The Villain's Journey

Give it up for the bad guy

Every Batman needs a Joker; every Luke Skywalker needs a Darth Vader; every Dudley Doright needs a Snidely Whiplash. You can’t be a hero without worthy villains to conquer. An Arthurian Cycle that consisted of the knights bullying peasants and ambushing outnumbered opponents might be more true to the realities of post-Roman Britannia. But it would lack everything that transforms truth into Myth.

Today Americans have no shortage of villains to choose between. Today the personal is not only political, it’s also existential. Our opponents don’t simply disagree with us, they want to destroy our way of life and wipe us out altogether. There is no sense in trying to understand the Demonrats/Rethuglicans or achieve compromise with the Axis of Evil. Monsters are to be slain, not bargained with.

But amidst all the rogues in our gallery, one has risen above all the rest. Donald Trump takes up more American headspace than Jesus and the Beatles combined. He’s inspired women to march through the streets wearing pink pussy hats and driven men into soy-frothed gnashing of teeth. Since his ride down the Trump Tower escalator the Donald has gobbled up our attention like Divine clinching the Filthiest Person Alive title.

How did this orange Snidely Whiplash rise to the top? What nefarious but entertaining plan will he try next? Why do we keep feeding his desperate need for attention like so many pooping poodles? To understand this enemy, let’s turn our Wayback Machine back to the twilight of the Obama reign.

The PMCs and Washington bureaucrats had a visceral loathing for Donald Trump from the moment he announced his candidacy. Democratic pundits, at first, thought him a gift from the Gods of Fortune. Certainly nobody as despicable as this failed casino owner, wrestling heel, and reality TV star could ever take the Oval Office.

Hillary Clinton certainly had a more impressive CV than Trump. But she also provoked a visceral loathing among many Republicans. To the “basket of deplorables” gauche enough to support the man who clotheslined Vince McMahon, Hillary was the Suicide Queen. But their opinion was irrelevant. They were, after all, stupid enough to think Trump’s vanity campaign had any chance of succeeding.

When the smoke cleared and the Orange Eschaton Immanetized, there was a great cry across the land. Obama had brought a certain expectation that America’s race problems were over and we were going to embark upon a brave new era of peace and prosperity. The 2016 election marked an abrupt and unexpected end to that dream.

Trump’s win was especially hard for students who had never known a leader besides Obama. Burdened by student loans and facing an ever-shrinking job pool, they poured all their anxieties into a big orange box with tiny hands. He was an illegitimately elected pussy-grabbing commander in chief with a hotline to the Kremlin.

All these tensions had been playing out for some time. Before they were Deplorables they were bitter people “[clinging] to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.” With Trump in the Oval Office, those bitter Christofascist gun-clingers became a terrifying new army.

A nation which had just elected a Black President twice was now diagnosed with a terminal case of white supremacy and racism. The Left went on an extended struggle session to figure out how America had fallen into the hands of a bloodthirsty tyrant.

The PMC struggle against tyranny came to suburban lawns in the form of IN THIS HOUSE WE BELIEVE BLACK LIVES MATTER etc. placards. A Wisconsin librarian named Kristin Garvey created the original sign the day after Trump’s victory. It soon became both a sign of hope and a great way to find a majority White neighborhood when house-hunting.

Two of the slogans Garvey compiled took on new meaning in 2020. Her second proclamation, “Science is Real,” became a rallying cry against the anti-vaxxers and their bleach and horse paste remedies. And on May 25, 2020, the organization that inspired the opening was suddenly thrust into an international spotlight.

George Floyd memorial, Minneapolis

In 2013, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi formed the Black Lives Matter Network after the deaths of Trayvon Martin and several other young black men. For the next several years, BLM continued to build chapters and draw attention to police abuses against Black Americans. It grew steadily throughout Obama’s second term and into the Trump era.

By May 2020 there was a Black Lives Matter chapter on the ground in Minneapolis. As the story gained national traction, it suddenly found itself in charge of a $20 million bail fund. BLM marches and protests sprung up around the world. And BLM organizers channeled COVID anxiety into action, with the help of funding from small donors and large NGOs alike. A spiritual cult grew up around St. George Floyd, as did a dedicated gang of blasphemers.

George Floyd memorial, 4chan

More than a few people noticed that the George Floyd protests resembled the dissent that triggered Colour Revolutions in several countries between 2009 and 2020. Others pointed out that many protest organizers were being funded by George Soros, one of the leading figures behind the Colour Revolutions.

It was also clear that the Trump #resistance received far less pushback than the WW II French Resistance or the ongoing Palestinian Resistance. Nobody wound up swinging on a Nazi gallows or rotting in an Israeli prison. Nobody got hit with unexpected tax audits or slammed with lawfare nuisance suits. And far from losing their livelihoods, quite a few Twitter personalities turned Trump-resisting into a lucrative full-time job.

If those suspicions are correct, this Revolution succeeded and the chosen candidate won the 2020 election. There were and are, of course, rumors of election fraud. But those rumors always swirl around elections after Colour Revolutions. And the same people who declared those elections valid recognized Joe Biden, so there is no reason to give credence to the long-discredited 2020 election lie.

We know that many used the anti-Trump hysteria to gain readers, voters, and clicks. We also know that there was near-universal hatred for our 45th President amongst journalists and media professionals. That could be evidence of an organized conspiracy. It could also suggest that an audience nervous about its future prospects and its past due bills fell into lockstep around a common Enemy.

For all their real and fabled power, Colour Revolutionaries are not sorcerers. They cannot create tensions where none exist; they can only amplify and direct existing pressures. Botnets, paid influencers, and public relations campaigns all play roles in modern politics. But while that background noise can shape media, those efforts are all attempts to exploit a deeply-seeded human instinct. Let’s take a look at René Girard’s ideas on the scapegoat mechanism.

William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat (1854-5)

During medieval plague outbreaks, violence frequently broke out against the Jews who had purportedly poisoned the wells. These accusations seem absurd today. But to a terrified populace with no knowledge of germ theory nor access to antibiotics, they made perfect sense.

People do not generally start dying en masse out of sheer coincidence. A plague is a senseless catastrophe that can only be endured. A conspiracy is a willful crime that can be avenged. By finding a target to blame, the community expels its guilt

Divine disfavor and demonic magic were less frightening that Jesus-killing Jews waging war on Christendom. They were also less plausible. Medieval townsmen and laborers certainly believed in demons and magic. But they saw Jews in the streets every day and they knew the Jews were the killers of Christ. A visible evil will always carry more visceral impact than an intangible one.

It is easy to think today that those European peasants were merely superstitious and bloodthirsty. But the same instinct that fueled those pogroms remains ingrained within our psyche. They sincerely believed the Jews had poisoned the wells because that was the most plausible and most emotionally satisfying explanation. And after a critical mass of their fellow villagers decided to act upon it, it also became the safest.

We like to believe we’re free agents who come to our conclusions through independent research and logic. But Girard suggested that we acquire much of our learning through mimesis. When we hear a statement repeated several times by friends and trusted authority figures, we assume that it’s true. Coming to a contrary conclusion requires effort, and we’re not likely to make that effort unless the rewards outweigh the risks.

There’s a tendency to assume our opponents are acting out of bad faith. We think they are simply mouthing words they don’t believe because that’s what their friends are saying. But in reality most believe those words because that’s what their friends are saying. Those who stop believing generally withdraw quietly from the field, with only a very few joining the other side.

A certain Austrian painter famously complained of Communists who would lose an argument, then the next day repeat the same assertions as if they had never been debunked. Hitler assumed they were lying, and gradually he began to hate them. But those Communists were certain of their truths. They assumed the next day that they had merely been browbeaten by a clever wordsmith. That was a sensible and logical explanation that fit the facts and left their worldview and social status intact.

The same goes for those who fear Trump’s impending reign of terror. Today Donald Trump’s smirking visage can be found on billboards and memes. Pundits warn us of the impending dangers of a second Trump term. He’s immediately recognizable in photo, caricature, statue or silhouette. There are lots of Very Important People talking about Donald Trump, and most of what they are saying is very bad indeed.

There is certainly a good bit of performance and preening in many social media interactions. But the longer you LARP, the more the role becomes instinctual. Their reactions may be overblown and melodramatic, but their fears are real. And the energy they expend on that existential terror ultimately serves to feed the thing they fear most of all.

We hate villains, but we’re also fascinated by them. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator was so popular he got recast as a protagonist in Terminator 2. Serial killers regularly receive love letters on Death Row. Many a wrestling heel has garnered adoring fans. Rumor has it that one even became President.

When you have a charismatic villain opposed by a boring protagonist, people inevitably start rooting for the unstoppable bad guy. And there’s no easy way around it: Trump is charismatic and Biden is boring. The distaste Joe creates is not the full-blooded bellowing hatred Trump inspires. It’s the mingled pity and disgust one feels at watching a senile old man sniffing uncomfortable children.

Trump has leveraged his notoriety into a large and rabidly loyal fan base. They will dismiss any evidence against their ironically-non-ironic God Emperor. And while Democratic spinmeisters continue to whip up Bad Orange Man hysteria in an effort to get their voters out, Biden has found a crucial chunk of his base now consider him a collaborator with their latest Enemy.

The ongoing Israeli response to 7 October continues to outrage the world. We now hear conversations about Zionist power and Israeli apartheid on mainstream media outlets. Calls for Israeli Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) now ring on campuses across America and around the world. Both conventions will likely see protests rivaling the 1968 disturbances.

In this conflict Biden finds himself trapped between wealthy Jewish donors with strong pro-Israel sympathies and young left-wing Democratic voters with strong pro-Palestine sympathies. His attempts to find a center path have only earned him ill feeling from both sides. In a tight race, Biden has already lost many Muslim-American votes in Ohio and Michigan.

By contrast, the Orange Enemy has loudly expressed his Zionist sympathies. Trump’s most ardent fans are largely sympathetic to Israel and unconcerned with the plight of Palestinians. And now that Hamas is the Left’s cause du jour, the Fox News Right has largely declared their support for not-Hamas.

Should Trump win the 2024 election, we can expect a louder, more insensitive Zionism coming out of US foreign policy. This will likely lead to louder screeds from the media about the Palestinian genocide, and increased pro-Palestinian activism in the streets. If the forceful attacks on encampments continue, we’re going to see a hardened core of radicals tempered by arrests and prison sentences. You can ask the Romanovs why that is a problem.

Our Colour Revolutionaries and social media #resisters may have backed themselves into a corner. They have dedicated all their resources to making their hated opponent a figure of Evil. But in doing so they awakened another sleeping American icon, the rough-hewn Outsider riding in to battle the party of Crooked Hillary. The dragon they created has become more popular than the befuddled knight that slew him.

In the long run all this social engineering may not make a great deal of difference. The American Empire has financial and structural problems that are beyond the ken of either Biden or Trump. Whoever wins this election inherits Byzantium in 1452, or the Ottoman Empire in 1921. But what can we do when the world falls apart and we are presented with new lists of Enemies?

Economic downturns and global wars are frightening. Frightened people seek outlets for their fear. As things get worse, you’ll see many scapegoats sent out to carry your attention off into the wilderness. Many will succumb to those temptations. Those who do not will be at a considerable advantage in the days to come.

The Colour Revolutionary channels your fear and anger toward a desired target. You should ask yourself what they hope to accomplish from your rage. Then ask yourself what you hope to accomplish besides a dopamine rush and a blood pressure spike. Your proposed Enemies may be demonic scoundrels fighting for an Axis of Evil. More likely they’re flesh and blood human beings with their own loves, fears, and agendas.

Don’t assume that your opponent’s Enemy is your friend. John Michael Greer frequently notes that the opposite of a bad idea is generally another bad idea. Many PMCs and bureaucrats think Donald Trump is the Antichrist. That doesn’t make him Jesus. Playing sides off against each other is a dangerous game, as the Global American Empire and the State of Israel are learning to their disadvantage.

Girard believed that with the Passion, Christ became the ultimate scapegoat. His innocence speaks for all those sacrificed for crimes they never committed. When we stand silent before the scapegoat, we become Peter denying his Lord three times. The Passion that redeemed us also unites us.

This argument is certainly less compelling for non-Catholics or non-Christians. But recognizing a common humanity even in your opponent predates Christianity and appears in many other traditions. If we must fight — and there’s a non-trivial chance it will come to that before it’s over — let us fight no more than is necessary. And let us be open always to a just and honorable peace.