Fascism ‘sommeliers’ and new expression of denialism

The USA is experiencing one of the best economic moments in its history. “Ah, but there are those disinherited by globalization…” I know. But that’s been a while, and that world won’t come back. The country experiences full employment — unemployment at 4.1% —, robust growth and inflation at 2.1%. “Ah, but it was higher…” Just like what happened in the rest of the world due to Covid. Part of it was also due to the fantastic injection of public money into private activity to, how shall I say?, spin the capitalism machine.

Paul Krugman wrote dozens of articles pointing out that Americans’ perception of the country’s economic situation often differed from the respondents’ own quality of life. As much as one would like to attribute the negative assessment of the Biden government to “the economy, stupid”, the truth is that inflation of 2.1% is inflation of 2.1%, and unemployment of 4.1% is unemployment of 4. 1%. Do what? So it’s not the economy, stupid! Those that did not take advantage of the best of globalization did not emerge in the last four years.

The US and the world are not a notable example of income distribution. Yes, it’s true, this globalized capitalism, which moved production chains to distant countries and deregulated the job market to the point of irresponsibility, concentrated even more income. There and here. There are studies about it. But does Biden manage internally that deserves the disapproval of more than 60%? The thesis is untenable.

There is, in fact, a kind of anti-government wave across democracies, and those who benefit from this discontent that surfs the networks are the extreme right-wing movements because they are always present with their simple and wrong solutions to difficult problems. In common, they all wear the garb of conservatism in their customs to threaten the population with ghosts and create some scapegoats to mobilize hatred. In Trump’s case, it’s immigrants. Bolsonaro prefers to focus on “communism” and “gender ideology”.

Trump gave, as I have already highlighted in this column, a rather tame speech. He promised to rebuild the country — is it, by any chance, in rubble? — and heralded a “golden age.” Holy God! Raoul Girardet, in “Political Myths”, has long characterized the discourse of authoritarian leaders. Invariably, they refer to a “moment of fall”, attributed to opponents, and announce the “golden age”, as long as the population subordinates itself to the leader’s wishes.

And how does Trump promise to do this? I suppose, then, that the US would have to have even lower unemployment, higher wage income and lower inflation… What are the chances of that happening? Well, he promises tax cuts, which will lead to an increase in public debt, overtaxing of imports, which will lead to an increase in prices, and mass deportation, which will lead to higher labor costs. If you do what you promise, what “golden age” will you deliver to Americans?