Writing in 2003 of the US occupation of Baghdad Christopher Hitchens noted that “irony and negation are the everyday currencies” which puts me in mind of “blow back” for now we’re reaping what we’ve sowed or the chickens have come home to roost or shock and awe has come to your own backyard–yes language can be cheap. Yet there’s no doubt that neoliberal hubris with its adventurism, its uncivil disdain for facts, (weapons of mass destruction anyone?) disdain for human rights, environmental destruction of Mesopotamia–is there enough time for the whole litany? There can be no doubt that Trump’s dismantling of government, with its ironies and negations of facts had its birth shortly after 9-11.
It is too shallow I think to say Trump ascended owing to a personal grudge with Barack Obama–certainly it was an ingredient, but organized disdain (birtherism) the idea that sinister foreigners are out to get you, that’s the work of Paul Wolfowitz post 9-11. Add a fomented disavowal of facts and you’ve got the blueprint from Trumpism straight from the W. Bush administration. Irony and negation are the everyday currencies now, right here in the homeland.
Planet of the Blind 