It is now officially the very first month of what one of THE SPECTATOR MAGAZINE columnist Roger Kimball has aptly termed ‘The Silly Season’…that several month final stretch of ludicrousity that heralds the final presidential race determination here in the Disunited States of America.

I only WISH it were truly silly. Regrettably, the ‘silly’ in reference poses a more toxic threat to America than all the aggregate effluent pouring out of ICE vehicle exhaust pipes in the entire nation.

Famed early-1900s social critic and acerbic commentator H.L. Mencken aptly referred to the political absurdities of our way of life (democracy), way back when, as being “…not my monkeys, not my circus.” He further characterised America’s recurring 4-year election cycle as “…running the circus from the monkey house!” [Actually, he said “Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey House”, but why split primate hairs, here?]

Good old H.L. He could always be counted upon to peel away the layers of horse exhaust from virtually any and all politically inspired shenanigans, whether national or local, to reveal the hypocritical, essential bovine effluent that underlies all such human politics!

As we here, some 80 to 90 years shy of the century-mark commemoration of Menken’s prime artfulness and caustic wit, launch into yet another political circus, the distortion of truth and ascendence of pure fantasies as an acceptable supreme simulacrum of reality in our daily lives threatens to reach never-before-dreamed-of heights of ludicrous hyperbole.

Characteristically, only a small number of aesthetically astringent observers of the social scene seem capable of pointing out the fact that both opposing political candidates for the highest office of the land are strutting down the parade route towards coronation wearing nary a stitch of credible social raiment, whatsoever.

Of course, while it is tragically clear to all but the truly brainwashed camp followers that neither of the two contenders for the American Presidential Heavyweight Crown possess the barest vestige of true leadership competence, it is also fairly evident (again to that same small group of reflective observers who abstain from joining the thundering herd of unwashed masses, of either political persuasion) that of the two…Republican or Demoncrat (er, excuse me, I meant to say ‘Democrat’)…candidates, the one closest in appearance to A.A. Milne’s beloved children’s donkey character, Eeyore (and I don’t mean Trump) is the least credible, least substantial of the two.

All this week, since well before the start of the DNC (Decidedly Nonsensical Chaos, otherwise known as the Democratic National Convention), we’ve been treated to a non-stop barrage of political and media gaslighting about how ‘wonderful’ Kamala Harris is, as the first black female President-to-be, how she represents ‘new hope’ (quote/unquote, by Michelle Obama) for America as the brave Demoncrats’ (oops, I keep getting that word wrong) struggle to “save American democracy” from Donald Trump.

As has been fully and completely pointed out by various political analysts in The Spectator, this marks a sea change from just a few days ago, when wild horses couldn’t keep people from remarking about how, although Uncle Joe Biden was a complete senescent disaster, ‘Coco-loco’ Harris would be an order of magnitude worse. They’ve also successfully highlighted the inconvenient truth that she has been kept carefully shielded from any sort of incisive or critically probing interview by her phalanx of Pretorian retainers, since that might instantly reveal exactly how unfathomably vacuous her capability to decisively lead the nation actually is.

I think my point here is to cite the intellectually insulting nature of the sheer fantasy-realities of the Demoncrats (oh well, let’s just leave that word as it is, eh?) that they thrive upon, that illuminate the fragile, imaginary cosmos they exist in, and that they smugly feel certain is all anyone in the voting public needs to know about their new Err-Presumptive candidate, Kamalalalala.

This highlights a far graver concern that almost everyone fails to recognise, owing to the fact that this ominous revelation flies well-above their most sensitive bullshit detectors. I speak here of a disturbing (alarming, actually) sub-rosa effort by the powerful, wealthy elitists at the top of the personal wealth food chain to dumb-down the masses (Hillary famously dismissed them as ‘the deplorables’) so that they may be influenced, guided, shaped and molded by those (the elitists) who control the wherewithal of material means (read: corporations) that those masses depend upon to provide material substance to their lives.

Human beings, all of whom fall within Charles Murray’s famous Gaussian Curve of human intellect, exhibit identifiable behavioral characteristics that prompt and motivate their psychosocial, economic and behavioral actions. Chief among these characteristics seems to be a marked tendency to rely upon emotional resources rather than rational ones, when considering just about everything that affects them or their lives. There is also a strong correlation between intellect, according to Murray and his The Bell Curve co-author Richard Herrnstein, and the ability to intellectually analyse circumstances, conditions and considerations (just as there is a consequent, inverse relationship between those of lower intellect and reflexive recourse to emotion (over intellect) in decision-making processes.

Given this well-demonstrated and repeatedly vindicated dynamic behavioral nuance of our species, it really doesn’t take many active brain cells to grasp the fact that if these circumstances were somehow enhanced and augmented, perhaps exponentially, then the ability of the ‘really smart cookies’ among us (i.e. those with intellects above 120 or so) to manipulate the sub-midline masses for whatever purpose (be it for sheer financial exploitation, social manipulation and/or other forms of gainful advantage) would make possible a whole new supra-paradigm of P.T. Barnum’s famous ‘suckers class.’

I submit to you that, assuming that any clear-thinking, analytically-minded observer of America’s present socio-political culture can readily see how the emergence of the new radical leftist progressive movement within America is heading straight towards establishing a neo-Marcusian-Marxist form of socialism (strongly influenced by classical Marxist theories), that there is a near-subliminal effort underway to lower the already shockingly deficit mindfulness of the masses to an even lower level of existence than ever before.

But wait, you cry! Where’s the evidence to support the existence of this effect you state is currently ongoing? And by whom?

Good questions all, of course. Let me explain. All you have to do is tune into any video media source, whether television or online social media, to observe this insidious ‘massaging’ (socialising) process in practical application. Taking commercial consumer advertising (with its co-dependent, enabling multi-billion-dollar psychosocial marketing mechanisms) as a single example, you’d have to be just a few increments dumber than a primeval slime-mold cell to fail to recognise the sheer stupidity, vacuousness and asininely that pervades…nay, SMOTHERS…the ‘commercial messages’ viewed almost 24-hours-a-day on ‘free’ (non-subscription) commercial media television channels.

Perhaps what’s lacking here is a meaningful contrast to illustrate this. Americans for the most part do not view (or have the opportunity to view) foreign European television programs (with the exception of Germany’s excellent ‘Deutsche Welle’, and France’s ‘Canal 24’, BBC excepted since it now parrots American lamestream media). The advertisements appearing on them appeal, for the most part, to higher qualities of collective cultivated consciousness. So too is this reflected in both German and French domestic television programming. These ‘discerning, higher qualities’ stem mostly from the same ‘evil white European culture’ that we are daily exhorted by the WOKE crowd to condemn as hopelessly racist.

So, one infers, good taste, etiquette, good manners, elegance, style, intellectual challenge and social responsibility are all therefore racist, right?

Sorry, Virginia! There’s no Santa Claus, and there are no bonus points given for that assertion!

Contrast this to the virtual ambience that smacks one in the jaw with a mean left-hook, the minute one tunes into a single minute of televised US commercial advertising: a mish-mash ambience of the worst, most trashy pop-culture dreck conceivable.

The classic American commercial of several decades ago used to feature a slightly befuddled husband, who is ‘counseled’ by his wise wife, while he maintains a look of total, vacuous confusion as to what he needs to know about just about anything. Traditionally, this was a scenario lifted almost directly from an All in the Family serial episode between Archie and his wife, ‘Dingbat’…two VERY white people, of course. Or perhaps from the Jackie Gleason TV show, The Honeymooners.

At least back then, there was a distinctive contemporary adult intent underlying the tableaux. Today, the two characters in an advertisement are again (usually) a married couple, but the man is now (usually) black, who is being lectured by his wise wife (who is, more often than not, white). The man's face still portrays the same stupid look of flummoxed bemusement while he listens to his obviously better informed and smarter wife. Same schtick, but almost 70 years apart. Plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes.

The real message contained therein is reflective of the feminist empowerment cause. Women are somehow inherently smarter, more capable and wiser, and their men are marginally retarded…but also perhaps that mixed-marriage couples are the new preferable norm (when in reality, this exists mostly in the minds of the corporate producers who are driving the ‘DEI’, diversity-equity-inclusivity message home with their 15-pound, nine-millon-dollar sledgehammer).

That’s just a small example of the dumbing-down effect I refer to. Entertainment media is also a showcase, with so many black actors being used now for the same sitcoms, cinemas and TV series that you’d think what is actually only 13% or so of our entire population is in reality closer to 80%. And in terms of content, the level of gratuitous violence that pervades television these days is immediately shocking to anyone raised in an earlier American culture wherein such things were considered categorically unsuited for entertainment airing.

Curiously, I had a South African friend visiting me recently (white) who, upon watching a few hours of American TV programming, remarked "One could almost think this is Zimbabwe from what I've seen on your TV here!" Sea change? Um, yass.

Television shows are filled-to-bursting with hard-core crime and violent action films, series and what have you. Daytime programming consists of execrable shows for the feeble-minded such as ‘The View’, the Tamron Hall Show, The Jerry Springer Show, and even more dreadful shows that are mock-court dramas featuring stage-struck plaintiffs who look as if they were hit by the stupid truck. And the commercials, aside from generally being insulting to one’s intelligence (assuming anyone has any of that scarce reflective quality called ‘sophistication’ left) consist largely of equally moronic advertisements by personal injury attorneys, Social Security/HMO and health care promotions, and pharmaceutical companies telling simple-minded people to “...ask your doctor” (who really doesn’t have the time to field stupid questions, anyway).

A couple of my favorite wretched commercials that are particularly smarmy and sappy includes those by Consumer Cellular, Shriner’s Hospital (“Love to the Rescue”…bleagh!), Wounded Warriors, and those that hawk women’s personal hygiene products (“Does wonders for troublesome hairy female armpits!”) etc., etc. Bad taste? Yeah, I’d say so. In spades. But also, inciteful of this subtle, if all-pervasive effort to reduce the average concerns of the average prole to gutter-level that I cite.

Who or what is actually is behind all this, one can’t help but ask? Aside from the known radical leftist progressive ‘WOKE’ crowd who now indoctrinate our school children and university students with this fallacious ideological horse exhaust and the political comedians engaged in our looming national election circus?

The corporations, of course, since aside from the fact that they are the ones who most stand to benefit from the ‘bread and circuses’ mentality they so assiduously attempt to cultivate among the bottom-feeding masses, they are in league with the sycophantic power-elite who have aligned with the progressive Demoncrat donkeys. The simpler the person’s mindfulness (so their ethic stands) the more diminished the attention-span of the masses, and the more limited the masses’ reflective intelligence is, the easier it is to coerce mindless willingness to ‘Consume Mass Quantities’ (as the old Saturday Night Live CONEHEAD characters put it) of commercial goods (that will likely just end up at a garage sale a year or so down the road).

As the intellectual elites of the former Communist and Socialist nations well-knew, mushrooms are best kept thriving in the dark on a diet of cow sh*t. So too are the mushroom-masses, wherein the development of even the teeniest, tiniest bit of intellectual curiosity poses unacceptable danger to any ruling regime in power.

When that cadre of intellectual elites and rules (party bosses, such as the Obama Demoncrats) exists as it does in our modern America, you can just about lay even money on the fact that all of what I am describing here is an insidious, yet subtle, almost subliminal effort by those manipulators to progressively mold the ‘average’ American into a mindless, compliant cohort of proletarians who can be made to conform to whatever the ruling powers (political/industrial/corporate) demand (a la George Orwell's famed dystopian novel, 1984). Da, Comrade!

Gustav LeBon (one of my favorite social appologists) famously dealt with this inherent malleability of masses of people in his turn-of-the-century psychosocial examination of the dynamics of mass human behavior in The Crowd. The lessons learned since, considerably aided and enabled by modern communications media, supported by decades of psychosocial research, are the bedrock upon which modern corporate commercialism and marketing methodologies are anchored, and the radical left has always been far more well-acquainted with techniques for molding the psyche of the proletariat, to assure unquestioning compliance, than any more democratic system heretofore existing.

But consider this: America has never before faced a massive effort to pervert the mechanisms of our federated democracy as it does at present. Even back in the infamous Cold War era, when the extreme right under the exhortations of that radical rightwing demagogue Senator Joe McCarthy feared an imminent intrusion of Soviet style Communism into American affairs, the reality of that possibility seemed almost absurd in its possibilities. Today, thanks to the most recent crop of born-yesterday youth, stridently whiney feminists and our racial "minorities" who have been recently told they are ascendantly entitled, the challenges to traditional American democratic processes have never been more fearsomely real.

The threat we face today, while entirely different, is far more dangerous since it involves almost half of the entire nation gathered together under the aegis of the "new" Demoncratic Party, with its compulsive obsession to impose WOKE Critical Theory ideology on us all, like it or not. Intolerance, after all and despite new social disguises and party affiliations, is a harsh, harsh mistress…

Many astute analysts refuse to stop there and bluntly assert that the new leftist progressive "party bosses" baldly state (in their slightly more unguarded moments, such as among themselves…e.g. when partying during the 2021 COVID ban) that their heartfelt aim is to impose a neo-Marcusian-Marxist form of socialism upon capitalist America, something that is a hair’s breadth from blatantly wishing to completely abolish and eradicate the fundamental tenets of our three centuries of American constitutional government. DEI is, of course, the beating heart of that antithetical WOKE dogma, superseding ‘freedom to achieve equality’ with ‘equity of outcome for comrades’.

Many, many years ago, in post-Revolutionary War days, the strong moral and ethical codes exemplified by the Christian (and Jewish) religions arguably helped substantially offset the worst tendencies of the masses (although the privileged elite among us always seem to have few compunctions about indulging their own ethical and moral lapses), since religion is, after all, the ‘Fentanyl' of those masses Marx referred to. Today, with at least half or more of those under the age of 50 professing non-belief in traditional religious codes and standards of moral conduct, all bets are off. When that same cohort profess the belief that an updated form of radical (Communist style) socialism is infinitely preferable to any form of democratic capitalism, the odds of our way of life surviving such a massive onslaught of half-baked, arrested adolescent idealism (as the Demoncrats now embrace it, calf, thigh and upper half) are even bleaker than ever!

Given this sad state of affairs in the Dysfunctional Federated States of America, those of us still left with at least three remaining active, non-senescent brain cells must resist this trend with every ounce of our collective being if America is to survive the onslaught of such dangerous nonsense.

We can all make a good start by opening up our eyes and ears, and turning our cognitive, reflective perceptivity to the ‘HIGH’ setting. Additionally, turn in your membership card in that mass of ‘consumers’ who are willing to unquestioningly swallow all the various kinds of bullshit being daily shoveled to us in our mass-media holding pens and dare to use that 9/10th of your brain that is typically dormant in the knee-jerk life of compliant reactivity we are being socialized to accept as our social norm.

With especial regard to the present Demoncrat Progressive gaslighting that so perfectly characterises the just-ended Decidedly Nonsensical Chaos (DNC), it was filled to nthe brim with specious and utterly vapid appeals to "sense the renewed HOPE in the air" that Comrade Kamalalala supposedly symbolizes. It’s well past time to point out that said candidate (an Equs assinus assinus with lipstick, after all, is merely an Equs assinius assinus, no more nor less) an utterly hollow shell with absolutely no competence or substantial prior accomplishment to be proud of, other than the fact that at one time she was supposedly quite a talented member of former California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s personal hareem…(ahem, ahem, dot-dot-dot).

And lest there be any doubt of all this, just check the reams of recorded Harrisims. postures, proclamations, actions and negative achievements that are ALL on the record, recorded way back in 2020 when she joined “Jiltin’ Joe” as his running mate. They are quite readily rediscoverable with just a slight bit of wading through all the DNC clouds of Demoncratic horse exhaust…

That’s the bleak truth, or my name isn’t John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt . And if you don’t believe it, as none other than (Dr.) Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches himself declaimed: “I micturate upon you all from a considerable height…”

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ADDENDUM: 

For a cogent examination of the virulent political polarisation that seems to have the entire nation griped unrelentingly in its talons, you might find this article of special interest: Why Are We So Politically Polarised? This astute analysis appeared very recently on the KnowableMagazine.org website and is well worth a read-through.