Kabuki Demon Masks

In ‘praise’ of dictators, masked face killers, and evil shaman

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“Hitler was fond of making people wait. Amped up Nazis drowned their impatience in beer. Finally, at seven o’clock, the doors opened and senior party leaders in brown shirts poured into the lobby. The whole rigmarole reminded ‘Berlin Diplomats’ columnist Bella Fromm of a country fair, the Brownshirts wearing badges and insignia strutted around like peacocks. Fromm thought it was lucky they didn’t realize how absurd they appeared.

“And then the man himself made his appearance. She noted the grave belligerent expression on his face, watched arms shoot aloft, heard the men roaring ‘Heil’. A single word crossed Bella Fromm’s mind: ‘Manitu’.”—The Gravediggers: The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic

Political columnist Bella Fromm saw the ‘evil shaman’ under the ‘kabuki mask,’ and as I wrote yesterday in White Heat, she knew in 1932 “the idea that the Nazis could be neutered by integrating them into government extremely dangerous.”

She also knew that ‘Kaiser Adolf’ — as she nicknamed him — meant “nothing that bodes well for decent people.”

While her contemporaries dismissed him as a blustery showman, she read the danger on his face.

Last night, I saw the Mussolini mask on Trump’s face. It was an image seared into memory by Strongmen historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who wrote in a Lucid column about a ‘death mask’ of Mussolini that hung in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome in 1934. The image hovered like an ominous threat in the center of Rome - a Kabuki demon mask that cast an evil fascist eye on the people that murmured ‘vote for Mussolini or else.’ She wrote that the terrifying message was received.

“Italians would see this nightmarish apparition while they waited for the bus or went to the market. The .15% opposition means that the message of ‘vote YES or else’ had been received.”—Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid

While the media is back to horse-race coverage, I believe giving a public enemy a debate stage shows the US still doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

These are not two equals on that stage. Treating this as normal will not defeat a dictator.

While praising dictators and wearing the mask of an evil clown, Trump continues to be a grave threat.

Today, I see Democrats celebrating a great victory. Our brilliant candidate had a strong night, culminating in the endorsement by Taylor Swift.

But this isn’t politics anymore.

This isn’t normal.

It stopped being normal when Trump came down the escalator in fascist style.

The strongmen know what they are doing — they try to destroy our empathy.

Using Viktor Orban as a reference, nuclear blackmailing for Putin, and screaming great replacement live on stage, that is not politics. That is fascism. That is the threat of the destruction of democracy.

The media has a duty to no longer play coy about the imminent threat our globe faces. We, as journalists, must acknowledge our enemies, and the weapons they are using that cause us to tear ourselves apart, allow cries of civil war, and the ongoing mind warping dragging people into alternate realities.

The only stage that man should have is a public sidewalk, wearing handcuffs, going into a courthouse.

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Related:

WHITE HEAT: The Rise and Fall of Public Enemies

‘Nuclear Psychosis’ — Russian Style

The DePutinization of America Is Beginning

Unlocking ‘American Monster’ — Donald Trump

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