News of an Oath Keeper's J6 “death list” made me think about whether Johnny Depp or other celebrities keep death lists much like the Dead Pool or “rule of three” that emerges when a celebrity dies. Trumpist culture is the kind that actually keeps such lists, much like hypothesizing that Trump keeps such a list, or has flushed several down a toilet. Such pathological signs of obsession, much like watching the Depp-Heard trial on TV, or the mourning for the UK monarchy.
Recent court documents allege the names of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss were written on a pad of paper labeled “death list” found by police in the home of suspected Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell, Salon reports. Earlier this month, prosecutors revealed the existence of the “death list” but did not name the workers. Caldwells is charged with serious conspiracy.
Here is DeathList 2022. This is a list of 50 celebrities chosen by the DeathList committee, before the start of the year, for the fact they may die in 2022. The concise summary of the DeathList rules: Candidates must be famous enough such that their death is confidently expected to be reported by the UK media; Candidates cannot be famous solely for the fact they are likely to die imminently and only 25 candidates can reappear from the previous year’s list. After the record-breaking year of 2020, DeathList 2021 was a bit of a let-down with only 12 deaths, well short of the record of 20.
MFP? The fact that Depp/Heard lawfare is still coming back as an appeal:
Considering the Depp/Heard verdict and its subsequent shitposting of cheers for spousal abuse, the Trumpist culture offensive(sic) dominates discourse, as Bill Kristol indicates in a Bulwark piece. Everybody lost.
The trial offered a glimpse into a potential future media ecosystem where content creators serve as the personalities breaking news to an increasing number of viewers — and, in turn, define the online narrative around major events. Those creators can also bring in major personal profits in the process. In this new landscape, every big news event becomes an opportunity to amass followers, money and clout. And the Depp-Heard trial showed how the creator-driven news ecosystem can influence public opinion based on platform incentives.
And so in 2016, and throughout Trump’s first terms—especially at the times of the impeachments, and after January 6th—when asked to repudiate Trumpism, everybody in Republican and conservative circles turned up their hands and said, “How shocking!”
Which means that there is no Trump “fever” that is going to break, because Trumpism is now not a fever. It is an entrenched, all-encompassing fact of Republican and conservative life; one that is likely to be with us for quite a while. Trump may personally fade, but Trumpism is here to stay, for the foreseeable future.
Which means that authoritarianism—with inflections, or at least overtones, of fascism—will be here for a while, too. With an infrastructure, with a popular base, and with elite enablers. In other words: With its own establishment.
Obviously anything that can be done to weaken Trumpism’s hold on the Republican party would be good. But this chipping away will be gradual and will most likely take time. We’re more likely to have some Republican Brezhnevs and Andropovs before we get a GOP Gorbachev.
The old Republican Reaganite conservative establishment has, unfortunately, been replaced by a new MAGA establishment. The question is whether on the other side of the aisle a new vigorous, hard-headed, liberal establishment can be born. If this is not to be what Gramsci called a time of monsters, it needs to be born quickly.