There is a cliche in self-help circles known as “fake it until you make it.” No one exemplifies the power of this slogan more than our president elect. He took a fake name, bragged about his fake business skill, parlayed it into a third rate fake TV show, and then rode a wave of fake promises and fake news all the way to the White House.
Trumpzilla might be the product of our age, but it appears that ‘Merica isn’t really sure what to do with him now that he’s coming into power. His supporters, his staff and “his” party are all struggling to deal with him and according to The Nation, the press is too fixated on the fake to report on the real.
:Then there’s the Twitter feed. Filled with falsehoods and threats, it has become a crack-like addiction for reporters, successfully diverting attention from reporting about Trump’s corruption, incompetence, ignorance, dishonesty, misogyny, prejudice, and authoritarian tendencies, to name just a few of the new president’s charms. Favoring spectacle over substance, journalists fall for this gambit every time—like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football."
Eric Alterman: The Nation, The American Press Is Under Threat as Never Before
In 2004, Stanley Bing wrote a book called “What Would Machiavelli Do?” with a specific chapter on bullshit. One of his main examples of successful bullshit was Trumpzilla, even back then. Bing wrote “...in the art of bullshit (and it is an art, not a science) Trump towers above all others like a Colossus.”
This might have been fine for shady real estate deals and banal reality TV, but now he’s made it. While he can’t only perform at the level of his ability (160 characters or less), we don’t have to.
Sun Tzu said, “All warfare is based on deception.” In the modern war of information, Trumpzilla’s Twitter is a weapon of mass distraction. Once we look past the smoke and smear campaigns, we can resist the Trumpocalypse and restore some semblance of our sanity.
Have fun.
G