Re: <nettime> A question in earnest (Max Herman)

Hi max

"Why is there nothing appearing here about the US election?"

In my case, mostly sheer depression, manifesting as lassitude.

>From outside, Trump's kleptocrats have not only looted the state they captured and set the terms for civil war, but done possibly irreparable damage to the planet. The selection of the opponent least likely to offend leads inevitably to one without vision. The hegemony is passing westward across the Pacific. Trump's illusion of restoring 'greatness' (imperial power, white privilege) is only marginally less out of step with history than Boris Johnson's farcical promise to restore the Empire as it was c. 1946, before the founding of the UN and the new international regime - that is now mutating once again. The only interest has been to see what new insanity Trump can come up with or be revealed to be hiding, and the joke is wearing thin. Everyone hopes Trump loses, heavily, but few people are inspired by the Democrat alternative. No-one outside the States wants American cuisine, cars, sports or gun culture. A new polity based on what the US is good at - music, movies, education and gizmos - combined with a return to isolationism that would leave the rest of us in peace is the best we can hope for. It may not be so long till the Mexican government does complete the wall - to keep the yanquis out (the problem was never people coming in; it was always money gushing out). Watching the election, from outside, is like watching a script conference for the ninety-ninth sequel to Dumb and Dumber, where all the writers are on codeine. What's really shocking is that a substantial number of US citizens appear ready to vote for this brazenly corrupt sock puppet

I understand trumpistas want to vote for sexism, racism and a return to colonialism; I understand that the American idea of 'freedom' bears no relation to anyone else's idea of collective responsibilities. American exceptionalism, from its weird spelling to its archaic units of measurement, was always funny. Now it is absurd in the Beckett and Ionesco sense: an assertion of identity where there is only conformism, and of nation at the moment of its disintegration. The election is a horrible farce at the brink of the abyss, or somewhere more banal, like the vortex of dirty water draining out of a bathtub. Washington is eating itself alive, and its voters are pouring on the barbecue sauce. The tea-party anarcho-capitalists said they would drain the swamp but omitted to mention they would drain it into the pockets of their billionaire donors at home and - increasingly - abroad.

The 2016 election was a tragedy. This one is a farce. Probably Ishtar: a hugely expensive production that no-one wants to watch

best of luck finding a way out!

sean

Sean Cubitt

Melbourne/Australia

[email protected]

New Book: Anecdotal Evidence

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anecdotal-evidence-9780190065720?lang=en&cc=au#

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   1. A question in earnest (Max Herman)

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Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2020 16:47:57 +0000
From: Max Herman <[email protected]>
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Subject: <nettime> A question in earnest
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Why is there nothing appearing here about the US election?

I sound like a jerk to myself typing this but the silence is unexpected.

Are we all too afraid to say anything, or all just busy with other platforms?

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