The Road to Dystopia

Does this really look like the result of competence?

A friend of mine recently suggested that Trump’s sheer incompetence in almost every regard made it very difficult to take seriously any allusions to Orwellian dictatorships. How could he possibly achieve the dire heights (lows?) of such totalitarian power when he can’t even spell his tweets right? (Anyone for Covfefe)

This is a tempting conclusion to draw from such absolute ineptitude. However, the more I look at the decisions he’s made and the outrageously poor performance of his presidency thus far, the more I feel like just such a future is a growing possibility.

Below are the things that I wrote in response to my friend, and I thought that I would share them here to see what others think. This is far from the kind of thing I would normally write about. Note that these were written off the top of my head at the time and have not been elaborated upon here. What follows is exactly as I wrote it in response to the initial comment:

Thoughts on an Incompetent Dictator

The most troubling thing, I think, is that for the Orwellian vision to manifest, I don’t believe that organisation and competence is necessary. Here are some things that worry me slash very possible steps that could get us there:

• The White House is occupied by an outright liar, and not in the way that “all politicians are liars” but in the way that the absolute worst guy in your office is an untrustworthy snake. To my mind, this alone utterly undermines the entire nation.
• As unstable and incompetent as his presidency seems, it’s essential to remember that he does have a sizeable following. There are people all day every day celebrating his presidency and effusing about how great he is. These people talk about him with a tone of voice that doesn’t really speak of respect but something more akin to cult worship.
• Those that see him for what he is and see that as egregious as it is might be writing some scathing Medium.com articles (whoops), but no one is seriously protesting or camping out on the lawns of the White House. The vote has been taken, and people have accepted that that’s democracy. This is happening and it’s going to just keep on happening.
• He is very loose with language, and it only takes for his language to become mainstream / common usage for him to control effectively what we say. He says things that make little sense, he makes up words and terminologies. The media then has to report on these things, ultimately analysing and printing his language. If his language begins to seep into the media because his word is the best way of describing his message, then we’re on very dangerous ground. (Look at how quickly people started talking about the “alt-left” after he used the term, and look at how quickly the quotation marks disappeared as the term became one of true common use.)
• He has consistently called the media fake, and even those that despise him regularly have to concede that the media needs to do a better job. Myself included. That slider only needs to keep going in one direction and the media loses all trust on both sides. Then it’s a complete free-for-all in terms of facts and reliable reports of what’s going on in the nation/world. He can keep lying, and the media will point it out, but no one will trust the media anymore. Sure, people won’t trust him either, but then where do we look for truth?
• The lack of delivery on his promises has been recognised by many as a valid communicative strategy. People now with all seriousness say that Trump’s promises are “not literally honest” but they are “emotionally honest” and as such should be seen as a valid way of communicating. Put simply: That is fucking terrifying to me. Granted this is more commonly espoused by his supporters than commented on positively by his detractors, but ultimately we have a significant contingent of the population who say that even though he is lying through his teeth, we appreciate his message. (Note: This was also seen around the UK EU Referendum.)

The Grim Possibilities

You can see that these things, some of which have happened already and the others which seem very plausible in a very near future do not rely on him being competent or having a strong support system; they merely require him to be on the platform he is on and to continue receiving the levels of attention and coverage he is receiving.

If he is allowed to continue down this path, and if the wake he leaves behind him includes things like the news media and reliable commentators, then we will be living in a world where our leader refuses to tell the truth, no one who criticises him for that can be trusted either and a large portion of the population actually love him for exactly those traits. This is what we see already in Russia, for example.

One likes to have faith in the power of the democratic process, but really, if things continue to get worse, who’s to say that he won’t just overthrow the election when the time comes. That sounds outlandish even as I type it, but look at some of the other things he has already done during his time in office. Things that you would never believe a president of such a developed and powerful country could ever do. Things that would seem laughable in the context of previous presidencies.

Will anything really happen?

Do not be lulled into a false sense of security by the apparent incompetence of Trump, for he does not need to be competent to cause devastation. Do not talk about dictatorship as though a bad president couldn’t achieve it — as though dictatorship were the manifestation of a good presidency!? Effectively, all that is required is for Trump to decide that a) he wants to keep being president and b) he doesn’t care if the voters agree. I’m not saying that this will happen, but it doesn’t seem anything like impossible.

These are worrying times, people.