All the elements of Trumpism have plagued the human race forever, in a plethora of forms from viciously-competing religions through various attempts at global dominance like Nazism and totalitarian Communism to virtually countless local variants like Toryism in the UK, al-Assadism in Syria, Bolsonaroism in Brazil, Mahathirism in Malaysia, and of course fake Liberal-Nationalism as currently in Australia.
But The dreadful Donald turned Trumpism into an art-form, and the recent dumping of him and consequent trumping of his supporters and enablers in favour of Biden may be a sign that relief is in sight for those of us who’ve been bidin’ our time to get rid of this virally- spreading evil.
An evil that is characterised everywhere it spreads its virulent influence from the fake ‘People’s’ Republic of China to the theocracies of the Middle- or Muddle-East and elsewhere.
So, in the hope that we can finally start vaccinating the whole human race against it, and thus trump it for once and for all, let’s remind ourselves of the symptoms of Trumpism wherever it rears its ugly head:
Lies trump the truth, or fake news and views trump the facts, as extremely exemplified by the China People’s Daily and the Murdoch media.
Fantasy trumps reality, in every imaginable field from religious ‘faith’ to climate-change denial and/or foot-dragging as in the disgraceful case of my own federal government. This Trumpism can also be expressed in a great many other ways, including emotion trumps reason, idiocy trumps intelligence, superstition trumps science, and my particular long-time favourite, bullshit baffles or in other words trumps brains.
Then there’s greed trumps need, as it does virtually everywhere from the aforementioned Australia to the hopefully at least somewhat resurgent US. And indeed, if we’re not careful, also in each and every one of us.
Not to go on and on too endlessly here, there are almost countless other symptoms of Trumpism, some of them overlapping those listed above, including:
Hypocrisy trumps honesty.
Economics trump ethics and the environment.
Money trumps morality.
Conservatism trumps conservation, and
Ideologies trump ideas and ideals.
Of course most if not all of us have long been aware of such Trumpery, in not only politics and public affairs, but in ourselves personally. But, as inertia tends to trump action, and the necessity for everyday survival tends to trump our personal as well as collective capacities for improving the world, we’ve never done enough to trump Trumpism.
But if ever there was a golden opportunity to get started in good and earnest on this worthiest of projects, in our personal lives and business dealings as well as our nations’ politics, it’s right now when so many of us are hiding at home from Covid, and thus have lots of time on our hands as well as umpteen opportunities to follow Joe Biden’s apparently excellent Trump- and Trumpism-trumping lead.