Conspiracy Trumpery

NY resolution to revive this zombie blog and try and post something vaguely coherent and interesting every month: along with related corollary of possibly inviting people to actually read the damn thing, vulgar as this sounds. Let's have a crack at the first of these...

That's the way to enunciate those fricatives, Don...

Regarding the fact that (for most of the last 100 years at least) the American Presidency has been the most important political office in the world, it is only to be expected that conspiracy theories would naturally be part of the ‘culture’ pertaining to the chief executive position.  Outside of sensational events of conspiracist import that happened to American presidents during their time in office – e.g. the Kennedy assassination and Nixon/Watergate – it appears historically that such theories were largely the domain of far-right fringe groups such as the John Birch Society (e.g. Roosevelt and the New Deal as part of the Communist-Jewish conspiracy for world domination) and, as such, operated at the margins of contemporary political discourse. However, the mainstreaming of conspiracy culture in the 1990s has seen conspiracy theories become a much more culturally visible and influential dimension of the presidency: viz the ‘Clinton death list’ saga; Dubya’s centrality to the 9/11 truth movement, along with his background in the Skull and Bones society; and the ‘Birther’ narrative surrounding Obama (not forgetting the magnificent ‘Obama on Mars’ yarns).

Of course, as with the bulk of American conspiracism, pretty much all of these are confabulations of the American far-right that are projected upon the presidency, rather than conspiracy theories deriving from within the American political establishment itself. This makes the conspiratorial claims currently (Jan 2017) swirling around the assumption of Donald J. Trump to the Presidency of particular interest. Having been adopted by the American far-right /alt-right as ‘their’ candidate in last year’s election, Trump notably appeared to have escaped conspiracist vitriol of the sorts directed at Hillary Clinton (although a backlash is on the cards, as once ensconsed in office Trump will inevitably be accused of selling out in relation to the compromises, back-tracking and diplomacy central to the practical operation of democratic political systems). Instead, Trump has found himself in stoush with the US intelligence agencies, political institutions whose historical legacies (espionage, misinformation, disinformation, black ops, propaganda etc.) are at the very heart of modern conspiracy theory. 

Thus we have the US intelligence agencies claims that hackers, affiliated with the Russian government, undertook acts of cyber-espionage in order to compromise the integrity of the 2016 elections – largely by hacking and releasing information such as e-mails that tarnished Hillary Clinton’s image – and their subsequent dissatisfaction with Trump’s dismissal of their accusations (entwined with Trump’s disrespectful slighting of the intelligence agencies, notably his rumoured rebuff of their weekly intelligence briefings to the President on the grounds that he is intelligent enough to suss things out without their advice). The FBI’s warning is one redolent of the realpolitik conspiracism of the Cold War, in that they are basically saying that Russia is clandestinely manipulating the American political process towards their own geo-political ends: the ends in this case being the election of Trump over Clinton, because Trump would purportedly run a more ‘pro-Russian’ presidency/administration than his opponent. 

Putin auditions for role of Morpheus in forthcoming reboot/remake/rewhateverthefuck of 'The Matrix'

This argument has been more recently compounded by the scandalous allegations, deriving from Western intelligence sources, that the Russkies have a dirty dossier on Trump, containing evidence of all sorts of sexually immoral antics and ethically dubious deals. The insinuation is that Trump will be a ‘pro-Russian’ president because he is effectively being blackmailed by Putin and co., under threat of his personal reputation being so tarnished (by sexual improprieties and political dishonesty) that he would probably have to resign the presidency. In terms of his public image, these allegations would appear to be pretty ineffectual, as Trump’s personality is already flagrantly constructed as equal parts redneck boor, dodgy businessman, and celebrity narcissist – traits which failed to dissuade large swathes of the American public from voting for him.  

The allegations take on considerable conspiratorial interest if they interpreted as a means by which the American intelligence agencies are getting back at Trump through the tried and true methods of slander via innuendo and disinformation. 2 factors which lend themselves to this reading are their dubious provenance, apparently originating from an ex- British intelligence operative via his contacts in Russia who has chosen to go into hiding rather than personally publicise them, and their timing, coming on the eve of Trump’s inauguration as President - a symbolically potent time when they could be assured of inflicting the maximum damage on Trump’s reputation and credibility in relation to assuming the mantle of the Presidency.  

 Regardless of such idle speculation, the premise that the intelligence agencies of the American political establishment may be engaged in internally ‘conspiratorial’ behaviour against the President is an angle that seems to have been missing from realpolitik conspiracism for a while (for instance, the 9/11 conspiracies appeared to take as granted that the intelligence agencies were the minions of evil President Bush and his cabal, their black ops teams doing the dirty work of blowing up the twin towers through secret controlled demolitions et al. ). It will be interesting to see if this premise develops further to be one of the defining characteristics of the Trump presidency. 

Another staple of critical political and cultural commentary surrounding the rise of President Trump, that also offers much food for conspiracy scholar thought, is the rapid adoption of the phrase ‘post-truth’ to describe his approach to politics…but this deserves a post of its own.

Aaaaiiieee! The 90s...

Addenda: is it significant that wretched 90s ‘alternative’ band Third Eye Blind are being dragged out of mothballs to play at Trump’s inauguration ceremony? Besides the fact that Trump’s cultural capital is so low that the only celebs and performers his team can get for events are of the kitsch/ lame-o variety, such as 3EB and Scott Baio, Third Eye Blind’s name is surely a reference to the Third eye of occult/Masonic/Illuminati symbolism – the ‘eye on the pyramid’ motif that every conspiracist recognises from US paper currency … except that the eye is ‘blind’ and unseeing, rather than open. 

Does this mean that the Trumpians are signalling – using the ‘symbolic language’ so beloved of the Illuminati – that Trump will ‘blind’ the radical/progressive/enlightenment possibilities implicit in the mystical image of the ‘third eye’ via his role as instigator of a repressive totalitarian state, in which such ‘enlightenment’ will be suppressed? Or, alternatively, is it a signal that the Illuminati/Satanic/New Age culture represented by the ‘third eye’ will be challenged and overcome – ‘blinded’ – by the Trumpian forces of all-American/Christian/capitalist righteousness? Let the meme go viral!

Addenda to addenda (Feb 2017): wrote this cold and later found the band that played Trump's inauguration was Three Doors Down - another 90s band even more naff than Third Eye Blind (hmmm - should I apologise to 3EB? Can 90s corporate alternative rock be forgiven though?) I'll leave the 'Third Eye Blind' conspiracy up anyway - you never know what the kids pick up on to go 'viral' on the 'social media' these days...