If you aren’t already, it’s time to panic.
Wildfires raging out of control, a deadly pandemic raging, and we have a raging maniac in charge.
Downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus when he knew how deadly it was, Donald Trump claimed to want to spare the country from panicking.
Please, spare me.
The spin on that is making my own head spin. Trump has never been low key about anything in his life, but he has been brashly sowing fear and chaos from the day he ran for president.
“I don’t want to create a panic,” says the guy who dog whistles caravans, Mexican rapists, MS13, and left-wing anarchist mobs burning and looting the suburbs.
Our provocateur president with his trumped-up end of world scenarios creates panic and horror with the skill of a mid-century horror film director.He has created a culture of inconceivable terror not unlike those lurid 1950s sci-fi movies with his apocalyptic scenarios. As is fitting for Trump he both stars and directs in his own doomsday movies.
In fact, for the past 4 years, it feels as if we’ve been living in one of these sci-fi terror movies and can’t escape.
It all began with the Blob.
“The Blob” was made in widescreen ( naturally ) in 1958. “A growing corrosive alien entity crashes to earth. It devours and dissolves citizens in small-town America, growing redder and more aggressive each time it does so.” No one is more corrosive than our own orange hued Blob.
“Panic in the Streets” 1950 film. “US Health service officer and police captain have only a day or two in which to prevent an epidemic of pneumonic plague” “
“The last thing you want to do is create a panic in a country,” Trump explained why he minimized the deadliness of the coronavirus. “I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create panic,” he told Bob Woodward. Truth always leads to panic on the streets, dontcha know.
Trump’s doomsday devices work especially well, crystalizing American paranoia and fear of the Other. Life in 2021 under Joe Biden- when civilization will come to an end. No hint of panic suggested here when Trump lustily describes the orgy of looting and violence as cities and suburbs descend into chaos.
Destruction is at once just around the corner and already complete.
Life has been one big panic attack under Donald Trump,