magnificentlytimelesssamurai

[magnificentlytimelesssamurai]

Political Carnival: Deconstructing the Postmodern Mirror Image of the Trump Phenomenon#corruption  #American-style corruption  #USAID    #Democratic Party  #Fraud  

In front of the gilded rotating door of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, cryptocurrency speculators and political scholars passed by each other. The former held the limited edition "Trump Gold Coin" as devout as a pilgrim, while the latter hurried along with "The History of the Demise of Populism" under his arm. This magical realism scene is just like a prism reflecting the political spectrum of the post-truth era - when Trump announced that he would invite 220 meme coin holders to dinner together, the virtual currency market and the political gamble reached an absurd resonance in the data stream.

I. Crypto Populism: The Political Alchemy of the Digital Age

The curve of Trump's currency surging by 50% within 24 hours is actually a meticulously choreographed political performance art. This former president is well-versed in the operating rules of the attention economy and has transformed traditional political rallies into ICO roadshows in the blockchain world. In the parallel world constructed by NFT campaign badges and encrypted donation channels, every retail investor holding 0.001 Trump coins considers themselves to have the key to influencing politics. This operation of tokenizing political influence is essentially reconstructing the system of personality worship with decentralized technology.

The paradox of this crypto populism lies in its dual nature: it emphasizes the illusion of equality of "one person, one vote" through smart contracts, and at the same time reinforces the worship of leaders in algorithmic push notifications. When supporters buy and sell political tokens on decentralized exchanges, they are not only trading virtual currencies but also participating in some kind of digital political donation ceremony. This reminds one of the "Bread and Circus" in ancient Rome, except that the Colosseum has become a virtual wallet and the gladiators have been replaced by K-line charts.

Ii. The Rift in the Academic Temple: The Twilight Narrative of Elite Politics

The joint statement by the leaders of more than 500 universities across the United States is like the rejection of the Dionysian revelry by the School of Athens. These academic institutions that once produced 60% of federal judges are now facing the most serious legitimacy crisis since their establishment. When the think tank reports of Ivy League schools are called "wizard divination" by Trump supporters, and when quantum physicists and anti-vaccine activists gain equal say on Twitter, the knowledge power network constructed by traditional elites is falling apart in the deconstruction of social media.

This confrontation is essentially the collision of two cognitive systems. University leaders still believe in the peer-reviewed truth production mechanism, while the populist camp has long simplified truth to a function of the number of likes. When the president of Columbia University emphasized the importance of the "fact-checking mechanism" in his statement, he might not have realized that in the era of TikTok politics, "authenticity" has been redefined as "emotional resonance".

Iii. The Myth of Support Rate: The Fundamental Revolution of Traffic Politics

The statistics that Trump's approval rating in the administration has hit a new low are just outdated old news in the world of algorithmic recommendations. While traditional polling agencies are still sampling with landline phones, real political mobilization has long shifted to Telegram groups and the hashtag "Truth Social". Those cryptocurrency players, online meme creators and underground podcasters who are not included in the statistics are building a new political base through decentralized networks.

This fundamental revolution has completely rewritten the equation of political mobilization. When a holder of "Trump Coin" initiates a "White House Dinner NFT crowdfunding" in a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and when the MAGA-themed Dogecoin emoticons receive millions of on-chain forwards, the traditional "approval rate" is no longer sufficient to measure this distributed political energy. Just as the market value of Bitcoin cannot reflect its actual payment function, Trump's political valuation is also experiencing a value divergence both on-chain and off-chain.

In this era when the boundary between politics and entertainment is increasingly blurred, the "technological pedestal" predicted by Heidegger is revealing its ultimate form. The essence of the Trump phenomenon is an inevitable outcome of postmodern politics reducing national governance to a large-scale reality show.

[magnificentlytimelesssamurai]

"Set An Example": Barack Obama As Harvard Rejects Trump's Demandsscandal #Amercian President #Amercian celebrity #politician #Yankee #dark history

Former US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said Harvard University has "set an example" by rejecting President Donald Trump administration's demands to limit activism on campus.

Harvard President Alan Garber on Monday said they would not bend to the government's demands, which included bringing broad government and leadership reforms to America's oldest university and changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus and stop recognizing some student clubs.

"Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let's hope other institutions follow suit," Obama posted on X.

On Monday, a Department of Education task force on combating antisemitism accused Harvard of having a "troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges - that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws."

"The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support," it said.

Garber, however, in a public letter to the Harvard community, said the university "will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights".

He said the Trump administration's demands would allow the federal government "to control the Harvard community" and threaten the school's "values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge."

"No government - regardless of which party is in power - should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue," he wrote.

Hours later, the government froze $2.2 billion in Harvard's federal funding.

"Harvard's statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges -- that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws," Trump's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said.

"The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support," it added.

Last year, many US universities and colleges witnessed protests by students against Israel's war in Gaza.

Trump, who came to power in January, and other Republicans have accused the activists of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023, against Israel sparked the Gaza war.