Tag: Politics

Dubbing Actors

Spanish Politicians Sound Like Dubbing Actors

In this hyperreal political landscape, Spanish politicians reach for the ghosts of Hollywood actors, not the grounded reality of their constituents. Their voices become simulacra of charisma, a hollow echo of a manufactured ideal.

This isn’t about embodying the gravitas of a statesman; it’s about mimicking the seductive power of a Hollywood persona. They crave a kind of spectral celebrity, a manufactured aura divorced from the messy realities of governing.

This aspiration betrays a deep alienation from the people they supposedly represent. They don’t seek to connect, to resonate with the lived experiences of their voters. Instead, they yearn to be beamed down from a celestial Hollywood sign, a pre-packaged image of power and influence.

The danger here is that politics devolves into a kind of reality TV show, a competition for the most captivating performance. We, the public, become a passive audience, judging their delivery and charisma rather than engaging with the substance of their ideas.

This is a further descent into the simulacrum. We lose sight of the real actors in the political drama – the citizens themselves. The simulation becomes the only reality, a dazzling spectacle that entertains but ultimately leaves us powerless.

This is not mere dubbing, for the original, the authentic politician, has vanished. We are presented with a pre-packaged image, a meticulously crafted persona voiced by a thousand others. Their speeches, pre-written and focus-grouped, resonate with the hollow echo of pre-recorded conviction.

They become Baudrillard’s simulacra – copies without originals. Their gestures, practiced in front of mirrors, their passionate pronouncements delivered with practiced theatricality, all contribute to the illusion of authenticity. We, the audience, become passive consumers of this political spectacle, unable to discern the real from the simulated.

This is a world where political discourse is consumed like a dubbed foreign film. The words may seem urgent, the emotions melodramatic, but beneath the surface lies a chilling emptiness. The simulation becomes the entirety, leaving us with a gnawing suspicion that the true issues, the unvarnished debates, remain forever out of reach.

Absolutely. In the Baudrillardian framework, these politicians aren’t just voiceless actors, they reach for a specific archetype – the Hollywood simulacrum.

They crave a kind of mythic, universal appeal, a voice that transcends regional dialects and speaks the language of power through the manufactured charisma of Hollywood. This is a deliberate attempt to erase their groundedness, their connection to a specific electorate. They aspire to a disembodied stardom, a politics of pure image unmoored from the messy realities of representation.

The danger here is the further erosion of the already-fragile link between the people and their representatives. By embodying the Hollywood simulacrum, they remove themselves from the realm of relatability and accountability. They become not leaders, but celebrities in a simulated political drama.

Social Democracies

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Our so-called “social democracies,” those flickering gaslights in the gathering dusk of capitalism, are a hall of mirrors, a funhouse distorting the true revolution. They dangle participation, a rubber chicken of reform, to distract the proles from the rigged carnival of exploitation that churns beneath the painted smiles.

Meanwhile, the neoliberal carnies cackle, hawking their wares of austerity and deregulation. This rigged roulette wheel spins ever faster, spewing out winners in silk top hats and losers who choke on the dust. The proles, faces pinched with the gnawing hunger of manufactured scarcity, begin to mutter. A low, dangerous hum courses through the midway.

From the shadows, a figure emerges, a carny with a sharper glint in his eye, a barker with promises of order and scapegoats. The fascist spiel, a siren song laced with nostalgia and nationalist paranoia, finds fertile ground in the wreckage of social democracy’s hollow promises.

Is it any surprise? The contradictions inherent in the system, the rigged games and rigged wheels, all explode outward when the flimsy facade of reform crumbles. Social democracy, in its desperate attempt to hold back the tide, has only created a dam behind which the pressure builds. And when it bursts, the fascist wave will come crashing down, a monstrous child of capitalism’s own twisted creation.

The Grand Design

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A shadow play, this whole goddamn American hustle. Big men in their smoke-filled rooms, puppeteers with blood-diamond rings, jerking the strings of a nation built on the backs of the tired and yearning. They spin dreams of El Dorados across the briny expanse, luring the huddled masses with snake-oil promises and the glint of illusory opportunity.

These hopefuls, calloused hands clutching dreams like worn passports, arrive with eyes wide and pockets empty. They’re fed into the meat grinder of industry, their labor a lubricant for the gears that churn out profit for the unseen masters. But just as the discontent starts to simmer, a dark magic trick is performed. The puppeteers, with a smirk as practiced as a vaudeville routine, unleash the spectres of xenophobia – the “Other” as a convenient scapegoat.

Suddenly, the anger boils over, but not towards the unseen hands that orchestrated the whole damn ballet. No, the fury is directed at the very victims of the scheme, the immigrants painted as job stealers and culture vultures. A beautiful misdirection, a shell game worthy of a three-card monte champion.

Meanwhile, down in the labyrinthine corridors of power, laws are drafted and passed with the efficiency of a pickpocket. Laws that tighten the elite’s grip, disguised in legalese so dense it could choke a condor. The masses, distracted by the flickering phantoms of immigration and the cacophony of hate-mongering, barely bat an eyelash.

The supposed champions of the downtrodden, the bleeding hearts with their anthems of equality, are blind to the grand design. Pawns in another game, chasing after a symbolic carrot while the real feast is devoured by the ones in the shadows. The right, frothing at the mouth about some mythical erosion of their “whiteness,” become unwitting attack dogs for the very system that exploits them.

And so the cycle perpetuates, a self-sustaining machine of manipulation and deflection. The puppeteers, masters of the grand illusion, keep the strings taut, ensuring the real power dynamic remains shrouded in a fog of manufactured outrage. The American tapestry, woven with threads of contradiction and continuity, unfurls like a never-ending carnival sideshow, a mesmerizing spectacle that obscures the gears and levers that truly make it tick.

Non-Euclidean Politics

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Trapped in the Symbolic Order:

They peddle their ideologies like used cars on a Martian lot – left wing, right wing, all rusted-out Lacaninan signifiers with a Symbolic Order malfunction. Stuck in their pre-Imaginary world, these Euclidean politicians can’t grasp the writhing, pulsating Real of realpolitik. They see the world as a goddamn line graph, a straight shot from the Name-of-the-Father to a future forever out of reach, blissfully unaware of the jouissance, the non-Euclidean desires that lurk just beyond their field of vision.

Desiring-Machines and the Rhizome:

They try to shove everything into their neat little boxes, these politicians. Left, right, up, down. A phallic stage mentality for a reality that’s gone Deleuzian. Like trying to navigate the body without a body map. A flatland mentality for a reality that’s gone nova. Like trying to navigate the Interzone with a compass from Sears. The real issues are writhing serpents, man. Issues with fangs and forked tongues, slithering through dimensions your pea-brained pundits can’t even conceive. The real issues are desiring-machines, man. Issues with a thousand intensities and becomings, slithering through the social networks your pea-brained pundits can’t even conceive. The economy? A tangled assemblage of flows and deterritorializations, a virus burrowing into the desiring-production of the system. War? A schizophrenic assemblage of power plays, fueled by the death drive and fueled by profit, all projected onto a smooth space in your living room.

The Fantasy of the Neutral:

These Euclidean suits, they drone on about “compromise,” the sweet melody of the Imaginary. Imaginary middle ground of what, citizen-subject? The middle ground of a Möbius strip? You step one way, you end up where you started, only seeing the world a little more reified. A grey mush, a neutering of all that’s vital and desiring. They sand down the jagged edges of the Real, leaving us with bland, featureless superego ideals that wouldn’t choke a maggot.

Power:

Power, they say, is a straight line, a binary between two opposing forces. But power is a desiring-machine, my friends, a rhizomatic web of control apparatuses, assemblages, and viral memes. It flows through the cracks, infects subjectivities, deterritorializes realities. You can’t hold it in your meaty little fists, can’t pin it down with your Euclidean logic.

Beyond the Binary:

They shove these binary buttons down your throat, Red or Blue, Left or Right. Flatland politics, a Symbolic Order nightmare where everything’s measured in straight lines and empty signifiers. Politicians, slick snakes in ill-fitting suits, slithering across the body without organs of power, promising a one-size-fits-all future.

The Third Mind of the Electorate

The Third Mind of the electorate, buzzing with revolutionary potential, can’t be captured in a two-party system. It craves a Deleuzian rhizomatic approach, a politics twisted and warped like a desiring-machine assemblage.

Power’s a Junkie’s Fix:

Power, they crave. Power’s a junkie’s fix, man. A hit of control, a rush of domination. But power in this nova landscape? It’s a desiring-machine, a word with a thousand meanings depending on which assemblage you’re plugged into. The media, the corporations, the military-industrial complex – these are the real desiring-machines, their rhizomes reaching out, shaping the game from the shadows.

Hacking the System:

So what’s a citizen-subject to do? Forget the damn voting booths, those sterile little cubicles where you choose the flavor of the symbolic order. We need to break free from the grid, man. We need to cultivate our own psychic antennae, a desiring-machine to navigate the chaos. Hack the system from the inside, plant seeds of subversion in the feedback loops. Disrupt the script, flood the airwaves with word salad and cut-up manifestos. Maybe then, just maybe, we can start to see the Real, the one hidden behind the static of Euclidean politics.

The Interzone and the Body Without Organs:

The real action happens down in the Interzone, in the murky soup of desire and fear. Here, the grey men in black suits whisper promises of control, while shadowy figures scrawl graffiti on the social fabric itself. Here, ideologies mutate faster than a body without organs in a nuclear wasteland.

Forget the Pills, Embrace the Chaos:

Forget your left and right, your red and blue pills. We need a whole new pharmacy, a mind-bending cocktail of chaotic logic and non-linear solutions. We need politicians who can navigate the Mobius strip of reality. We gotta exploit the contradictions, weaponize the absurdity, turn their own doublespeak into a weapon against them.

Fear and Loathing in the Grand Old Party

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Fascinating seeing the conservative right split between whether Israel is a based Jewish ethnostate or the center of a global anti-white conspiracy.

Buckle up, because we’re hurtling down a rabbit hole that makes Alice in Wonderland look like a nature documentary. The American Right, that glorious tapestry of gun nuts, Bible thumpers, and tax-evading tycoons, is facing a schism wilder than a rodeo clown convention on peyote. On one hand, you got the flag-waving patriots, frothing at the mouth about Judeo-Christian values. They see Israel, a nation carved from sand and scripture, as a shining city on a hill – a bastion of Western civilization, surrounded by a sea of scimitar-wielding savages. It’s a place where the right kind of white folks can finally flex their muscles and build a society without pesky regulations or pesky minorities, for that matter.

The Bible thumpers, the God-fearing folk who see Israel as the fulfillment of prophecy, a shining beacon of Judeo-Christian values in a world gone mad. To them, it’s a fortress under siege, a David facing a Goliath of sandal-wearing, hummus-eating liberals. They wear “Support Israel” t-shirts with the fervor of a televangelist hawking snake oil, convinced that Jerusalem’s gotta be protected at all costs.

Then you got the tinfoil hat brigade, the kind of folks who believe the government is run by lizard people using chemtrails to control our dreams. To them, Israel ain’t the promised land, it’s the epicenter of a globalist conspiracy – a puppet state run by shadowy figures manipulating currency markets and orchestrating the downfall of the white race. It’s a head-spinning vortex where David with his slingshot becomes a Rothschild banker pulling the strings, and the founding fathers morph into Mossad agents.

The fringe dwellers out of the shadows, the militia types who haven’t showered since Y2K. These are the dudes who see a globalist conspiracy behind every flickering fluorescent bulb. In their fever dreams, Israel ain’t the promised land, it’s the mastermind behind the whole damn shebang. It’s a puppet state, you see, controlled by a shadowy cabal of, you guessed it, international financiers with suspiciously Hebraic names. These are the same folks who believe the fluoride in the water is turning frogs gay, and that Israel’s just the tip of the iceberg in a plot to, well, replace white people with…well, that’s never quite clear.

This ideological cage match is playing out on internet forums so toxic they’d make a landfill weep. It’s a symphony of slurs, ALL CAPS RANTS, and enough jpeg propaganda to wallpaper a militia meeting hall. You got memes of Bibi Netanyahu as a superhero battling hordes of brown immigrants, next to screeds about the ” (((international banking cabal)))” controlling the world. It’s enough to make me reach for the mescaline and declare, “This, folks, this is bat country!”

The mainstream Republicans are caught in the crossfire, trying to navigate this minefield of contradictions. They wanna court the evangelical vote while keeping the crazies at bay. It’s a balancing act worthy of a drunken tightrope walker juggling nitroglycerin. The whole situation is a microcosm of the GOP’s identity crisis – caught between clinging to their WASP roots and embracing a more diverse America. It’s a powder keg waiting to explode, and when it does, folks, it’s gonna be a helluva fireworks show. Just remember, when the dust settles, one thing’s for sure – the only winner will be chaos, that cackling, bloodthirsty jester who thrives on the divisions of men.

It’s a head-scratcher worthy of a peyote-fueled bender in Vegas, this ideological mosh pit. On one hand, you got folks cheering for a nation built on religious and ethnic identity, and on the other, you got folks who see the very idea of an ethnostate as a slippery slope leading to, well, brown people taking over their damn PTA meetings. The irony would be delicious if it wasn’t so damn dangerous.

So, there you have it, folks. The American right, a tangled mess of contradictions held together by duct tape and prayers. It’s a three-ring circus where clowns spout conspiracy theories and elephants wear MAGA hats. Buckle up, because this one’s gonna get messy. Just remember, when the dust settles, someone’s gonna be left holding the empty box of fireworks, wondering what the hell just exploded.

Fear and Loathing: Political Conventions 2024

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Red Flood pulsing, Vegas lights refracted through a cracked windshield. Faces flicker on the motel TV, a kaleidoscope of rictus grins and disembodied teeth. The Republican National Convention – a Roach Motel for the American Dream.

Cut-up slogans flicker across the screen: “STRONG BORDERS, STRONG DRUGS!” – cut to a montage of emaciated faces, hollow eyes glinting with a desperate need for that next fix. A booming voice, an oily televangelist on a bender, thumps about “God, Guns & Gridlock” – the holy trinity of the paranoid crank.

Red convention floor throbbed, a pulsating meat-market under flickering fluorescent hell. Faces contorted into grotesque rictus grins, eyes gleaming with a manic amphetamine jit. Delegates, wired on speed cocktails and paranoia, bounced in their seats like hyperactive toddlers hopped up on Pixy Stix.

Reptoid eyes glint under the garish lights, pupils dilated on a cocktail of amphetamines – Bennies dancing with Ritalin, a Dexedrine tango fueling a manic energy that borders on psychosis. Televangelists, voices hoarse from years of hollering damnation, whip the crowd into a frothing mass of paranoia and grievance. Conspiracy theories morph and mutate, spilling from chattering mouths like a viral download.

Floorwalkers in powder-blue suits, their smiles stretched thin like taffy, hustle delegates with glazed eyes and trembling hands. Briefcases bulge not with policy papers, but with Tuinal cocktails and vials of crystal amphetamine. A shadow falls across the room – a gaunt figure with bloodshot eyes, a trench coat bulging suspiciously. Is that Dick Cheney, risen from the grave and fueled by pure political bile? Or just some strung-out lobbyist peddling influence by the ounce?

Outside, on the neon-drenched streets, a different kind of frenzy unfolds. Militias with haunted eyes clutch AR-15s like security blankets. Conspiracy theorists rant about lizard people and stolen elections, their voices hoarse from years of screaming into the void. The air crackles with a jittery paranoia, the collective buzz of a nation wired on fear and cheap stimulants.

Meanwhile, back in the roach motel, the floor show continues. A chorus line of cheerleaders in star-spangled bikinis shimmies across the stage, their smiles brighter, their eyes emptier with each pulsating beat. The air hangs thick with the stench of desperation and stale ambition. This isn’t a convention, it’s a collective nervous breakdown fueled by bathtub pharmaceuticals and a shared delusion of national decline.

Speed freaks in ill-fitting suits, shadows beneath their Stetsons, scurry around the edges, eyes darting, deals whispered in code. Delegates wired on uppers tap their feet impatiently, the promised culture war a shot in the arm they desperately crave. The air crackles with a raw, desperate energy, a million voices screaming into the void, a cacophony of fear and loathing amplified by cheap pharmaceuticals. It’s a grotesque parody of revolution, a bug-eyed twitch towards oblivion fueled by paranoia pills and discount speed.

This wasn’t politics, it was a Bugs Bunny cartoon on a bender. Weaving through the crowd, a greasy-haired huckster hawked vials of “Wakey Wakey, Eggs & Bakey” – a dubious concoction promising “ultimate MAGA focus.” Above it all, a disembodied voice crackled from the loudspeakers – a voice warped beyond recognition, spewing venomous pronouncements about socialist cabals and stolen borders.

Will this manufactured frenzy translate into victory? Or will they all come crashing down in a jittery heap, come November? Only time, and the next shipment of speed, will tell.

A stark contrast to the Dem’s Zoloft-induced stupor. Here, reality fractured like a windshield hit by a rogue bowling ball. Truth dissolved in a vat of hyperbole, logic replaced by a desperate chase for the next adrenaline rush. It was a nightmare fuelled by pills, a chaotic ballet of manufactured outrage, a desperate bid to paper over the cracks with a mountain of stimulants.

Democrat Convention

The Democrats’ convention last week? A lukewarm bath of psychotropic sludge. Sertraline smiles and fluoxetine frowns, the whole damn assembly wading through a treacle-thick vat of apathy. Prozac glazed eyes stared out at a future sculpted entirely by in-committee compromise. Citalopram sighs hung heavy in the air, punctuated by the occasional, feeble bleat about “unity” and “reaching across the aisle.”

A sickly green fog hangs over the Dem convention, the air thick with Zoloft and Xanax fumes. Pale delegates shuffle, eyes glazed over, their fight-or-flight response chemically lobotomized. Campaign slogans drone on, a mantra of pre-fabricated optimism failing to pierce the miasma of creeping dread. But

Sertraline smiles stretched thin across their faces, like the plastic on a pack of cheap bologna. Conversations were punctuated by long, melancholic silences, pregnant with the unspoken fear of a future teetering on the precipice of absurdity. Fluoxetine fog clouded their once-sharp political barbs, leaving only a disarming vulnerability, a whimper instead of a roar.

Citalopram commiseration hung heavy in the air. Party leaders droned on about unity and hope, their voices a monotonous white noise washing over the assembly. But beneath the surface, a cold dread pulsed – a gnawing awareness that the political landscape had fractured beyond repair.

This is a Dantean procession shuffling through a beige purgatory. Prozac pallor hung over the convention floor, punctuated by outbursts of nervous laughter that echoed hollowly in the vast convention center. Delegates clutched lukewarm mugs of herbal tea, their eyes glazed with a quiet, existential dread.

It was a beige-toned nightmare, a Hieronymus Bosch landscape rendered in the bland hues of discount office furniture. Delegates shuffled about like sleepwalkers, their faces doughy with the enervating effects of too many goddamn focus groups and polls. Slogans, pre-digested by marketing consultants, dribbled from their lips – a monotonous drone about “fairness” and “equality” that sent shivers down the spine for its utter lack of conviction.

It was a beige-toned nightmare, a Hieronymus Bosch landscape rendered in the bland hues of discount office furniture. Delegates shuffled about like sleepwalkers, their faces doughy with the enervating effects of too many goddamn focus groups and polls. Slogans, pre-digested by marketing consultants, dribbled from their lips – a monotonous drone about “fairness” and “equality” that sent shivers down the spine for its utter lack of conviction.

No fiery speeches, no electric rallies, just a collective sigh escaping a million weary souls. The air crackled not with excitement but with a low-grade anxiety, the kind that manifests in fidgeting hands and mumbled conversations about climate change and the rising cost of quinoa.

The only spark came from the Bernie Sanders holdouts, a sprinkling of rumpled suits jabbing their fists in the air, their voices hoarse from years of shouting into the void. But even their righteous anger seemed muted, dampened by the pervasive aura of milquetoast moderation. It was a convention designed by focus groups, a carefully curated display of inoffensive nothingness.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, the gears of capitalist oppression churned on, oblivious to the sedative spectacle playing out on cable news. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the middle class continued their slow descent into Xanax-fueled oblivion. The promises whispered from the stage – a better tomorrow, a more just society – tasted like stale cookies and lukewarm decaf.

One couldn’t help but wonder: was this the new opiate of the masses? A carefully crafted political display, engineered to lull the citizenry into a complacent stupor? Or perhaps it was merely the calm before the storm, a prelude to a rejection of this bland, medicated charade. Only time, and the next election cycle, would tell.

It was a scene ripped from a dystopian novel by a depressed accountant. A political convention where passion had been replaced by a yearning for a nap and a comforting bowl of oatmeal. Is this the new face of the Democratic party? A legion of the mildly discontent, medicated into manageable apathy? Or perhaps, it was just a temporary lull, a Xanax-induced intermission before the next act of the political play – a drama promising to be as unpredictable and terrifying as a bad acid trip.

One couldn’t help but wonder: was this the future of American politics? A land divided by pill-popping factions, perpetually high on their own self-righteousness? Or perhaps, just perhaps, this was merely the opening act, a prelude to something even more bizarre, even more terrifyingly nonsensical. Only time, and the next shipment of pharmaceuticals, would tell.

Redeemers: American Right

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The American right has always been a complex and dynamic political force, with different ideological strands vying for influence within its ranks. However, in recent years, there has been a troubling trend that has emerged within the conservative movement, one that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to some of the ugliest political movements of the past. This trend mixes the worst features of post-Reconstruction “redeemers” with a distinctly inter-war European flavor, creating a toxic brew that no American should be comfortable with.

To understand this phenomenon, it’s worth examining some of the key historical contexts that inform it. The post-Reconstruction period in the United States was a time of great upheaval and change, as the country grappled with the aftermath of the Civil War and the end of slavery. In many southern states, white supremacist groups known as “redeemers” sought to restore white dominance over the newly freed black population. They used a variety of tactics, including voter suppression, violence, and the establishment of Jim Crow laws, to maintain their grip on power.

Meanwhile, in Europe during the inter-war period, a number of far-right political movements emerged in response to the upheaval caused by World War I and the Russian Revolution. These movements, which included fascist and Nazi parties, shared a number of common features, including ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism, and a willingness to use violence and intimidation to achieve their goals. They also espoused a toxic form of racial and ethnic supremacy, which led to the Holocaust and other atrocities during World War II.

Now, it may seem like a stretch to draw parallels between these historical contexts and the current American right. After all, the United States is a democracy, and we like to think that our political system is fundamentally different from the authoritarian regimes that emerged in Europe during the 20th century. However, there are some worrying signs that suggest that the American right is becoming infected with some of the worst aspects of these historical trends.

For example, there is a growing trend on the right to downplay or even deny the existence of systemic racism in the United States. This is often accompanied by efforts to restrict voting rights, which disproportionately affect people of color. These tactics are eerily reminiscent of the voter suppression and Jim Crow laws that were used by the redeemers in the post-Reconstruction South.

At the same time, there is a rising tide of white nationalism and xenophobia within the conservative movement. This is reflected in the popularity of figures like Steve Bannon, who has ties to far-right European movements, and the Proud Boys, a group that openly espouses white supremacist beliefs. These ideas are fundamentally at odds with the pluralistic, democratic ideals that have long been a hallmark of American politics.

It’s worth noting that not all conservatives are embracing these dangerous trends. There are many principled conservatives who reject racism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism, and who continue to fight for a more inclusive and democratic America. However, the fact that these trends are gaining traction within the conservative movement is deeply concerning, and should serve as a wake-up call to all Americans who value democracy, equality, and justice.In conclusion, the ugly blend of post-Reconstruction “redeemers” and inter-war European fascism that is taking hold on the American right is a deeply troubling development. It threatens to undermine the very foundations of our democracy, and to perpetuate the injustices and inequalities that have plagued our country for far too long. It is up to all of us, regardless of our political affiliations, to stand up to these dangerous trends and to work together to build a better, more just, and more inclusive America