‘MAGA Maoism‘ and America’s cultural revolution
America’s MAGA-fuelled transformation evokes China’s Cultural Revolution — Trump’s reign sees fear-driven loyalty, state reshaping, and cult-like displays of devotion, as institutions bend to one man’s will.
A merica’s ‘cultural revolution’ is well underway and it would be smart to acknowledge that.
There is Brendan Carr’s ‘Mao pin’, i.e. the golden pin of Donald Trump’s profile allegedly sported by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on his lapel. (This Wonkette blog by Doktor Zoom has more details.)
Some are calling it “MAGA Maoism”.
// CREDIT: X-TWITTER/DREW PAVLOU
Mr Trump’s collaborator, Elon Musk, is using young aides to curtail state institutions in ways that feel similar to the students who tore down China’s bureaucracy.
And then there are the other signs of a culture being created in which one man re-makes the state, and everyone is afraid to cross him or his henchmen.
In the two-and-a-half months since Mr Trump assumed the presidency, there have been anti-Trump demonstrations where US federal workers and college students refused to speak on the record for fear of retaliation.
In America, land of the free, home of the brave!
And finally, there was that on-camera cabinet meeting by the Trump administration. Supposedly an exercise in transparency and reporting directly to the American people, it was really no more than an absurd demonstration of the lengths to which Mr Trump’s team will flatter him.
It might have been something out of Pyongyang, except that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un does not, so far as I know, televise his meetings with underlings. The purpose in drawing a veil over Mr Kim’s interactions with his team may be to retain some mystery, even majesty, for the regime.
For Mr Trump, perhaps there is little need for that. He truly, deeply, madly believes in his majesty.
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