274 Craig Unger: Reagan-Iranian-Likud Collusion 45 Years Later-Augment? Where Does This Belong?
As discussed in Chapter Orwell Donald Trump’s America is Orwellian America. Indeed Chomsky’s recent embrace of the Tankies has damaged his entire legacy-but in reality his legacy was always pretty mixed. I recall years ago in his book on Catolonia he had lauded Orwell’s book on the Spanish civil war but kind of dismissed 1984 as “the most totalitarian country in the world”-ie it was just a caricature.
When he said this years ago 1984 DID seem like a caricature-a cautionary tale perhaps that you hoped would never happen here-but it was tough to imagine. Here on March 4, 2025 it doesn’t so farfetched. Indeed it’s become clear that Trump IS O’Brien. He’s able to change reality and history at will and large parts of the country immediately adjusts its views. For the latest example of this whiplash take the case of Lindsay Graham-who we discussed in chapter Russia Russia Russia: Putin has won.
After the Trump Russia House’s first strike against Ukraine-on the same day that Tulsi Gabbard aka Russia’s girlfriend was confirmed, and that Trump raised the idea of a meeting with Putin-which of course hadn’t happened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pete Hegseth had declared Ukraine could not join NATO and that Europe-ie not the US-must be responsible for Ukraine’s security.
In the immediate aftermath Republican senators like Graham-as well as others like Roger Wicker and Thom Tillis-made a big show of restating support for Ukraine and hitting back at Russia-although NOT AT TRUMP which has been the recurring problem. They categorically dismissed the slanderous lie that Zelensky is a dictator without elections but NOT he who said it.
Lindsay Graham went to a meeting with Zelensky-and three other Senators all Democrats notably. So he was the only Republican in the room. He declared Zelensky the ally he’d been “hoping for all my life.”
A group of Republican Senators, including Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn, and Thom Tillis flew all the way to Europe to declare their undying support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his war against Russia.
At one point, RINO war hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham told Zelensky just how much he admired their relationship, “You’re the ally I’ve been hoping for all my life.”
Graham added, “You’ve taken our weapons and you’ve kicked their ass.”
It’s notable that so often lately when you look for a story the first links are hackish MAGA sites like 100PercentFedUp. Many MAGA hacks were actually pissed at the effusive praise of Ukraine by Graham-Tillis-Jon Cornyn et al.
Again note the Orwellian nature of this narrative: Putin’s the dictator and Trump wants to be a dictator and MAGA is all for Trump being a dictator yet they criticize Zelensky who’s not a dictator for being a dictator.
Honestly these MAGA deplorables need not have worried-Lindsay Graham had voted against Ukraine aid in April 2024
FN:-as did JD Vance who was demanding Zelensky show “appreciation” for everything “we’ve done for you” when Vance did nothing for him. Indeed while I admit Charles Johnson is a complete flake who is the opposite of who you would want to trust as an ally he DID have those very interesting texts with Vance he released where Vance said he could care less what happens to Ukraine-this was over a year before he became Trump’s nominee. Those who want to claim this wasn’t an ambush fail to get that by definitoin including Vance in this escapade was an ambush as he’s such a notorious Russia hack.
He along with all the other chicken hawk Republicans voted FOR Tulsi Gabbard AKA Russia’s girlfriend.
After the despicable bullying of the courageous Zelensky by Trump-Vance Lindsay Graham completely changed his tune declaring that Zelensky had to resign for the alleged great crime of “disrespecting President Trump.”
He’s now tearing into the European leaders for the temerity for standing by Zelensky in the face of Trump’s entirely unjustified and evil assault.
This is yet another example of the fact that Trump=O’Brien. Republicans like Graham, Sec of State Marco Rubbo, Roger Wicker, Tillis, Cornyn et al know perfectly well that 2+2=4 but now stating it’s 5 with great indignation.
Again as I suggested in Chapter Orwell this book could be considered as Winston which is worrisome as ultimately Winston himself bent the knee and declared O’Brien was holding up 5 fingers while he was only holding up 4. This suggests Richard Rorty may be right-that in a world where everyone declares 2+2=5, J6 was an inside job, and The Gulf of Mexico is actuallly the Gulf of America-Winston has nowhere to go. If everybody in the world but you says 2+2=5 what recourse do you have? Rorthy argues none. This is an appalling premise but how’s it wrong?
FN: To be clear I wouldn’t write this mammoth book if I didn’t believe it’s wrong or at least COULD BE WRONG. Much as I loath to quote Chomsky at this point it’s like when someone asked him if it’s true that those who love will prevail over those who hate he said it’s neither true or false-the task is to MAKE IT TRUE.
I certanly fervently hope it’s not!
End FN
But it’s a very interesting not to say vitally important question on 3/3/2025, the day after Trump cancelled all aid to Ukraine: why does the lie seem to have a kind of structural homefield advantage over the truth? One is time-llike Mark Twain observed already in the late 19th century the lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on. That is part of it for sure. It’s also much harder to debunk a lie than to tell it.
If Twain was already correct in say 1870 imagine how true it is today in MAGA America-calling it MAGA is more Orwell, more gaslighting why not Make Russia Great Again (MRGA)?
I guess the question is why are so many people so susceptible to lies aka disinformation? There’s many ways to attack these questions-it’s a very complex question. A lot of it I believe is structural-in terms of both how the human animal engages in logical reasoning and how one attempts to refute a lie. The issue is not just WHAT you think but HOW you think-the form of human thought is crucial.
To answer this question let’s look at two very recently published book books. We’ll first look at from Anne Applebaum’s Autocracy Inc then Craig Unger’s “Den of Spies” on a recurring obsession of mine as discussed in this book-the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign’s collusion with the Iranian Ayatollah to delay the release of the hostages until after the election-as discussed elsewhere in this book actually 20 minutes after Reagan was sworn in.
Let’s start with Applebaum. Overall this is a very interesting book. I’d actually had it on my to read list but seeing Trump’s first 5 weeks back in Office led me to raise it to the top as it seems more relevant now than ever. In her final chapter though I think she said a few things that are very interesting observations on what you might call the human animal and how it reacts to things like disinformation and character assassination.
Dovetails with Roger Stone’s use of the strategy of making people hate a candidate without knowing why
UPDATE: Here’s yet the latest example. Again this is-besides being terrifying-Orwellian: by definition protests are not “illegal”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/now-donald-trump-threatens-us-students-with-arrest-in-latest-controversial-clampdown/ar-AA1Ae0MZ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=c5f27c335985484da8f6cf9cd4530ead&ei=13
End FN
If you want the overarching big idea or theme of this entire marathon book reading Craig Unger’s recently published book on the collusion between the 1980 Reagan campaign and the Iranian Ayatollah well describes it:
Quotes from Annie Applebaum and Unger-Jimmy Carter’s own refusal to believe the October Surprise happened.