continue and try to dominate what it means to be conservative and a Republican. The new model is already being floated. The Republicans could become a big tent working-class party. Given that these voters are going to continue to be economically crushed, they will be angry, motivated, and numerous. This new party could perhaps flip the left into being the minority party. 

To do this some sacrifices will have to be made. First, the racism has to go. Some on the right see that they made progress with people of color with the populist position even with a racist candidate and agenda. If they ejected the racists and the racist agenda, how many folks could they attract? One group they would get in droves immediately is Catholic Hispanics. The racist wing won’t vote for the Democrats, and the party of “grievance for all” (now primarily economic) could grow bigger and will have a future given changing demographics. Second, they must sacrifice Wall Street (which already seems pretty willing to go) and the waxing sector of corporate power (which also appears willing to leave). Those sectors will head to the democratic side cynically waving their Black Lives Matter banners (the best marketing plan since greenwashing). A lot of anti-corporate rhetoric from the right is already starting to appear on the popular right-wing shows and podcasts. Then again the racist white grievance party under new management could hang on for another election cycle depending how much more violence is coming. 

The libertarians appear to be split. The establishment side, like the Reason Foundation, seems to be leaning left. Even their funder, Charles Koch (although the Foundation was originally David’s baby), seems to be reassessing his relation to the right. They will ignore all the economic disagreements, believing the social elements are more important for now. Whether the Dems take up this possibility remains to be seen. Given recent activities, the more radical working-class libertarians, mostly in the West and eastern Northwest are still on a “destroy all government” agenda followed by getting jiggy on the rubble. They have no governance plan. Just live free. January 6 was a good day, but would be better if they burned the Capitol down along with the rest of DC.

The Christian right is also split. The undereducated seem to want to stick with Trump as God’s instrument on earth, which is understandable because that is their only possibility for power. The establishment is unhappy all round. Even Pat Robertson and Betsy DeVos have denounced Trump. The suburban middle-class Christians wondering how to get their kids a new swing set during Covid are horrified by what happened, and are beginning to see their allegiance to Trump as misguided. They are also shaken that the promise of victory given by their prophets was wrong. Could they have been listening to false prophets, or did they just not have enough faith? The Christian right is in the wilderness again, since it is doubtful they will be accepted by any of the coalitions. Trumpism is/was their only path to power. 

I should add these realignments are also taking place under Covid—an absolute catastrophe for right-wing ideology in the US. With no belief in the public good (only individual responsibility), in the magical thinking that the market will solve any crisis, that the government can’t help and instead makes crises worse, that austerity is necessary, and that everyone must always work, they are deploying a merciless necropolitics that cannot reconcile death and economy, so residents get the worst of both. 

Christians pushed it even further in journals such as First Things (America’s most influential religious journal) that the working class knows that this life is just one part of their journey to greater glory, so they have no fear of decay or death and want to go back to work. Where I am in Florida (America’s social laboratory where the residents are the lab monkeys), everything is open, the hospitals are full, people are dying at alarming rates, and the Trumpist governor has decreed that no mask mandates may be passed anywhere in the state. Whatever right coalition emerges as dominant, it will have to contend with the virus and that may throw a few more contradictions into the mix. 

SK

________________________________________
From: nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org <nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org> on behalf of Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Sent: Friday, January 8, 2021 11:13 AM
To: a moderated mailing list for net criticism
Subject: Re: <nettime> made for TV, made for social media

Good question, Keith.

Was it a putch without a purpose of a mob without a cause? For sure they were all revved up, dazed by meme magick and shit, looking for the best selfie opportunity.

Once we enter the heart of the power, and roam around there, we do not face power as such. No need to repeat here what Foucault and many other after him have written about power. We know, but what if one has to experience this at first hand, as riot tourists?

The warriors were running through corridors, without a plan, needless to say, without their leader, as he was sitting in front of his TV set, around the corner, enjoying the images, watching the spectacle unfold, yet remaining silent at the decisive moment.

There was no command, no plan, not even a serious counterforce. At best it was a ‘disruption’ such as promoted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Geert

> On 8 Jan 2021, at 4:39 pm, Keith Sanborn <mrzero@panix.com> wrote:
>
> Put another way, was it the burning of the Reichstag or the storming of the Winter Palace? or neither?



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