The Consequences of Misidentifying Populism in the 21st Century
By: William Segerstrom
Tags: Populism, Trumpism, Bolsonaro, Politics, Democracy In America

The Consequences of Misidentifying Western Populism in the 21st Century

-William S. Segerstrom

Abstract

Being born in 1967, under the elementary tutelage of the 1970’s, whereupon we were required to know The Bill of Rights, our state capitals, a basic understanding of why the U.S. entered World War II and what precipitated our victory over fascist Germany…it would have never occurred to me that the world stage would again be populated with racist, xenophobic authoritarians. Yet, in 2019, yes, we are. The unfathomable reemergence of fascist rumblings is percolating once again in Germany, white nationalism is rising in influential mass within Poland, Hungary, Italy France, Belgium, Brazil and America. Adolf Hitler always felt like a distant boogie man. An evil allegory of biblical proportions. The epitome of human nature gone wrong, hopefully to never manifest once again. I was dead wrong and 25% of Millennials have no to clue to what Auschwitz brings to mind. I have underestimated the bestiality of politics and power. For man has given us the likes of Donald J. Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. The contemporary Presidents of The United States and Brazil respectively. How did this happen in supposed stable western democracies? How does a proven misogynist, who called African sovereign states, “shithole countries”, wind-up in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal? How does a Latin American Congressman get away with calling his fellow, female Congresswoman “whores” and “too ugly to fuck” while referring to his indigenous people as, “less than human”, “savages” while believing, “they should all be locked in cages…” yet this blatant misogynistic, racist gets elected President to the second largest democracy in the western hemisphere? How could this come to be? This examination seeks to answer the fore-mentioned questions. In doing so I will take a piercing look at the dangers of nationalism and populist tropes. The consequences of allowing hate a purpose. How we can strive to retain the vestiges of democratic foundations under authoritarian/globalist siege? How we can regain a foothold on our environmental decay and teach our kids the art of nurturing and preservation? How can we cease the haphazard journalistic/scholarly practice of interchanging nationalist and populist rhetoric so casually that it leads to scathing consequences? It is my aim to lay a foundation for rapid recognition, communicative action and responsible rhetoric in the name of humanitarian preservation. This exhaustive dissertation will relive our latest elections in The U.S. and Brazil. A historical perspective will be applied to our current conditions. Most importantly, Populism in western democracies was founded on pro-labor, liberal forces that somehow has been overtaken by corporatist, conservative upheavals. The gains the wealthy have made in the last twenty-years has produced a wealth disparity in the U.S. that rivals the early 20th Century tycoons of the Industrial Revolution. The recent U.S. tax-cut for the wealthy simply has exacerbated this financial injustice. In Bolsonaro’s Brazil, an unprecedented corruption scandal (Operation Carwash) stretched across all lines of conservative and liberal politics, led to prosecutions handed down to primarily pro-labor, anti-corporatist officials only. The right emerging relatively unscathed. This research will offer some viable, concrete methods to educate the populous in how to identify misleading rhetoric that is built to suit the best interests of the global elite. A formulation will be made as to the importance of developing such identification principles thus; democracy can do what it was propagated to do, giving the best possible representation to the republic for which it stands. Plurality rules. We have many ways to be vigilant. We have many ways to come to also understand. There are many ways to reunify the interests of all social classes. There is no room for fascist capitalism in western democracies. Liberty is not built on a bank statement. Let us discover together equity, equilibrium and Ethos built for all. Let us begin with the wisdom of Toni Morrison.

Introduction

“We move from data to information to knowledge to wisdom…And if we agree that purposeful progression exists, then you will see… that it’s easy, and it’s seductive, to assume that data is really knowledge. Or that information is, indeed, wisdom. Or that knowledge can exist without data. And how easy, and how effortlessly, one can parade and disguise itself as another. And how quickly we can forget that wisdom without knowledge, wisdom without any data, is just a hunch.” (Morrison. brainpickings.org/2019) The banking crisis led by the financial sector vis a vis 2008 is a prime American example of the consequences endured if we juggle Morrison’s format. Bolsonaro’s illogical explanation of how climate change believers stifle the Brazilian economy and should be deported is a quality example of Brazil toying with Morrison’s wisdom. We cannot be dumbfounded at the lengths those who impose power upon the masses, intentionally distort Morrison’s outline in order to discombobulate the voting public’s sense of right or wrong, truth versus falsehood or integrity versus manipulative deceit. It is not by accident that ruthless, libel, corruptive forces seemingly end up in authoritative, political positions. When leadership is not handed to a ruling body through brute force such as; Mussolini, Pinochet, Gadaffi, Lenin and countless others; the ancient art of rhetoric, solipsism and narrative construct becomes a weapon as stealth as the fighter plane. Communicative operatives/strategists within governments, lobbying organizations, mega-corporations and administrative agencies are today’s generals, despots and commanders wielding powers the likes of; Churchill, Stalin, Mc Arthur, Castro, Rumsfeld and Cheney. In many instances the tongue has replaced the sword.

In this examination, let us look at two contemporary leaders within withering western democracies; Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. Two men with many identical political aims, emotional shortcomings and psychological schisms. Men who in a rather short period of time have taken sturdy, weathered, longtime democracies and thrown them in peril. Leaders who inspire to lead-rule autocratically, through nativism and despotic force. Through the lens of Morrison’s four precepts; we will examine how such dangerous, unstable men rose to such powerful heights in our political spectrum and how the common class, educators and the concerned citizenry can protect themselves from being duped by such manipulative, corrosive campaigns. It is up to all of us to preserve our democratic principles. Perhaps, no other time in American history have we laid witness to the disturbing results that materialize from a long run of political apathy by the public. We must build our educational institutes to incorporate two vital principles within the civics curriculum. 1) The inalienable truth that a majority of our modern-day politicians are inherently deceptive and skilled at misrepresentation. 2) A foundation of social-psychological principles that nurtures the collective and penalizes the exploitation of others. The data presented here validates that the largest destruction to modern day democracies is the adept skills of political rhetors to deceive the public in order to fortify their own ideologies and wealth. This information is how we can identify and overcome such narrow, corruptive forces. The knowledge forthcoming will focus on the communicative tactics these dangerous actors are adept at implementing and how they are highly proficient had deflecting scrutiny. The latter being an underrated aspect in maintaining deviant rule. One regularly used methodology to power is to fool the masses, the best way to retain this authority is to fool one’s dissenters into believing they wield no power. One can become a beast at sucking nearly all the air out of the room anywhere ruthless authoritarianism is allowed to roam. Lastly, I will lay out the wisdom that we need to collectively cultivate to not only preserve democracy but most importantly address our environmental sustainability and humanitarian well-being.

THE DATA

Those who are masters at the art of political deception unearth statistics that align with their voter’s emotional frustrations. These aspiring opportunists target “core believes” of its citizenry conflating their political rhetoric to illicit emotional correspondences, bonds and comradery with the masses. In many instances, these exploitive candidates manipulate, alter or misrepresent the data points, the citizen’s concerns in order to coordinate a larger following that will believe in the candidate’s ulterior motives. Hierarchies are not meant to be egalitarian. It is erroneously presumptuous of us to believe politicians are in the race for “us” rather than “themselves” in 2019. Recent history does not prove otherwise.

In Donald Trump’s Presidential run of 2016, his campaign used data that many of the disenfranchised American voters held dear. 60% of American families living paycheck to paycheck possess less than $400 worth of life savings to speak of. Billion-dollar trade deficits with China has far more to do with our country’s rabid consumption then economic policies between the two countries. Thousands of jobs being lost overseas monthly. (gross exaggeration) Erroneous unemployment statistics. Costly wars that could be money better spent rebuilding our infrastructure. Racial profiling of migrants and immigrants, grossly inflating the statistics of terrorism, crime and jobs lost attributed to Muslims, Mexicans and Central Americans. The Trump campaign was quite savvy at turning America’s income inequality, white male emasculation, crumbling infrastructure, inherent colonial racism and the public’s enormous distrust of Washington D.C. into a simplified campaign of “us” vs. “them”. Somehow the American voters were duped into believing that an entitled Manhattan millionaire was anti-Plutocratic. A businessman that would look out for his people (swarms of disenchanted rural, white conservatives), “drain the swamp” of D.C. access, cut the red tape, embrace fossil fuels and deregulation by “Making America Great Again”. A campaign slogan that reeked of nativism, backwards nostalgia and authoritarian overtones. Unfortunately, it was only (primarily) metropolis living liberals who caught on to the stench.

The American mainstream media, rife with deregulated corporatist bias, became hypnotized by The Trump Circus and his uncivilized campaign rallies. Taking shelter under Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and all forms of far-right/evangelical crash worship, Trump vilified all other media sources. No one was immune to his cacophony and vitriolic assaults. Those media giants under attack had no comprehension on how to combat the endless farcical accusations of “fake news”. Once Trump became political Teflon, the man could not be stopped.

In the midst of this journalistic implosion, media executives found themselves in quite a quandary. The Trump circus was viewership gold, dynamite for ratings and a marketeering delight. However; incomprehensively, newspapers, cable news stations and the big three networks could not find a way to let the truth sing or penetrate the endless falsehoods spilling out of Trump’s mouth. In attempts to find footing in this travesty of Orwellian doublespeak, the media was losing their objectivity. A horrendously grave error that inflated The Trump mystique. Reporters and political pundits were constantly, without proper reason, describing Trump as a “populist”, “nationalist” or some conjured conjunction of both. This proved disastrous! Enabling Trump to trick the masses by anointing him with the “populist” moniker only enhanced his “true blue”, good old boy American rhetoric. By allowing him to speak like an adolescent, bubble gum, steal your milk money bully and not focusing on his entitled, corrupt, obscenely wealthy upbringing, the media gave him fodder to unify with the common folk. The history of Populism (which I will expound upon shortly) is inherently socialist-pro labor, blue collar. “Red Tie”, conservative politicians who spring the populist tropes are inherently disingenuous. America’s wisdom needs to identify this as empirically indisputable. Yes, Trump played the nativist card, built a crest of nationalism that he proudly displayed for all to herald. His incitement of hate, race baiting and white privilege gone awry was one of his greatest methods to distract everyone from his crony Capitalist, deregulated market aspirations. Donald Trump was never a populist, he was a racist Colonialist with a maniacal, covert, self-serving agenda. Fortunately, Donald and his administration have been consistently inept at passing legislative desires through Congress or through executive orders and we have somehow kept the damage to a minimum. As of today, we have nineteen months remaining to hold him at bay and find a way to kick him to the curb by November 2020.

Jair Bolsonaro, the newly elected President of Brazil, lived a life as a second rate, persona non grata, Brazilian Senator for a good part of the last twenty years. A military man, a Captain in the Army, Jair was dismayed at the fall of Brazil’s military junta in the 1980’s and has always believed in despotic rule. The Bolsonaros, Jair and his three sons (politicians themselves) have been playing behind the scenes, militant politics since the late Eighties. Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to the highest seat in Brazilian politics may have been more a stroke of luck, beneficial timing than political proficiency.

There resided three keys factors why often dismissed, far-right, barely recognized personality Bolsonaro won election. First, faltering conditions within the country. In 2018, during the heat of the election, Brazil’s economy was faltering, unemployment as high as 20% in areas of San Paulo and an oil industry engulfed in the nation’s largest corruption scandal ever. (Rio University. 2018.) China threatening to call Brazil’s bluff on debt repayments had Bolsonaro screaming on the stump that Brazil will not cower to Communists. A simpatico ideology Bolsonaro adopted from Trump, telling voters, “Brazil Before Anything and God Above All!” This became his campaign slogan. The Latin, hot-blooded, chest pounding, national, Portuguese pride became an effective tool for the presidential aspirant.

Secondly, perhaps most importantly, Brazil is still trying to feel its way out of its largest political scandal in the country’s history. Operation Car Wash (LAVA JATO), a complex web of corruption and kickbacks that involved numerous politicians, contractors, the nation’s two largest employers (Petrobras Oil and Odebrecht Construction), agricultural industries and other prominent business men- have paid billions in fines. Over 1,800 politicians were tied to the widespread graft. The right wing, wealthier, conservative actors of Brazil have mostly avoided prosecution, while many of the top pro-labor, liberal figures have not escaped accusations and penal consequences. A close friend and ally of Jair Bolsonaro, a conservative judge named Sergio Moro has led much of the sentencing associated with Operation Car Wash. Bolsonaro’s leading presidential rival, the wildly popular, leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known as LuLa), former President of Brazil (2003–2011), held a double digit lead on Bolsonaro up until Moro called for LuLa’s arrest and in a hasty trial, sentenced LuLa to nine years in prison. This with less than a year until the federal election. LuLa and his Worker’s Party attorneys pleaded for a quick appeal. The courts granted LuLa his appeal, placing his fate, suspiciously, back in the hands of Judge Sergio Moro’s allies. The Moro compadres denied LuLu his appeal while attaching other charges to the Worker’s Party candidate sentencing him to an additional year of imprisonment. The election was six months away. This crippled the left and gave a significant boost to Bolsonaro. The Worker’s Party rapidly elevated San Paulo Mayor Fernando Hadid to replace LuLa, despite Hadid’s gross unpopularity in San Paulo and surrounding states. Hadid was unable to supplant LuLa’s loss, many Leftists stayed away from the polls and Bolsonaro sailed to a rather easy victory aided by low voter turn-out. Without irony, Bolsonaro named Sergio Moro Chief Supreme Minister of Brazil (a new position founded by Bolsonaro) in his first days of taking office. Moro is now taking aim at former President Michel Temer and his predecessor junta torture survivor Dilma Rouseff, LuLa’s former Chief of Staff and former President of Brazil (2011–2016) proceeding LuLa’s run. (Fishman. Santide. 2019) I need not remind you that Brazil is supposedly a vibrant democracy. And this only seems to get more suspect…

Lastly, Bolsonaro’s third effective key to ascertaining victory came from overcoming and manipulating chaos, prior to his appointed run-off with Mayor Hadid. While campaigning in Juiz de Flora, a town 125 miles north of Rio, Jair was stabbed by a religious zealot while being paraded on the shoulders of his supporters through town during a campaign stop. An emergency surgery was performed on the candidate’s abdomen and he would eventually make a full recovery. In fact; the stabbing would turn-out to be a blessing in disguise.

According to Brazilian campaign laws, allotted television/media time during campaigns lends favor to those parties occupying the current majority. Bolsonaro early in his candidacy had difficulty gaining support from center-right political parties including his own the PSDB. This propelled Bolsonaro to strike a deal and make promises to a far-right extremist organization PSL (Socialist Liberal Party) which occupied a mere 10% of the chamber and 5% of the senate seats in the Brazilian commons. Much of the wealth and financial backing within the PSL came from a billionaire, televangelist, media mogul named Edir Macedo. Macedo owned a conservative Christian television network Record T.V. Bolsonaro and Macedo struck up a behind the scenes deal and new-found friendship. Bolsonaro went as far as denouncing his Catholic faith while becoming reborn as an Evangelical through Macedo. An accord similar to what Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch owner of Fox News share today. Macedo would televise Bolsonaro’s baptism into the Evangelical faith. (Pougy 2019)

This alliance Bolsonaro struck with Macedo would become conveniently influential upon the Brazilian election as Record T.V. cameras never left Jair’s bedside in his hospitalized recovery. In accordance with Brazilian campaign laws (Pougy. 2019), the PSL Party with its low representation within the federal and state governments were allotted very little campaign airtime on the major broadcast networks. Victor Pougy, a reporter for The Intercept Brazil, shared with me that this time equated to only about ten minutes a day. The stabbing changed this dramatically.

Record T.V. and Bolsonaro’s campaign gave Jair nearly 24/7 coverage from his hospital bed claiming this was informational health reports and updates of the candidate’s changing condition. Suddenly, Bolsonaro was broadcasting non-stop, sympathy and donations flooded-in and his popularity sky-rocketed. In playing the victim, Bolsonaro implemented a populist strategy of a common man battling for his life and trying to lead his nation. “Brazil before anything and God before all!” became one man’s rallying cry for personal and collective healing that the citizens of Brazil would rally behind.

In securing much of the rural and middle-class populations, Bolsonaro defeated Hadid in their run-off rather convincingly. Despite being a seven-time congressman well entrenched in the status quo as a longtime, low-level official, Bolsonaro won on a platform of being a political outsider, free of corruption and a soldier for nationalistic pride. He vowed to clean-up federal corruption, loosen gun laws, expand authoritarian rights of the police, enact tougher laws on gangs and juveniles, ease environmental constraints, climate deny and expand corporate agricultural and mining contracts. He appointed seven former military generals to his cabinet and a new age of military style authoritarianism took office in January of 2019. (Fishman. Santide 2019)

Information

In order for us to undertake the communicative comprehension, the rhetorical methodology that has given rise to this global rise in nativist based nationalism, we must begin with a basic interpretation in the discrepancies between populism and nationalism. As I am exposed to far more American bred media coverage owing to being American, I will say that the American media’s egregious practice of using the terms populist and nationalist interchangeably in a very lackadaisical manner has created profound consequences to our political landscape and democratic principles. Mystifyingly, the American media seems naively intent to believe that President Trump’s political persona is of a “populist” grade. Falling victim to his campaign rhetoric; “Drain the swamp…”, “The Goldman Sacs, Lehman Brothers crowd …” or “Those rotten politicians…” Trump employs populist language to shield the reality that he is an entrenched Plutocrat in a system moving dramatically into an Oligarchic-Authoritarian rule. A manifestation that could potentially have devastating effects to our country’s democratic principles. Manifestations that Donald J. Trump seems happy to promote while disguising himself as a man of the people. In actuality, Trump is incorporating a nativist, colonial, nationalism that targets the declining, highly disenfranchised-racist W.A.S.P. demographic to uphold his aims and allow him to try and implement his disingenuous political aims. History demonstrates populism was built on the backs of reluctant politicians, humble folk of genuine desires for the betterment of the working class or society as a whole. In America, many of them were blue-collar labor leaders, reformists fighting the Industrial Revolution Barons such as The Rockefellers and The Vanderbilts. They certainly were not tycoons or rarely Republicans for that matter. Giving Trump the courtesy of labeling him a populist, demonstrates a naivete of the press towards their responsibility to properly guard the American voting public against being dangerously mislead. Nevertheless, the term populism continues to be used to refer to what are in fact (ultra)nationalist, nativist, racist and sometimes even neo-Nazi political stances. (DeCleen & Stavrakakis 2017.) Simultaneously, and despite the structural importance of the connections between populism and nationalism for contemporary politics, the theoretical and empirical relation between the two has not received much systematic attention. (DeCleen & Stravrakakis. 2017.) This same clumsy editorial practice is occurring in Brazil as well. A brief glance into Brazil’s political history will demonstrate that providing Bolsonaro and his ruling constituents a populist persona is not only factually incorrect, it provides his administration the same “cover” to implement their less than friendly ideals to the country as a whole. In other terms; one cannot believe himself to be a populist while strategizing heavy-handed austerity measures upon his people. It is of utmost importance for our modern-day media to recognize such fallacies.

Populist politics began to formulate in Brazil around the 1920’s. A charismatic, young doctor named Pedro Ernesto was disenfranchised with the government’s efforts to address healthcare and infrastructural needs for the rural and impoverished citizenry of Brazil. Sufficient services were available for the wealthy, however the needy were widely neglected. Ernesto began an ambitious recruiting effort throughout many favelas in Rio De Janeiro building a coalition of local labor and neighborhood leaders. In 1930 Ernesto aligned himself with a progressive Presidential candidate Getulio Vargas. The campaign produced a record turn-out for a federal election, yet Vargas was narrowly defeated by strong resistance from the status quo. The near victory for the newly formed Autonomist Party of the Federal District produced significant seats in the federal senate and a surge in populist local victories. One of these victories was the election of Ernesto as Mayor of Rio. Ernesto saw the importance of an education for everyone, appointing Anisio Teixeira as Rio’s newly designated Director of Schools. The two leaders would construct six new hospitals, twenty-eight new schools and a newly constructed favela (neighborhood) for low income needs. Labor unions and political coalitions were legalized, woman were given the right to vote and populism exploded much to the dismay of the ruling elite.

Ernesto’s massive popularity won him easy reelection, his party forged a majority in the Federal Congress and Vargas won the Presidency in 1934. Unfortunately. Vargas would succumb to political pressures while in office. His leadership slowly turned more autocratic as he allowed wealthy opponents to drum up false Communist Treason charges against Ernesto causing him to step-out of the political limelight, go financially destitute fighting the charges before dying of cancer in 1942. His funeral was the largest public gathering in Brazil’s history, hundreds of thousands filled the streets of Rio.

Despite making concessions to the wealthy ruling class, Vargas was removed from office in 1941 and went into political seclusion. A young liberal, an heir to a vast coffee farm fortune, Adhemar de Barros, a three-term governor, continued to build on Ernesto’s and Vargas’ populist politics continuing to spurn the rich by building many rural schools, hospitals and upgrades in low-income infrastructures. In 1945, led by Barros, The Autonomist Party changed their name to the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB). In 1950 Barros began a run for President. Many wealthy and middle-class voters distrusted his youth, utilizing his friendship with Getulio Vargas’ daughter, the two of them began to coax Vargas out of retirement and replace Barros as the PTB candidate. Reluctant initially, with only four months left until the election, Vargas would change his mind and replace Barrios. In a furious effort of campaigning with his daughter as director, turning her Rio apartment into her father’s national headquarters, Vargas shocked the ruling elite with a surprising victory thanks to a record turn-out. Populism and the PTB were at their height of popularity.

The conservative elites revolted, laying off numerous workers and crashing the economy following Vargas’ return to office. With rumors whirling around Vargas of a potential coup, The President committed suicide in 1954. The next eleven years were very tumultuous for Brazil. The left (PTB) despite rigorous attempts, gradually forfeited leverage moving slowly to the right, resulting in a military coup in 1965. (Coniff 2012.)

The next nineteen years were some of the most austere, bloody and fascist in Brazilian history. A military dictatorship that murdered and imprisoned millions of its native people. One in which Jair Bolosnaro waxed nostalgia on the campaign trail and called Brazil’s best governance. In a symbol nursing absolutely no irony; Ex-President Lula (A PTB member), jailed in 2018 by Moro, Bolsonaro and the like was leading Bolsonaro in the polls prior to his arrest. Given this past and present history, the media’s irresponsible encouragement of Bolsonaro being a “Populist” candidate is not only misinformed, it is unquestionably false. In America and Brazil, populism was a liberal, left conceptualization. It is rightfully theirs. Allowing neo-liberals, oligarchs and autocrats to hijack populism principles is counter-intuitive to its founding doctrines. The democratic publics, voters in a free republic, deserve to be informed by its media and educators in a more responsible manner.

Knowledge

It’s all in the brand. Who’s hide is getting scorched and being misguided through a gate towards a false El Dorado? Nationalism and populism deserve no wiggle room in finding one another as cohabitants. One lives on the Y axis. The other the X. Nationalism thrives on up and down mobility. Populism extends horizontally, moved by proletariat coalition building. Shaking hands rather than punching down. Political discourse, given its exquisite age and silky body, allows ambiguity to be one of its largest taste notes. If we are to preserve humanity (The semantics of nurturing have been scorched by neglect), specificity through deliberation must lay to rest this bitter ambiguity. Our children deserve clarity.

Training our habit energy to purge itself of irresponsible political labels can begin with understanding Western Populism varies distinctly from European Populism. Western Populism is in its infancy, should remain entrenched with its blue-collar roots while it gathers breath. Right-wing, conservative identities such as M.A.G.A., The Tea Party or dating back to George Wallace’s Southern Populist movements co-opted Populist rhetoric in attempts to widen-enhance their xenophobic coalition building. However, Populism cannot be truly claimed, invoked in a Western Democracy if it remains racist or exclusionary. M.A.G.A. targets Muslims and Latinos. The Tea Party targeted non-conforming genders, pro-lifers and liberals. George Wallace blamed East Coast elites and was terribly racist towards African-Americans. True Populism has one mission; uniting the masses to cooperatively achieve the common good for its land and for its people. “Labels are no more than the sum of their often disagreeable parts. It is necessary to note the theoretical options rhetorical tradition that potentially help explain these relationships within particular languages.” (Lee. 2008.) Right wing fundamentalism carries a low tolerance, disagreeable ilk towards inclusivity. It’s rhetorical traditions and linguistic performances of the past demonstrate a poor ability to mask their narrow, colonialist, economic intentions. A party cannot build on a x axis, hand in hand populous building, when they are circling around orchestrating methods of success built through exclusivity.

Revisionist, colonial capitalism can construct Y axis, punch down, nationalist tropes far more suitable to many of their bitter intentions. Nation building on platforms of trickle-down economics, small government, massive militaries both foreign and domestic. Patriotism which turns to traitor/terrorist if one becomes a conscientious objector against a particular design of God, all you can eat guns or legislating woman’s bodies. Identify with these Y axis, core beliefs and you are allowed to wear the flag as your solemn cape, badge of honor and grab the hands of your ascending rulers and climb to the rocky tops. Fall short on any of these missives (especially if you are brown or black) and hope to avoid persecution by keeping your head down (Don’t watch the ten percent ascend!), mouth shut and wallet perpetually open. This is 21st Century Nationalism. Seems awfully counter-intuitive to Populism doesn’t it? So why are journalists, scholars and media types so wonton in exchanging this political terminology. If seawaters are to recede, bridges are to be built, education resumes authenticity and poverty becomes a true priority…populism can no longer afford to be bantered around without proper consideration by educators and the media.

In this age of social media, twenty-four-hour news and rabid cynicism; perhaps, a politician’s most sought-after quality is his/her mental acuity in defending their shortcomings, misdeeds or injustices. Although, The American Republican Party prides itself on conservative values and moral superiority, their leadership is human like the rest of us and frequently are caught in sexual promiscuities or legal quandaries. One of the most effective ways the party or its representatives rise from the ashes of their personal catastrophes emerges from their Teflon approach to conflict resolution. Republicans rarely admit fault to their indiscretions, publicly apologize to virtually no one and have perfected the art of discourse that is very solipsistic masterfully avoiding Ethos. Conservatives crush liberals in the game of political self-defense. Republican Trump can get caught on tape saying; “I just grab them by the pussy.” (referring to woman). Longtime Democratic Senator Al Franken comes under fire for some less than flattering photos and butt-slaps. His party screams at him to resign, he is seen shedding tears as he resigns and leaves D.C. And of course…he apologized! “Contradictions are the chief threat to political languages; hence, sustainability is linked to its management of contradiction. The mechanisms by which political languages mobilize coalitions as well as the methods by which languages settle disputes are traceable to how the language deals with contradiction.” (Lee. 2010.) If the courts will not hold politicians to the proverbial flame (Plutocratic privilege) and The Democrats continue to defy logic by perpetuating an image of frailty…it is the responsibility of the republic to teach future generations, proper Ethos, civics and communal accountability. I say controversially, something The Baby Boomers both neglected and pillaged. Language, willful comprehension (a moral prerogative) and communicative improvement through coalesced deliberation will set our children free and provide them a fighting chance at renewing planetary conservation. “Apart from revolving around the antagonistic relation between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’, populists bring together different demands and identities in what Laclau and Mouffe (2001 Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe. [1985] 2001. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. 2nd ed. London: Verso.) call a “chain of equivalence” that is symbolized by the signifier ‘the people’.” (De Kleen & Stravakakis. 2017.) Yes, developing the impenetrable link along the horizontal axis.

In the vein of R.E.M., O.K., “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?” What’s the channel that will shoot us the straight news? When those in charge of 1st world freedoms return to understanding that democracy is better suited as a verb. Freedom requires effort and vigilance. If Americans spent 20% of the time they spend on their gym vanity, on building democratic stamina, political truth would not appear so nebulous. Democracy rots from neglect. Rots from the inside-out. Political sorts railing for the status quo or fancy nostalgia through draconian fetishes, obstruct the determined exercises the astute hustle to keep democracy fluid. No one can empirically testify looking backwards moves them towards their goals more judiciously. Those who crave nostalgia cannot be trusted in constructing a better tomorrow. We do not have eyes in the back of our heads. Progress, growth, maturation requires us to perceive what lies ahead of us rather than shed tears for what yesterday decided to hoard for its own.

What about learning from our previous mistakes? Learning from our past transgressions? Once we can look beyond our consumptive denial, our language and perception of history seems rather malignant within our body of development. Americans rely on history to maintain one of three differing statures related to ideological, communicative understanding. There are those who simply ignore history, basically foundationally illiterate. I call this enormous mass, the drifters. Buying their time from birth to death with few contemplative pangs. Secondly, we have those who only perceive the virtues of the dead. I call them, the oblivious. Types in this category include non-secular religious types, overly patriotic nationalists and denial optimists (my son may of “got the chair” for being a murderous pedophile but he was a good boy.) In political discourse, oblivious nationalists are a rising 21st Century demographic that poses one of the gravest dangers to Western Democracy. It’s the voter with a perilous profile of; Only God can save us now from those terrorist Muslims and if you don’t believe we should bomb them all straight back to hell then you are just a traitor! You better believe America is the best damn country in the world son (denial optimism). These oblivious history types are far from engendering populist unity. Lastly, we have the citizens that believe history just demonstrates how stupid we have been as a species all along. I call them the fatalists. Doomed to degradation, doomed to chaos, doomed to environmental foreclosure and man has done himself in. Nearly three-thousand years since S.P.A. (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) and we still do not know how to be civil and nurture one another-collectively. This clan is another bristly challenge to populism; as they believe man lacks the intellectual/emotional well-being to unify with one another.

How do we solve this dilemma of our mirth with dysfunctional historical identities? Time-binding. Alfred Korzybski’s formulation of proper identification, record keeping and pivotal pursuits. “Civilization as a process is the process of binding time; progress is made by the fact that each generation adds to the material and spiritual wealth which it inherits.” (Korzybski. 1934.) If, we as a mature civilization (adults) can find a way to reorganize our elementary and secondary educational systems to incorporate time-binding; populism, in its most authentic sense, community could perhaps have its best chance at succeeding beginning in a generation or two. Again, we must make significant reinvestments in civics, truth and communicative homeostasis, formatted for our children. I will suggest a strategy for this in the “wisdom” portion of this communicative-shortly.

Today’s identity politics cannot exist without fabrication. Especially, if a politician is courting the masses with rhetoric from his social fiber and political aims being of and for the people. This is purely antithetical to identity politics The only way this is remotely possible; the “identity candidate” has never assumed public office and/or does not possess obscene wealth. The last fifty years of federal politics has turned our representatives so inherently dishonest-corrupt, its capitalistic-surveillance fascism has laid our democracy on dying breaths. (As I write this today, Julian Assange was arrested and dragged by his knees out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on U.S. espionage charges.) Is it really a communicative stretch to begin to teach our youth modern-day political, rhetorical theory is inherently meant to deceive. Our system is broken. We’re sorry kids, but it is up to you to fix it. We can provide them the tools. We can admit the errors of our ways. We can empower them. At the least we can show them we still care. Habermas said; “The lifeworld is the domain of social life-the life of the public sphere-and actions in this sphere are governed by consensus that emerges from the interpretative patterns of the lifeworld.” (1975) Does identity politics, false promises of populist unity create a consensus for the lifeworld? We must invest in legitimate substance and stop obsessing about finding ways to deceive the fact our hearts have absconded. Our dissection of political discourse should amplify how we as a culture can return to authenticity rather than endlessly birth how the disingenuous can maintain a stranglehold on our democracy.

The evidence of Trump’s and Bolsonaro’s false equivalency that they are in politics to represent “us”, their republics, accumulates at a repetitive pace. Trump and The Republicans passed a tax bill that gave 90% of the tax breaks to the top 7% of wealth earners. Applied massive cuts and deregulation to the EPA, withdrew The U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord setting back the forty years of half-hearted measures the government has made towards climate change. Took belief in obvious Saudi Arabian propaganda upon their dismemberment of an American journalist. Trump half praised white nationalists after their vehicular homicide of a female college student in Charlottesville, Virginia. Loosened regulations on student loan providers while raising student’s interest rates. Dismissed Puerto Rico as if it was some villainous third-world country, recently cutting their recovery aid for Hurricane Irma. This is all in 26 months in office. I challenge any theorist in contemporary rhetoric to explain how this behavior demonstrates a western-style, populist agenda.

President Bolsonaro of Brazil, a chewy Trump sympathizer, has only assumed the office of chief executive for four months and shows no signs of doing what is best for his country’s collective. Two weeks into Bolsonaro’s appointment, Brazil suffered its largest ecological disaster in history, the Vale dam collapse on the Paraopeba River. Over 180 Brazilians lost their lives and hundreds are still unaccounted for. Nearly all the aquatic life in the river-extinguished. Yet, brazenly, Bolsonaro stated he will not reverse his campaign pledge of expanded mining, deforestation and environmental deregulation. (Paris. 2019) The former military man immediately upon taking office, imprisoned indigenous citizens along the Amazon, began taking bids on their lands for timber-commercial agricultural contracts and expanded the liberties of the state police to utilize violence and “shoot to kill” permissions. He has labeled the indigenous tribes “savages”, the LGBT of Brazil “Godless Scum” and the poor neighborhoods (favelas) of Rio and Sao Paulo as “gang quarters where criminals should be shot on the spot. Shoot first, ask nothing!” Bolsonaro proudly rails (2018). And there is more…

Arrests were made in the gruesome assassination of popular, gay, Rio City Council member Marielle Franco a month after Bolsonaro assumed office. The two former police officers and known militia men, Sgt. Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Viera De Queiroz, charged with her murder have some interesting ties with the Bolsonaro family. Sgt. Lessa and President Bolsonaro are longtime friends and neighbors. (Lessa was found with 117 M-16 rifles, spying equipment and multiple encrypted laptops in his home.) Bolsonaro’s youngest son was dating Lessa’s daughter. The President pulled out the Trump book on deflective rhetoric to defend himself saying he barely knew Lessa and his son has, “dated all the girls in the neighborhood”. (Bolsonaro. 2019) I would think this alone would warrant an investigation; Lula jailed, Franco murdered and Bolsonaro is related to all actors on the periphery. No? You don’t say? So I should add some further incriminating evidence. Queiroz and The President’s son Flavio, a congressman, are longtime friends. Queiroz’s father is a retired police officer who had been a longtime bodyguard to the Bolsonaro family. A Brazilian newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo. discovered that the Queiroz family had been making large deposits (tens of Thousands of dollars) into President Bolsonaro’s, wife Michelle’s personal bank account. Mysterious sums of money were also found deposited in Flavio’s account as well. Their justification…Michelle worked for the Queiroz Family and Flavio had made a series of real estate deals. Between the environmental catastrophe and the corruption/murder scandal, the anti-corruption candidate Bolsonaro found himself engulfed in turmoil immediately after taking office-jarring the administration. President Bolsonaro and a few of his cabinet members were supposed to make their first international appearance at the uber wealthy, financial conference in Davos, Switzerland but turned into no shows at a news conference despite making the trip. The Brazilian press called it a colossal embarrassment. Flavio, Jair’s son, came to the rescue hiring Steve Bannon of American Trump/Breitbart fame as a political consultant. Bannon’s ultra-right, neoconservative, nativist agenda he is pitching all over the world self-titled “The Movement” found its South American representatives. Bannon and Flavio Bolsonaro would hold a press conference announcing a political alliance and shared economic interests. Democracy becoming unhinged in front of our very own eyes.

By no coincidence, Bolsonaro’s first international trip after the Davos debacle; Washington D.C. and The White House. Flavio would attend to meet Steve Bannon at The Trump International Hotel. The public relations campaign was pure pomp and circumstance. Trump and Bolsonaro announced (among other things); a 100 million-dollar joint venture in lumber contracts along The Amazonian Rain Forest, a unilateral effort to rid Venezuela of President Maduro, the building of American rocket launch facilities in Brazil along with a joint space program. President Bolsonaro asked if Trump would help Brazil in applying to N.A.T.O., Trump responded by saying he would see what he can do. How does any of this appear to be enhancing democracy and well-being in the western world? How does this contemptuous language shared between these two authoritarians demonstrate a will/desire of the people? Both of their approval ratings range in the 30% to 40% range. How did we let democracy fall into such dangerous and unsophisticated hands? Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Economist, recently said; “A dystopia previously imagined only in science fiction writers is emerging before our eyes. It should give us chills to think of who ‘wins’ in this world and who or what it will become…” (2018) Is this the liberty we promised our children? Is this the type of irate pessimism we want to mask like the curtain in Oz? What communication practices can we immediately set forth to pave a way back to true populism, real planetary growth-transformation, rational resolves for our children’s ability to properly politic and hear one another clear as the chimes of our highest pitched aspirations? Are we not tired of half-ass? Our concepts cannot be formed in a vacuum, but rather morphed together in co-opted semantic fields. We don’t need to ask for a witness. We are the witness! Call forth the wisdom, muddied but not sunk.

Wisdom

By pursuing falsehood, we can begin to inhale the vapors of the truth. We exist in a particularly robust era that is abundantly ripe with falsehoods. Arguably, the modern rhetoric-dialogue between members of advanced societies may have never experienced such a density of disingenuous language exchanges. This is near certainty within the political sphere. Michael Lee invoking Plato states; “…how we come to understand the meaning of the case? The case does not exist independent of language and social meaning. Thus, language is a primary issue; without it, what resources do we use to engage in ‘cookery’?” (Lee. 2009.) Cookery…spot on Plato-indeed.

Most educated, engaged citizens of The United States are well-aware of Trump’s communicative jujitsu. The man has an exemplary ability to shape meaning into something all his own, defying logic or normative confinements, his ability to stave off virtually any counter-argument makes his rummaging rhetoric far more politically sustainable. It is popular performance over enacting popular policies. A novel way of elevating the weaker argument into some form of ethereal strength. It’s a language devoid of prospective action that incites a reaction from both Trump’s loyalists and detractors with such fever-pitch it obfuscates his glaring deficit of ineffectual leadership.

Political Science graduate students at Brigham Young University came to the conclusion, much to their surprise, Trump’s “populist” messaging dropped off significantly when he chose to overthrow the teleprompter and speak to his base, “off the cuff”. A tactic that has become a trademark of the mini-mogul-in chief. A distortion of populism that is nothing short of inciteful. Personal and cognitive dissonance, which appears in the process of investigating modernity implies that, despite all of Trump’s attempts to master modernity, he inevitably fails to catch up with the escaping day. “Syndrome of a Contemporary”, one of incongruity with the times, with non-linearity and immensity of the present, causes effects equal to the fear of “the non-linear future” in their impact on a human and humanity. (Asmolov. 2016.) This “Syndrome of a Contemporary” is what appears to be stifling Trump and his allied supporters from overcoming their fear of witnessing the “linear” constructs of humanity in decline. This precise speculation is what has also fueled Bolsonaro’s rise to power in Brazil. It is simply without the faintest trace of coincidence that Flavio Bolsonaro has hired Steve Bannon as a communication consultant for his family’s rise to power. Steve Bannon and the unabashed white nationalist, White House Communications Consultant Steven Miller became Trump’s leading campaign writers during his election run. Kirk Hawkins, Associate professor of Brigham Young University noted, “Trump’s speeches with teleprompters all have longer words, longer sentences, and less frequent use of his pet words. And they have much higher levels of populism. This is powerful evidence that Trump’s populism is not entirely his own.” (Hawkins. 2019.) Hardly a surprise that anything associated with a link between “populism” and Trump would be pronounced as disingenuous.

Jair Bolsonaro, perhaps more by happenstance and a stroke of luck, found his way into the hearts of millions of disenfranchised Brazilian voters through his intolerant temperament (militant anger) and ability to appear untainted by unprecedented levels of corruption that consumed Brazilian society. Through invoking the cleansing powers of God, through the promises of reestablishing an authoritarian iron-fist upon the criminal elements of Brazil and by inheriting vast amounts of sympathy via his soap operatic “telepopulism” performance bed-ridden in San Paulo after his stabbing- Jair Bolsonaro suddenly became an iconoclast to the Brazilian people. “Bolsonaro’s government, in which I serve as foreign minister, doesn’t care what pundits say or what they worry about: they don’t have a clue about who God is or who the Brazilian people are and want to be.” -Ernesto Araujo, President Bolsonaro’s Foreign Minister. (Araujo. 2019) The con is on; As the president’s rhetoric and performance will only become more polished. Bolsonaro heavily lacks Trump’s charisma. He often appears nervous, rigid and uncomfortable in front of large audiences or when he succumbs to pressure. Bolsonaro frequently eases into comfortability as one of his nationalist rants carries on. This leads me to believe that his ability to hone his deceptive rhetoric will improve. His reverence of Trump, services of Bannon and practice under time will only make the detection of his bullshit more difficult for the uneducated masses.

The aim of devout worshippers of authoritarian machinations such as Trump and Bolsonaro rely heavily on extracting populist tropes of the past and reinventing them today for their current pursuits. Remember, it is always the word not the act that seemingly provokes the most response. The hypnosis of clever articulation gives rise to unprecedented social agents the likes of Trump and Bolsonaro. Verbal platforms, quite often lacking any empirical stability or proven worth, elevate political little knowns into cult like figures. Bolsonaro used God, the flag, his love for military suppression and his lack of empathy for virtually everything else to give wings to his very own cult of personality.

How does a publicly awkward, devout racist and bigot develop a tongue that sways so many? The often-overlooked fact is; when politicians look heartless as they slash education budgets and lay developmental detriment to our youth…there is methods to their madness. I will expound on this shortly. Beyond the educational strangulation, rests the habitual cognitive dissonance the voting masses in many democracies possess in recalling the past rhetorical practices of politicians previous. “Histories of conceptual change, most salient in political science, offer both theories and methods for the study of the history of political thought by attending to political possibilities in discursive and material contexts and to the importance of conceptual disputes within political change.” (Lee. 2008.) In other words, democracy is most certainly a verb that needs to be persistently dissected, debated with a scholarly demeanor and endlessly sculpted to fit our adaptation for optimal survival.

Michael J. Lee, prominent modern-day communication theorist, constructively accumulated years of observation in conservative rhetorical practice. Arguably today’s preeminent scholar on language and right-wing articulation, Lee’s postulations preceding the likes of Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and even the likes of Sarah Palin, written at the dawn of the 21st century, provide illustrative examples of how today’s bombastic, inciteful political rhetoric has moved from parody television fodder to a worrisome mainstream, right-wing materialization. Politics that appeared to simply orbit on fringe ridicule, now instigates through fear and divisiveness, challenging our democratic norms and demonstrating that 1st world authoritative regimes can still materialize. Lee explains; “The contingent is defined in opposition to the necessary. The contingent is the horizon in which human activities unfold.” (Lee, 2010.) It takes Teflon, contradictory kings to make contingency interests deceptively operate counter to the needs of the people. Jair Bolsonaro yearns to be that king for Brazil, learning as he goes-aided by eruptions of national pride he has instilled within his supporters.

President Bolsonaro’s trope that resonated with the Brazilian masses to utmost effectiveness played off the anger and exhaustion the voters felt towards the immoral corruption within its governing body on the local, state and federal levels. “Brazil before anything, God above all!” transformed from a political slogan to one nation’s rallying cry. Although hundreds of bankers, investors and politicians have been reported to be affiliated with Operation Carwash, murder, bribes and extortions, Bolsonaro somehow shielded he and his people from blame, creating an image of the great crusader galloping to the throne to make all things just. Despite immediately after being sworn in; evidence has been mounting that The Bolsonaro family was not immune to the nefarious illegalities engulfing Brazilian modern politics. The president’s rating has experienced a small dip, but his core allegiance remains strong. His family has been vicariously associated with the assassination of lesbian, councilwoman Marielle Franco. Bolsonaro counters the charges by posting homosexuals urinating on each other during Carnival on his Twitter feed. His neighbor charged with the murder, housed over one-hundred AK-15 assault rifles. Despite many photos of the two men together, Bolsonaro claims they barely know one another and that he plans on opening up gun laws for “true” (tan and white) Brazilians. In other words; no big deal. The country’s Supreme Court judges are starting to voice concern over Bolsonaro’s slanted favoritism to the far-right related to Operation Carwash, writing letters of concern. Carlos, Jair’s second son, makes a statement that no Supreme Court Judge is above termination or imprisonment. The president apologized for his son’s misguided statement yet announces a week after which; plans to double the amount of seats held on The Supreme Court contingent upon his personal recommendations. This is only raising ire with the liberal intelligentsia and the hopelessly poor. Brazil is facing an authoritarian crisis.

Habermas’ ideas of the public sphere, a society that desires greater freedom in what he calls emancipatory interest is losing credibility as citizens within democracy demand more colonial justice, primal nationalism and exclusions that anesthetize their collective frustrations. Potentially frightening possibilities lay ahead. ‘The ideal political situation is one in which citizens control their own destiny by taking an active part in the decisions that concern them.” (Habermas. 1971.) Western Democracies seem to be losing sight of this important premise. Through apathy, disenfranchisement and community polarization the Aristotelian precept of the publis challenging one another to elevate civil rule and integrity is currently on tilt. Providing space for ill-tempered “gladiators” (E.G. Trump & Bolsonaro) to enter the political sphere and slay long-held institutional norms.

Referring to Michael J. Lee further; in his evaluation of the rhetoric created by conservative stalwart William F. Buckley, Lee envisages the myth of gladiators, inventing a class of conservative rhetoric called; gladiatorial style. Referring to Buckley’s leave no prisoners viscous banter, Lee says, “His influence on conservatism derived as much from his emotional defense of an embattled political identity as it was a logical appeal for a particular political program.” (Lee. 2010.) Sound familiar people of 2019? “The gladiatorial style aims at drama, and discord is often a means to that end. The rhetorical gladiator is a controversialist for whom doctrinal inconsistency is a tool to be selectively deployed, not a taboo to be avoided.” (Lee. 2010.) While the lack of effectual leadership, sound policymaking, or the atrociousness of masked austerity measures paralyzes a country, the intellectual disability to constructively interpret contrived, deceptive narratives by our leaders, sets the precedent for our mired captivity.

Hierarchies have no intention of being egalitarian. Political strategists have altered the political game towards a consolidation of its participants and the boundaries confining the playing field. Gerrymandering has been (until recently) left untethered by the courts making a mess of what once was a rather straight-forward, obsequious methodology to voting. Pair this criminal mentality with “getting out the vote” targeting a concentration of strong, conservative Christians, moderately uneducated, fly-over state, blue-collar racists and the uber wealthy, 5–10% voting Republican no matter what and this will produce the magical number of 51% or beyond. Or 270 and beyond. The Republicans have stolen the show. Three-card Monte by the hands of federal and state bureaucrats. There are two remedies to rectifying what the American Reds have done; get the courts to halt their criminality or increase the intelligence of the voting public to rid the corrupting influence that has decimated our democracy as we know it. In order to increase this intelligence, the first civil coup de tat must be upon our educational system. It must be wrestled out of the control of billionaire charter-school, privatization worshippers who would like nothing better than to provide large metro, inner-city children the most, bare-boned, minimal education they can store-front without being persecuted for neglect. This fact is hard to ignore as our current President of The United States, Donald J. Trump, was found fraudulent for misleading students with his for-profit Trump University. The bogus real-estate school was ordered to pay $25 million in restitution. (NY Times. 2018.) The President of the United States treating the sanctity of higher education with such cavalier nonchalance! How in the hell can we view this so trivially!?! We can no longer hold this as acceptable!

Political con-games to disenfranchise the masses in Brazil heavily mirrors the American right-wing effectiveness. Between Brazil’s two largest metropolis’ San Paulo and Rio De Janeiro, there now resides over 2,600 favelas (slums-shanty villages) that contain more people than the entire country of Peru. Yet, during election day, the favelas are given one polling place in many instances as the affluent neighborhoods are given numerous polling sites. Jair Bolsonaro easily won the city of Rio with over 60% of the vote. However, ask the residents, the locals who do not live behind security walls and militia guards…they will say doggedly that if elections were held fairly in Rio, there would be no chance of a Bolsonaro victory. How does a man win 60% of a city’s vote when he promises to further privatize public education, allows police “shoot to kill” rights, warrantless searches and raids on favelas, no voting rights for petty criminals and increased funding for incarcerations and prisons. We, of western democracies, can simply no longer afford to allow the communication of our leaders to naively pass by our conscience undetected any longer. Optimistically, “Carnival” 2019 in Rio De Janeiro turned into one large memorial for slain city civics leader Marielle Franco and a massive protest against Bolsonaro and his administration. The world’s largest street party turned into the world’s largest act of resistance. Although, “Carnival” is Brazil’s largest annual tourist attraction, Bolsonaro was so angered by the on-goings; he “tweeted” a slew of homophobic, racist references related to the festival and encouraged people to not attend and abstain from viewership on television. This would be the equivalent of Trump going ballistic on the Super Bowl and asking America to ignore it. This type of identity politics is poison. It must be obliterated.

In conclusion, the resolution. We must first begin as adults to find within ourselves enough self-esteem to admit fault, share contrition with our youth for the blindness of our ways and promise the children we will do all we can humanly muster to set the record straight. The rhetorical renegade of communications, bell hooks rifled, “Western culture is marked by oppression, exploitation, and the devaluation of reciprocity, community and mutuality.” (1990) Our path to the return of science and sanity will manifest with reciprocity and community mutually nurtured in our psyches and hearts. “Love”, hooks continues, “The idea of being able to let your fear go so you can move towards another person who’s not like you.” (1983) In order for this to materialize, we must be able to gather under a roof with identities much different than our tortoise-shelled own. The right to be easily offended for the sake of blowing up a consensus commitment will no longer be socially acceptable. Our deliberation, communication (in the flesh) with one another must become as important as your exercise bike, yoga class or Coachella posing. We can no longer afford the silence, the distance placed between us by fear, fragile hearts and even softer egos. “Writers — journalists, essayists, bloggers, poets, playwrights — can disturb the social oppression that functions like a coma on the population, a coma despots call peace, and they stanch the blood flow of war that hawks and profiteers thrill to” -Toni Morrison (1995). Our children must lead the future generations in understanding nothing truly meaningful will occur on this Earth unless all communities possess the opportunity to equally contribute. We begin by going back to the basics. 5th, 6th, 7th graders will once again learn about the founding fathers, the constitution and Bill of Rights. They will be given civics lessons promoting awareness and collective involvement. We will begin to speak to the truth, educating our children that our politicians are inherently dishonest. Until proven otherwise, the institutions in charge cannot be trusted with global preservation and we are in the initial stages of cleaning house. Teaching the art of comprehending semantics, the spoken word and articulating wisdom that is constructed on the widest reaches of inclusion and community uplift will be delivered to our children shortly after their comprehension of their ABC’s. Bullshit will no longer be in vogue and curbside clean-up of our cosmic calling will resume. We can only let greed lead us through retrograde antics for so long. Literally…or it’s adios humanity. Time to speak from our concern rather than the sheaths of our paranoia and self-embarrassment. Rise people. Rise!

It bears repeating, populism is not a conservative concept. It is for the people and by the people. Our children must begin to learn, the smaller-the circle of citizens a political mark spreads warm-fuzzies, the faster we should raise our suspicions. A longtime conservative writer for The National Review, Frank Meyer, admitted as much, “Populism is the radical opposite of conservatism.” (1979) We must take charge of the ontological playing field, embrace diversity and emphasis free-speech conditions motivated by collaborative dialogue. Mapping reciprocity is job creation in ways yet to be understood by our shackled minds and bound creativity. Jen Schneider and Jason Delborne, social scientists studying diversity, deliberation and climate change, argue that perhaps the focus of future deliberative events such as WWViews should be not on garnering media coverage per se, but rather on building effective relationships between institutions: universities, which have a public education mission; organizations that have effective mechanisms for public outreach, such as museums of nature and science; and media organizations with a public service mission, such as some arms of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the UK or Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the USA. (Delborne. 2016) To emphasize Korzybski’s favorite slogan once further, indeed, science and sanity…unleash the resume button. Although, I advocate beginning this process at the middle school level with an enormous reinvestment in public education. Many universities, most I suspect, have been corrupted by hyper capitalism and its semantic retardation. A great deal of logical resurfacing has to cosmetically repair our university system’s overall reputation as well. Lee notes, “Compassionate conservatism, neoconservatism, national greatness conservatism, social conservatism, Tea Party conservatism, and Trumpism are just some of the facets of the conservative political identity over just the past four presidential elections…” (2017) If this list does not throw shade on a Republican Party. Neo-Authoritarians (Trump/Netanyahu/Bolsonaro) and racist xenophobes (LePen/Wilder/Orban) who channel rubbish discourse that incites emotional, mindless reactions without providing a communicative garden of commonality must be exiled. Twitter is God’s gift to one-way narcissistic, political recklessness. Millions of followers duped into “being spoke too!” while propping up politicians that don’t deserve to carry our trash let alone our nuclear footballs. We are better than this. We can come to understand their deceit, rise-above it and teach our kids to not think twice about abandoning such heinous ways of merely surviving; instead, collectively bringing humanity back to its modern-day responsibility of being guardians of Spaceship Earth rather than exploitative fools.

(Author’s note; On June 8th, 2019, a day before my final edit, Judge Moro and the Brazilian Federal Prosecutors who trialed Lula behind bars have been “outed” by The Intercept Brazil with confidential voicemails and texts capturing a conspiracy of collusion to jail Lula before the election to assure a significant blow to the Worker’s Party. The evidence is irrefutable, Bolsonaro and circles are now implemented in the same corruption, he vowed to eradicate. Thanks for the perfect timing Jair! I owe you one.)

Accreditations

Toni Morrison quotes extracted from www.Brainpickings.org Popova, Maria. 2019. NY, NY.

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Smith, David. Lewis, Paul. Holder, Josh. Holley-Jones, Frank. The Teleprompter Test: Why Trump’s Populism Is Not His Own. The Guardian. March. 2019. London, U.K.

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Paris, Francesca. Brazil Investigates Possible Corruption Related to Dam Collapse. National Public Radio (print) March. 2019. (Online)

Araujo, Ernesto. Now We Do. The New Criterion. Vol. 37. Issue 5. January. 2019. NY, NY.

Londono, Ernesto. Andreoni, Manuela. ‘They Came To Kill’ Almost 5 Die Daily At Hands of Rio Police. New York Times. May. 2019. NY, NY. (Online)

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Greenwald Glen. Pougy Victor. Brazil’s Top Prosecutors Who Indicted LuLa Schemed in Secret Messages to Prevent His Party from Winning 2018 Election. The Intercept Brazil. 8th, June. 2019. Online. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Special Thanks to Journalist Victor Pougy, University of Rio De Janeiro School of Political Science & The Intercept Brazil.