It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Clowns help hospitalized kids cope, study shows By HealthDay News
Researchers say hospital clowns can help improve both physical symptoms and the psychological well-being of children and teens through laughter and play. File Photo by Francisco Guasco/EPA-EFE
Send in the clowns -- they could help hospitalized children cope with pain and anxiety.
New research shows that hospital clowns can help improve both physical symptoms and the psychological well-being of children and teens through laughter and play
For the study, researchers from Brazil and Canada reviewed databases to find clinical trials on the subject of hospital clowns published up until February 2020. They found 24 relevant trials involving 1,612 children and adolescents.
In those trials, anxiety was the most frequently analyzed symptom, followed by pain, psychological and emotional responses, perceived well-being, stress, cancer-related fatigue and crying.
The results suggested that children and adolescents with both short-term and long-term illnesses who were in the presence of hospital clowns, either with or without a parent present, reported significantly less anxiety during a range of medical procedures.
They also experienced improved psychological well-being compared with standard care.
The study was published online this month in the BMJ.
Three trials that evaluated chronic conditions, including cancer, showed significant reductions in stress, fatigue, pain and distress in children who interacted with hospital clowns compared with standard care, the study authors said in a journal news release.
Only one trial found no difference in levels of distress between a group of children who interacted with hospital clowns and those who didn't, according to Luís Carlos Lopes-Júnior, from the Federal University of Espírito Santo, in Vitória, Brazil, and colleagues.
"Hospital clowns might contribute to improved psychological well-being and emotional responses in children and adolescents in hospital with acute or chronic conditions," the researchers reported.
"Our findings also support the continued investigation of complementary treatments for better psychological adjustment during the hospital admission process in pediatrics," they wrote.
Previous studies had suggested that hospital clowns could help to reduce stress and anxiety in children before and after surgery, but results were inconsistent.
The trials researchers examined were designed differently and of varying quality. Limitations of the study include differences in data collection, follow-up time points, severity and onset of conditions and risk of bias.More information
Scientists decode why people are scared of clowns Vishwam Sankaran Mon, 6 March 2023 A new study about the fear of clowns aims to reveal why people are scared of the performers whose entire purpose is to make their audience laugh.
In the new research, published recently in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, scientists from the University of South Wales assessed data from an international survey of nearly 1,000 adult participants from 64 countries and found that more than half of the respondents reported having some degree of coulrophobia.
About 5 per cent of the respondents said they were “extremely afraid” of clowns – a number reportedly higher than that for other phobias like heights, animals, or closed spaces.
Exaggerated facial features of clowns and makeup hiding emotional signals are the main reasons people fear them, according to the study. Another reason cited was the negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture, like that of the character of Pennywisein Stephen King’s It.
Another factor that attracted one the highest ratings among survey respondents was the alleged unpredictable behaviour of clowns.
Researchers pointed out that the lowest level of agreement among participants was fear stemming from a frightening personal experience with clowns.
Scientists suspect it may not be any of the individual elements that may be frightening itself, “but rather the juxtaposition of these features”.
They said the “uncanny valley effect” – due to clowns not appearing entirely like humans in appearance – compounded by makeup that completely covers the skin may be some of factors that play out in combination to induce fear among people.
Researchers also suspect the redness on the makeup, “reminiscent of disease and contagion”, could play a part in striking fear among adults and children.
“These factors can combine to give a clown an appearance of deformity, to which (sadly, but nevertheless unavoidably) humans have a natural reaction of revulsion and fear,” they wrote and called for future research to provide a stronger test of these hypotheses.
They said research assessing participants and measuring their subsequent reactions as they viewed clown images as well as varying makeup and hair colours on them could offer fresh insights on the phobia.
Citing some limitations of the study, researchers said while about 54 per cent of the participants self reported having some degree of fear of clowns, the study did not assess whether the respondents would meet the diagnostic criteria for a specific phobia.
Scientists said future research should consider other factors associated with “co-occurring mental health conditions”.
In future studies, researchers also hoped to unravel if people with their faces painted as animals tend to induce the same kind of fear or if the clown makeups particularly have fear-inducing properties.
“In conclusion, this study is the first to investigate the aetiology of clown fear and to consider competing explanations of the origins of this phenomena,” they added.
Saturday, September 26, 2020
The happy hug of a clinic clown
It is established that dementia rates are rising worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, 50 million people already suffer from dementia, with 10 million new cases being added every year
The happy hug of a clinic clown
6 min read.Updated: 25 Sep 2020, 10:20 PM ISTPriti Salian
As dementia rates rise worldwide, clinic clowns are helping to induce positive emotions and create a sense of well-being among patients
In Auroville, a few years ago, a bed-ridden woman was watching Fif Fernandes attentively as she sang and pranced around, playing on her ukulele. When the woman, who was living with dementia, finally smiled, Fernandes asked, “What did you do as a child?" The woman beamed and drifted into a childhood memory, when as a four-year-old she would travel on a bullock cart with her father to get an ice lolly. “The lolly melted and dripped down my chin, and then down my clothes, and then it broke and fell," she recalled just before her thoughts meandered elsewhere.
It is established that dementia rates are rising worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, 50 million people already suffer from dementia, with 10 million new cases being added every year. India itself has about 4.1 million cases, as The World Alzheimer’s Report 2015 notes. Experts believe this number may be higher, since many cases go undiagnosed, with people ascribing forgetfulness to old age. In such a scenario, clinic clowns, or clowns working in healthcare spaces, can be harbingers of joy to the elderly. Studies show that they induce positive emotions and a sense of well-being among patients.
Fernandes is one of the handful of trained clinic clowns in India. After practising for over 30 years in Canada, she moved to Auroville and co-founded MeDiClown Academy in 2013 with her husband, Hamish Boyd, also a therapeutic clown. The academy’s work entails training and conducting workshops for individuals and organizations. The couple also visits people of all ages in hospitals and senior homes across cities. “Music is a huge part of what we do," says Fernandes. “It brings back beautiful memories for the elderly."
Once she is in an elderly person’s room, she observes pictures on the wall, a favourite pillow or a dress, which can be used in conversation. Once she has forged a connection, Fernandes recreates stories related to those objects through her clowning skills.
Once, for instance, an elderly woman with dementia told Fernandes that as a nine-year-old, she would walk to the village school with her four sisters. “One day, when we reached school late, we covered up by saying that the milk pot broke at home and that delayed us," recalls Fernandes. The teacher believed the five sisters and gave them a glass of milk each. In the evening, she told their mother, who was angry with the children for lying. Fernandes took cues from the story and enacted it for the lady with her colleagues. “The elderly love to go back to their childhood and like the freedom to laugh and be silly with clowns," chimes in Boyd.
Such exercises are significant for people with dementia; they often feel lost because they can’t remember things. “Families keep checking about facts and dates, without realizing the trauma and agitation it can cause," explains Fernandes. “Role-playing their narratives, under their direction, gives them the power to be in control without being challenged about their memory. We never tell them something could not have happened, however surprising it may appear."
Clowning in hospital settings was first started in North America in 1986 by Michael Christensen, co-founder of the New York-based Big Apple Circus. Karen Ridd (Robo the Clown), a child life specialist, simultaneously founded Canada’s first therapeutic clown programme at the Winnipeg Children’s Hospital. The practice later spread to Europe.
Since the 1990s, it has played a particularly significant role in Germany, where one in five citizens is over 65, and almost 10% of the seniors have dementia. Take Arnsberg, a city of 73,000 that is considered a model for inclusion of the elderly. It has nine trained clinic clowns like Julia Wille, who goes by the clown name of Mia Mumpitz and visits senior homes at least once a month.
The process has a therapeutic value for clowns too. Wille, 46, found her calling in clowning more than four years ago, during a long spell of clinical depression. “I saw a picture of a clinic clown in a newspaper and instantly knew the road ahead for myself," she recalls. She works at an assisted living facility in Arnsberg but has been doing honorary clowning work at elderly care facilities. “Clowning has kept me in good mental health without medication," she says.
One cheerful morning in July, Mia Mumpitz entered Helena Desol’s room at the St Anna home with a loud and affectionate “Hola", a red clown nose covering her own, hair pulled up into ponytails and lips defined with red gloss. Spain-born Desol, who is 80, lost the ability to speak a few years ago but squealed with delight on seeing her. Like a long-lost friend, Mumpitz enclosed her in a hug. Desol wrapped her left arm around Mumpitz—it’s her good side, ever since she suffered a paralytic attack.
Mumpitz then broke into a song, placed her hands on her waist and began the footwork. Eyes brimming with joy, Desol swung back and forth in her armchair and hummed along.
“About a third of the 90 residents at St Anna have dementia, and benefit from clown visits," says Dagmar Freimuth, the leader of social service at St Anna. Wille’s clowning gently persuades elderly people to participate in her activities. “Sometimes, though, all it takes is a gentle touch to reduce their agitation and anxiety caused by dementia," Wille says.
One of the residents of St Anna stopped talking to everyone after his sister’s death but opened up after the clowns cajoled him, recalls Wille. “An old lady always shooed me away, however hard I tried talking to her, but one day I happened to sing a song from her childhood and that was it. I am always welcome in her room now," Wille smiles.
Johannes Föster, who trained to be a clinic clown three years ago at the age of 72 and now volunteers as Clown Berti in Arnsberg, interjects with another story. There is a woman, Föster says, who would never respond to the clowns, but the last time she saw him in the lounge, she said, “Have a nice day!" Föster smiles, “I think she is coming around."
Fernandes has seen similar results in India, where medical clowning is still in its infancy. There are only a handful of individuals and groups working in Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. Like Sheetal Agarwal, a former teacher who got into clowning in 2016 and founded Clownselors, now heads a team of 15 regular volunteers in Delhi. Then there is Humanitarian Clowns, which has had 250 volunteers visiting hospitals and old-age homes for the past eight years in Vellore and sometimes Chennai.
Generally, however, the absence of training institutes means clinic clowns are untrained and doing voluntary work. Which is why, in August 2019, MeDiClown Academy started its first 600-hour course on medical clowning with 11 students, to educate participants on art, storytelling, yoga, music and improvisation. “We want medical clowning to become a respectable profession in the country," says Boyd.
Students learn about patient psychology, dealing with care facilities and working in tandem with a medical team. “However," emphasizes Fernandes, “the most important thing for clowns is to know how to make a connection with their heart."
Priti Salian is a freelance journalist who has covered human rights, social justice, development and culture issues in India, Germany and Uganda.
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Fif Fernandes of MeDiClown Academy. Photo: courtesy MeDiClown Academy
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Julia Wille (standing, second from left) at work.
Saturday, February 26, 2022
A first convention gathers African clowns in Cameroon
Cameroon hosted the very first convention of African clowns on Wednesday and Thursday.
It is in the French cultural institute of Douala that young and old alike gathered to watch comedians, clowns, jugglers and other performers. William Nong, is one of the instigators of the convention. After spending 15 years abroad he decided to return in his home country: "The person who first initiated me to clowning was a woman, Yeto Lougou. She’s a school head in the French city of Nantes. In retrospect, when I looked at my continent, I decided to promote the figure of the clown in Africa and more precisely in my home country Cameroon. Today there are two challenges one lies with timing another one with financing issues and there are also mentoring issues. That explains why many don’t know about clowns nowadays. Back in the day people knew about buffoonery and other clownish acts but it has faded away."
In order to revive this art throughout the country, many step up. Chamberlain Feumba also known as Féfé le clown is one of those who try to instil within the youth the love for the performing art he discovered twenty years ago.
"I am Féfé the clown and was taught clown classes by a foreign theatre company when they arrived in Cameroon. It is thanks to this training that I become a clown."
If there are no circus in the country, Féfé the clown works to train the next generation here in Douala. "I mostly work in schools and my primary audience is made up of children. So I achieve my teaching objective here in schools. Every time an opportunity comes my way I agree with the schools on a contract and I give 1-hour classes. At the end of the school year the children perform and they can show their parents all they have learned."
In Cameroon there is only a handful of clowns companies. If circus is popular elsewhere, the art of performing hasn’t won his spurs in Cameroon just yet. Clowns like Féfé do their best to make that happen.
Monday, September 09, 2024
SCARY CLOWN
Medical clowns shorten hospital stays for children with pneumonia
Credit: Dream Doctors/European Respiratory Society
Spending time with a medical clown can shorten the length of hospital stay for children with pneumonia, according to research presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Vienna, Austria [1]. They can also reduce the duration of intravenous antibiotic use.
The study was presented by Dr Karin Yaacoby-Bianu from Carmel Medical Center and the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
She explains: “Medical clowns undergo specific training to work in hospitals. They have been shown to reduce pain and alleviate stress and anxiety in children and their families during medical treatment, and have been gradually integrated into many aspects of hospital care. But their impact on children being treated for pneumonia has not yet been investigated.
“Community acquired pneumonia is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in children, globally. A child’s length of hospital stay depends on several factors including their well-being, vital signs, need for intravenous fluids and antibiotics and whether they develop complications.”
The team followed 51 children aged between two and 18 years old, who had been hospitalised due to pneumonia. One group received standard care, the second received standard care plus a 15-minute visit from a medical clown twice daily during the first 48 hours of hospitalisation.
Three medical clowns from The Dream Doctors Project [2] used various techniques to relax the patient, for example music, singing, and guided imagination. They also encouraged the children to drink and eat by themselves again.
The researchers found that the group who were visited by a medical clown had a shorter hospital stay (43.5 hours on average vs 70 hours) and only needed two days of IV antibiotics treatment, compared to three days in the control group. In the clown group, researchers also noted a significant decrease in respiratory rate, heart rate and inflammatory markers.
Dr Yaacoby-Bianu explains: “While the practice of medical clowning is not a standardised interaction, we believe that it helps to alleviate stress and anxiety, improves psychological adjustment to the hospital environment and allows patients to better participate in treatment plans like adherence to oral antibiotics and fluids. This in turn helps the children to recuperate faster.
“Laughter and humour may also have direct physiological benefits by lowering respiratory and heart rates, reducing air trapping, modulating hormones, and enhancing the immune function.”
The team are running further studies on the effect of medical clowns on other diseases to see where they might be most effective.
Dr Stefan Unger is Chair of the ERS Group on Paediatric Respiratory Infection and Immunology and Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People Edinburgh, UK, and was not involved in the research. He said: “This study indicates the positive effect that humour can have in healthcare settings and emphasises the potential for non-pharmacological interventions to influence clinical outcomes.
“Shortening the length of children’s hospital stays by adding medical clowns to a multidisciplinary care team in cases of pneumonia may reduce physical and emotional stress on children and their families. It may also reduce costs and lift some of the burden on healthcare systems.
“The specific mechanisms by which humour influences clinical outcomes remain a subject for future investigation and further trials in larger patient cohorts are indicated to confirm the findings of this study.”
Aloosh and the Gaza clowns: Men of peace, beyond Hamas and Israel's bombs
by Dario Salvi
The Italian Marco Rodari, known as 'Claun il Pimpa', talks about his bond with the artists of the Strip, a movement that he himself helped to create. Gifting a smile to a child can mean the difference between anger in the moment and hatred in the future. His personal remembrance of the Christian victims of the conflict, the parish of the Holy Family 'always an oasis of peace'.
Milan (AsiaNews) - "Extraordinary men of peace". This is how Marco Rodari, better known as “claun il Pimpa”, famous for having brought clowning and juggling to many theatres of war and violence, describes to AsiaNews the "mission" of Aloosh, Maroosh and the Gaza Circus School who, in these months of conflict (thanks to the coordination of the CISS Cooperazione Internazionale Sud) are trying to bring a smile to the Strip.
"The meaning of the word peace," he says, "I learnt it from them who, in spite of everything, manage not to hate, to contain their anger, and it is incredible that even this time they have managed to make children and adults smile. They have written to me a couple of times in the last period," he confides, "to tell me that they are alive and, I assume, constantly on the move. I get very short messages telling me that they are in Rafah' and that, although they cannot put on big shows, every now and then they 'manage to gather children and play with them', alleviating their suffering even for a few moments.
Claun the Pimpa experienced the 2014 war at first hand, sharing with the population of the Strip dramas and deaths, hopes and prospects for peace, and today he recounts: 'From the outside, you have no feeling of what is going on, while when you are involved from the inside, you understand nothing. A condition of total uncertainty'.
We caught up with Marco Rodari, 48, originally from Loggiano in the province of Varese (northern Italy), on the eve of his departure for a new adventure in another 'theatre of tension': the artist is heading to the Donbass, to give - as he has been doing for more than 15 years - a smile to the children (and adults) now victims of the Russian war in Ukraine, after having walked countless hospital wards with his red nose in the past to bring comfort to the sick.
From paediatric wards, he then set out to bring circus art and clown shows to Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, to Gaza, where he first arrived in 2009. Thanks to a friendship consolidated over time with Fr. Jorge Hernandez first, Fr. Mario da Silva and Fr. Gabriel Romanelli later, all priests of the Incarnate Word, and parish priests of the Holy Family, "claun the Pimpa" started to promote shows in the Strip and contributed, with many other associations, to nurture a generation of local artists.
He also received recognition for his valuable work, the honorary title of Cavaliere della Repubblica from the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella in March 2023.
In the Strip, he strengthened his vocation of being a 'clown in the theatres of war', so much so that he experienced numerous conflicts first hand: in Gaza in 2014, then Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, where he arrived thanks also to the collaboration of the different Churches.
He has also left his mark, so much so that he is still remembered today from Baghdad to Aleppo, all the way to the Strip. It is his desire 'to be close to a population that I have come to know over time, appreciating its resilience: it is able to feel anger, rage, but without allowing itself to be dominated by a blind hatred that admits of no hope'.
Through his presence in Gaza, over the years Marco Rodari - who created the association 'Make the Sky Smile'in 2015 - has not 'only' served to entertain the younger generation. In fact, he has promoted and supported the birth of a local circus school and laid the foundations of a project that continues independently thanks to the dedication, and skill, of two now very popular clowns: Aloosh and Maroosh, who in these dramatic weeks of war have created improvised shows by reuniting the historic group of the Gaza Circus School.
"They stayed in the north until the situation became so difficult that they had to leave, when the population realised that it was no longer possible to stay, trying to act as human shields to their homes. And when they realised that the number of deaths among the children was becoming unbearable," he recounts.
"Imagine Aloosh who, thanks to his skill, is able to move and keep even 1,500 children entertained all at once. He who in these weeks of exodus, displacement and war has become a father for the second time, Maloosh and the other clowns have a joy inside that cannot wait to 'take revenge' on the horrors of the conflict. And that makes us realise,' he continues, 'that it is possible to put on shows even at this moment, in Rafah' while news reports announce the imminent ground operation by the Israeli army and more than 1.4 million refugees press the border with Egypt.
'I don't need many messages,' he explains, 'to know how they are, I only need to look at a photo of them smiling to catch their joy and that of the children. The great thing is that another four or five people who had stopped clowning to devote themselves to other activities, again linked to educating children, have resumed in these very weeks, to make a contribution too", rediscovering their former vocation.
"Among other things, this flight from north to south, because almost all of them are from the north of Gaza," he adds, "meant that they could not bring anything but themselves, and pushed them to relive the clown experience with just a little make-up."
"Every child, because of what they are experiencing, will react differently, but it is important to giift them one beautiful moment that they will remember,' confides Rodari, who cites a personal anecdote from the harshest phases of the Syrian conflict: 'A 16-year-old girl from Damascus, whom I met years later at an event in an Italian high school, remembered the time I managed to bring a smile and a moment of joy to her while the battle raged outside. Sowing, 'even just one good memory in a child can make the difference, in the future, between feeling legitimate anger and going so far as to hate. A light of hope in the darkness of war, that is also the task of us clowns".
One last thought he would like to dedicate to the two women of the Holy Family parish who died during these months of conflict in Gaza, whom he knew and to whom 'I loved very much: seeing their son, who guided me around the Strip, bury his mother and sister' was a source of great suffering. The same applies 'to the killing of our organist [Elham Farah], the one who invented music in Gaza. It was her way of praying, this too is the drama of war'.
Friday, October 02, 2020
An actual clown on the PRESIDENTIAL debate: 'I hope we can set the record straight on what clowns actually are, and they are not Donald Trump' Juliana Kaplan Sep 30, 2020,
The word "clown" ended up playing a big role in the debate. sturti/Getty Images At Tuesday's night presidential debate, Democratic nominee Joe Biden called President Donald Trump a 'clown.'
Business Insider spoke with Tim Cunningham, a clown and emergency nurse, about the usage of the term in the debate.
Cunningham said he laughed when he heard the term used, but that Trump does not exhibit the virtuosity of a clown.
Tim Cunningham decided to watch the presidential debate while on vacation.
One undecided voter — who said he voted for Trump in 2016 — was asked by CNN post-debate whether it was appropriate: "Is it great that Joe called him a clown? No, but when the shoe fits. When the clown shoe fits."
"When I heard it, I laughed out loud," Cunningham told Business Insider. "I'm fully behind what Biden is trying to do. We need to replace this person as soon as possible — this person being the current person who calls himself president."
Cunningham began studying to be a clown in 2000, and began working with a nonprofit clowning organization in 2003. After working as a hospital clown, he was inspired to go back to school and become an emergency nurse.
Today, he works as a nurse admin in Georgia, where he's been working with nurses and caregivers to help weather the COVID crisis.
For Cunningham — who stressed that his opinions are his alone — Biden referring to Trump as a clown is a nuanced issue. He stressed the artistry that goes into clowning, saying that clowns are ultimately "virtuosos."
"The clown is capable of making that virtuosic act look easy, and in making it look easy, they also open themselves up to vulnerability and failure. And that's where the clown is beautiful, because we see an artist doing this incredible feat, and then every now and then they have a hiccup and they fail," he said. "And it's that moment of failure that we laugh. And then they bounce back up. They're truly resilient, and they guide us through a performance, and they connect with us."
While a clown may be virtuosic, that's not necessarily true of who the "c-word" was lobbed at last night. Does the clown shoe fit?
"The person who calls himself president is clearly not a virtuoso," Cunningham said.
And that gets at the paradox of calling Trump a clown, according to Cunningham. While he may not exhibit the traits that Cunningham identifies as intrinsic to a clown, the usage of the term against him instead reflects where societal standards lie.
"It's concerning that Trump has lowered the standards of human decency so much — lowered the standards of what it means to hold the office of president, to be one of the most powerful people in the world — he's lowered it so much that the response from otherwise highly intelligent, compassionate people is to denigrate him by calling him a clown."
Cunningham said that ultimately he's both "offended" and "honored" by Trump being termed a "clown."
And looking towards the future, he said that, like a clown, he maintains a sense of optimism — and hopes for a future where, instead of bouncing back, we can bounce forward.
But there is one thing he wants to clear up:
"I hope we can set the record straight on what clowns actually are, and they are not Donald Trump."
As the Halloween season gets underway, reports are emerging from the Scottish village of Skelmorlie that a menacing clown is on the loose.
The person appears to be dressing as the haunting Pennywise from Stephen King's It, complete with a red balloon. In the It books and film adaptations, Pennywise, a killer clown, uses red balloons as bait for children.
According to Scotland's Daily Record, the Skelmorlie clown has been leaving red balloons dotted around the small town, home to only about 2,000 residents.
One local, who asked not to be named, told the outlet he wasn't letting his two boys, ages 11 and 13, out at night after reported sightings of the clown.
"Whoever this is they are scaring everybody — he needs to be stopped. Someone needs to have a word with him before the police get involved or he really terrifies someone. He could give someone a heart attack."
The man added that another boy on his street "saw the clown from his bedroom window just before he went to bed — he didn’t sleep all night."
It seems the clown has set up a Facebook page for himself under the name Cole Deimos. The profile states he attended clown school and went to Hellgate High School.
On this page, the Skelmorlie clown posted images of himself in darkened streets and crawling around on all fours on a bridge in the village, though these posts have since been deleted, the Daily Record reports.
A resident named Pauline told the outlet that "everyone in the village" is talking about the Skelmorlie clown after seeing the Facebook posts.
"I imagine he took his photos and videos down because he was getting too much heat."
All that remains on Cole Deimos' Facebook page now is a video with the caption: "a message to the media."
In the video, posted a day before Friday the 13th, the clown dares police to catch them and taunts the journalists who covered the story.
The video opens with the clown sitting on a park bench. He speaks with a voice changer, though the person's Scottish accent can still clearly be heard.
"Should I smile for the cameras with my 'hideous' grin?" the clown asks.
"Or maybe Pauline's right, perhaps I've gone away. 'Too much heat,' what a stupid thing to say," the clown rhymes, referencing the Daily Record's report.
"The police have been informed. Do you think that I care? They'd have to catch me first anyway, and yes, that's a dare."
Calling out the Daily Record journalists who reported on him, the clown adds: "This clown doesn't want fame, glory or gold. He just wants to play in this so-called 'sleepy town.'"
"So come and join in, and learn to fear the Skelmorlie clown," the clown narrates over a video of him in front of the town's welcome sign.
The comments under the clown's Facebook post have been largely positive.
"Out of all the clowns in this village he's the best," one commenter wrote.
Others expressed they've been out in the village at night hoping to bump into the clown, but not everyone is on board with the Halloween antics. One commenter said the clown has been genuinely scaring people and needs to be stopped.
Is the Skelmorlie clown going too far? Or is it all in good fun?
Here's hoping this isn't a repeat of the great clown panic of 2016, when social media was flooded with sightings of "killer" clowns all over the world.
RAW STORY People dressed as clowns attend the Zombie Walk, October 20, 2024. REUTERS/Pablo Sanhueza
The kind of man Stephen King would depict luring unsuspecting children into sewers is the kind President-elect Donald Trump would pick for the secretary of education, a political columnist argued Tuesday.
Salon writer Amanda Marcotte on Tuesday made the case that Trump is actively seeking out men accused of sexually assaulting women for top positions in his administration or, as she calls it, his "cast of dangerous clowns."
"It's not just that Trump doesn't care about sexual assault," wrote Marcotte. "He appears to see it as a bonus if one of his nominees or allies has faced such allegations."
Three men Trump has tapped for Cabinet have faced sexual assault accusations, reports show.
The three men have publicly denied the accusations.
Marcotte argued Tuesday that the denials — and the accusations — don't matter to Trump or his voters.
"He expects his base voters to see these ... like they see him, as an aspirational figure," Marcotte wrote. "And not because they believe they're innocent men done wrong, either. The ability to commit crimes — even sex crimes — and get away with it is part of the allure of Trumpism."
Marcotte argued Trumpism came as response to the #MeToo movement that sought to hold men such as film mogul Harvey Weinstein — the convicted rapist Trump recently complained had been "schlonged" — accountable for attacking women.
"Defending a man's 'right' to have sex with underage girls would be making good on a campaign promise," she wrote. "It's tempting to hope this will anger the public and result in consequences for Trump, but frankly, that's unlikely."
'Apparently not a joke': Critics stunned as WWE co-founder reportedly expected for Cabinet as Education Secretary Matthew Chapman November 19, 2024 8:01PM ET
Donald Trump is reportedly expected to appoint Linda McMahon, the former co-founder of WWE and the chief of the Small Business Administration in his previous presidency, to head up the Department of Education.
The appointment, which swiftly followed Trump's announcement of TV personality and former Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, prompted an instant reaction from commenters on social media.
"Linda McMahon being tipped for Trump’s education secretary," wrote Telegraph editor Gareth Davies on X, attaching a clip of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's famous "Stunner" finishing move. "Another senior US politician who has been Stunnered."
"Cause nothing says educating our children like being an ex-professional wrestling performer and running the @WWE, which has allegedly failed to protect employees from workplace harassment and sexual misconduct," wrote Kendra Barkoff Lamy, a former spokesperson to President Joe Biden while he served as vice president.
In addition to the reaction on X, others commented on the site's growing competitor, Bluesky.
"And, in further 'apparently not a joke' news, Linda McMahon of the WWE for Secretary of Education. LULZ PWNED as a theory of governance, I guess," wrote McGill University professor and Niskanen Center fellow Jacob T. Levy.
"Sort of like Oz at CMS, it’s not clear to me that McMahon would have an agenda of her own, but that might not be a problem for an administration that wants to shrink and eliminate much of DOE," wrote Yahoo Finance's Jordan Weissmann.
"I wonder if Linda McMahon will allow Jim Jordan and @timgill924.bsky.social [to] settle education policy disagreements in the ring?" wrote Michigan State University professor Brendan Cantwell.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that he intends to nominate Linda McMahon, the billionaire former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the Department of Education, a key agency that Republicans—including Trump and the authors of Project 2025—have said they want to abolish.
McMahon served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first White House term and later chaired both America First Action—a pro-Trump super PAC—and the America First Policy Institute, a far-right think tank that has expressed support for cutting federal education funding and expanding school privatization.
Trump touted McMahon's work to expand school "choice"—a euphemism for taxpayer-funded private school vouchers—and said she would continue those efforts on a national scale as head of the Education Department.
"We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort," Trump said in a statement posted to his social media platform, Truth Social. (McMahon is listed as an independent director of Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social.)
The National Education Association (NEA), a union that represents millions of teachers across the U.S., said in response to the president-elect's announcement that McMahon is "grossly unqualified" to lead the Education Department, noting that she has "lied about having a degree in education," presided over an organization "with a history of shady labor practices," and "pushed for an extreme agenda that would harm students, defund public schools, and privatize public schools through voucher schemes."
"During his first term, Donald Trump appointed Betsy DeVos to undermine and ultimately privatize public schools through vouchers," NEA president Becky Pringle said in a statement. "Now, he and Linda McMahon are back at it with their extreme Project 2025 proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, steal resources for our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for disabled students, and put student civil rights protections at risk."
"The Department of Education plays such a critical role in the success of each and every student in this country," Pringle continued. "The Senate must stand up for our students and reject Donald Trump's unqualified nominee, Linda McMahon. Our students and our nation deserve so much better than Betsy DeVos 2.0."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, took a more diplomatic approach, saying in a statement that "we look forward to learning more about" McMahon and that, if she's confirmed, "we will reach out to her as we did with Betsy DeVos at the beginning of her tenure."
"While we expect that we will disagree with Linda McMahon on many issues, our devotion to kids requires us to work together on policies that can improve the lives of students, their families, their educators, and their communities," Weingarten added.
McMahon is one of several billionaires Trump has selected for major posts in his incoming administration, which is teeming with conflicts of interest. During Trump's first term, McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, made at least $100 million from dividends, investment interest, and stock and bond sales.
The Guardian noted Tuesday that "in October, [Linda] McMahon was named in a new lawsuit involving WWE."
"The suit alleges that she and other leaders of the company allowed the sexual abuse of young boys at the hands of a ringside announcer, former WWE ring crew chief Melvin Phillips Jr," the newspaper reported. "The complaint specifically alleges that the McMahons knew about the abuse and failed to stop it."
'Declaration of war on expertise': Experts explain danger of Trump 'MAGA zealot' nominees FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, U.S. April 6, 2017.
President-elect Donald Trump has surprised and even alarmed many across the country, and “puzzled” and “baffled” some within his own party, with his Cabinet and other top White House nominations. Critics on the left have denounced his picks for their apparent lack of experience or qualifications for the roles they are expected to take on, noting some hold controversial or even false positions in the fields they may soon direct policy on. Meanwhile, experts in the fields of government, fascism, and democracy, are raising serious concerns about the potential “danger” some nominees represent, drawing comparisons to the “professional propagandists” often found in authoritarian regimes.
Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an NYU professor of history and a recognized expert on fascism and authoritarianism, on Wednesday pointed to this report on one of Trump’s most-recent nominations, Linda McMahon:
McMahon was Trump’s former administrator of the Small Business Administration, and is a former CEO of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), a major GOP donor, and has recently been the chair of a pro-Trump Super PAC, the board chair of a pro-Trump think tank, and the co-chair of Trump’s second transition team.
“Trump’s cabinet picks are a declaration of war on expertise and facts (that’s why there are several Fox hosts in the mix). The con artists, fraudsters, and professional propagandists that populate authoritarian governments see facts and laws as impediments to their goals,” Dr. Ben-Ghiat wrote.
Trump, announcing McMahon’s nomination, claimed, “Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World.”
McMahon’s only brush with the field of education came about 15 years ago, when she served on the Connecticut State Board of Education. She resigned after 15 months. At the time, her appointment was controversial, with one lawmaker lamenting, “her depth of knowledge regarding education is lacking.”
McMahon is far from the only controversial nominee.
On Tuesday, the vice chair of the powerful House Rules Committee Jim McGovern (D-MA) blasted Trump’s nominees as “beyond insane.”
“Someone who is credibly accused of having sex with an underage girl. Someone who sucks up to foreign dictators and has attracted major concern that they can’t be trusted to protect America’s secrets from our adversaries. Someone who paid hush money to cover up a sexual assault accusation, you know, to lead our military, he’s picked because Donald Trump likes him on Fox News? Someone who says that tap water turns kids gay? I mean, this is the dream team? This is the dream team? Really?”
He appeared to be referring to Attorney General presumptive nominee Matt Gaetz, Director of National Intelligence presumptive nominee Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary presumptive nominee Pete Hegseth, and HHS Secretary presumptive nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State posted video calling Trump’s nominees “a trainwreck.”
“Gaetz, Gabbard, RFK – none of them have the experience or qualifications for the positions they’re seeking, in addition to the fact they’re all dangerous MAGA zealots,” the organization declared. They posted a video clip (below) from MSNBC with a chyron that noted opposition from the right to Trump’s Attorney General nominee, Matt Gaetz.
MSNBC’s justice and legal affairs analyst Anthony Coley told viewers that Gaetz, the recently resigned U.S. Congressman, “has no national security experience—not anything meaningful—little anti-trust experience, and he certainly has no experience with criminal law, except for being the target of a federal criminal investigation looking into inappropriate sexual contact, allegedly, with a minor.”
Trump has also just appointed his former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, a strong Trump loyalist, to be the U.S. Ambassador to NATO.
“Whitaker has little evident foreign policy or national security experience, making him an unknown to many in U.S. security circles,” The Associated Press reports. “Previous ambassadors to NATO have generally had years of diplomatic, political or military experience.”
“Before serving Trump,” Mother Jones notes, “he helped a company hawk bizarre products like a ‘masculine toilet’ to help ‘well-endowed men’ avoid unwanted contact with water.”
But The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a former U.S. Naval War College professor and an expert on Russia and nuclear weapons, served up this warning: “This is just hilarious, but the danger here is that it makes him Senate-confirmed and available for other stuff later.”
In other words, assuming Whitaker is confirmed, Trump could nominate him to another, even more critical role, declaring he’s qualified because he’s already been Senate-confirmed.
Last week, Nichols declared that Trump’s “nominations for intelligence, defense, and justice were revenge on people he thinks are his enemies. This is just endangering millions of innocent people.”
On Monday on MSNBC, Nichols went much further, delivered a scathing analysis of Trump’s nominees, calling them “an all-fronts assault on American democracy,” in another warning.
Trump, he said, is “trying to break the institutions of American government and American society, and what you’ve been seeing for the past few weeks is an all-fronts assault on American democracy, especially with these nominations.”
“I think the most dangerous of these nominations is actually [Pete] Hegseth,” Nichols explained. “And I’m kind of startled that we’re not sitting here talking more about taking a morning Fox [News] host and sticking him in the nuclear chain of command, to lead the largest—one of the largest—bureaucracies in the United States, in the world, including the person that’s supposed to look after the most powerful fighting force on the planet.”
And he concluded, “it’s also important to recognize that we could be in the first phases of a major constitutional crisis, even before Trump is sworn in.”
Dr. Oz nomination seen as potential boon for Medicare privatization
Donald Trump looks on as Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at a pre-election rally to support Republican candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo Donald Trump looks on as Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at a pre-election rally to support Republican candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
Dr. Mehmet Oz, whose unsuccessful 2022 Pennsylvania Senate bid included pitching voters on a plan to expand the privatized Medicare Advantage program, is now in a position to potentially actualize that plan.
President-elect Donald Trumpannounced Tuesday that Oz, also known by his TV personality name Dr. Oz, is his pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
"Dr. Oz—a massive investor in Pharma—told the voters of Pennsylvania his plans to privatize Medicare… and they rejected him. Now Trump is giving him the authority to see his industry-approved plan carried through," wrote the progressive-leaning outlet The Lever, which covered Oz's support for Medicare Advantage back in 2022.
Through Medicare Advantage, which has been promoted by Trump and other congressional Republicans, seniors can opt out of traditional government-run Medicare health plans and instead choose plans administered by private insurers, such as UnitedHealthcare and Cigna.
According to The Lever's 2022 reporting, Oz pushed Medicare Advantage plans on his show The Dr. Oz Show and co-wrote a 2020 column for Forbes with a former healthcare executive in which they argued that a "Medicare Advantage For All" plan can "save" our healthcare system. In the column, Oz and his co-author articulated a plan to expand Medicare Advantage by imposing a 20% payroll tax.
Oz "is not a good pick for a very powerful position in charge of a trillion dollars of healthcare spending," wrote Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project on X, in reference to The Lever's investigation.
The Lever also reported that Oz's plan to expand private plans under Medicare Advantage could "boost companies in which he invests." For example, Oz and his wife owned up to $550,000 worth of stock in UnitedHealth Group, at the time of reporting. UnitedHealthcare and Humana account for nearly half, or 47%, of Medicare Advantage enrollees nationwide, according to the health policy organization KFF.
Additionally, a 2022 investigation by The New York Timesfound that major health insurers have exploited Medicare Advantage to boost their profits by billions of dollars.
Project 2025, a list of right-wing policy proposals led by the Heritage Foundation that Trump has tried to distance himself from, calls for making Medicare Advantage the default option for Medicare beneficiaries, which, if enacted, "would be a multibillion-dollar annual giveaway to corporations at the expense of Medicare enrollees and taxpayers," according to the liberal research and advocacy organization the Center for American Progress.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, offered a related critique of Oz: Americans "need someone who will crack down on insurers who want to deny care to the sick, providers who skimp on quality healthcare, corporations that want to privatize Medicare, and Big Pharma profiteers and ideologues who want to slash Medicaid and refuse care to low-income people. What they do not need is a healthcare huckster, which unfortunately Dr. Mehmet Oz appears to have become, having spent much of his recent career hawking products of dubious medical value."
In addition to the potential boon for private insurers, some researchers, newsoutlets, and members of Congress have also raised concerns about the quality of care administered under Medicare Advantage.
A 2022 government report found that "[Medicare Advantage Organizations] sometimes delayed or denied Medicare Advantage beneficiaries' access to services, even though the requests met Medicare coverage rules" and also "denied payments to providers for some services that met both Medicare coverage rules and [Medicare Advantage Organization] billing rules."
In October, a group of three Democratic lawmakers wrote to the current CMS administrator about increasingly widespread abuses and care denials by for-profit Medicare Advantage insurers.
"We are concerned that in many instances MA plans are failing to deliver, compromising timely access to care, and undermining the ability of seniors and Americans with disabilities to purchase the coverage that’s right for them," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) wrote in a letter.
"We continue to hear alarming reports from seniors and their families, beneficiary advocates, and healthcare providers that MA plans are falling short, and finding a good plan is too difficult," they wrote.
In particular, they pointed to Medicare Advantage plans' growing reliance on prior authorization, a complex, barrier-ridden process whereby doctors must demonstrate a proposed treatment is medically necessary before the insurer will cover it.
"Overuse of prior authorization is not only harmful to patients, it hinders healthcare providers' ability to offer best-in-class service," they added.
Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, warned in a social media post Tuesday that "Dr. Oz wants to fully privatize Medicare."
"That's why Donald Trump put him in charge of Medicare," the group added. "We will fight to stop this charlatan from getting anywhere near our Medicare system."
Trump nomination of crypto banker Howard Lutnick another 'win for the billionaire class'
Howard Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, gestures as he speaks during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in New York, U.S., October 27, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen feigned surprise on Wednesday over President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Wall Street CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce.
"Oh look, another billionaire has made his way into Trump's Cabinet," said the group, noting Lutnick is also a promoter of cryptocurrency and a Trump megadonor. "The conflicts of interest are almost too many to count."
Among the conflicts are Lutnick's involvement in the crypto industry and federal and state cases against Cantor Fitzgerald.
In addition to running the Wall Street firm, Lutnick is a banker for the "stablecoin" company Tether; purchasers receive a Tether token for $1, with the proceeds invested in reserves and Treasury bonds managed by Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald.
As Public Citizen noted, New York Attorney General Letitia James found in 2021 that Tether and another crypto firm "recklessly and unlawfully covered up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines."
The company is also reportedly under federal investigation over alleged criminal violations of anti-money laundering rules and sanctions.
Public Citizen also said that while co-chairing Trump's transition team, Lutnick "may also have helped arrange a meeting between Trump and Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong," who "helped steer a record amount of political spending from the crypto industry into the 2024 election."
Crypto firms poured over $119 million into directly influencing the 2024 federal elections, Public Citizen found in August, making the industry's spending second only to that of fossil fuel companies.
As Politico reported in October, even other members of Trump's inner circle have accused Lutnick of using his transition team co-chair position to take meetings on Capitol Hill and "talk about matters impacting his investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald—including high-stakes regulatory matters involving its cryptocurrency business."
Lutnick's nomination, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, serves as a reminder that "Trump serves the oligarchy, not the people."
"Debris from crypto's political spending tsunami will jam up more halls in Washington than ever before if Lutnick is confirmed as secretary of commerce," said Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen. "The president-elect, who once correctly called bitcoin a scam, now surrounds himself with even more crypto enablers. Cryptocurrency won't return good jobs to the heartland or reduce food prices; it will only thin the wallets of those vulnerable to a now government-legitimized con."
Government watchdog Accountable.US pointed to more than $19 million in political donations Lutnick has made since 2009, nearly all of which went to GOP candidates and political action committees. He contributed $6 million to Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., in 2024 alone.
"Howard Lutnick's questionable qualifications to lead the Department of Commerce begin and end with his loyalty to the president-elect," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk.
Tether isn't the only Lutnick-linked company that's been investigated for wrongdoing. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined Cantor Fitzgerald $1.4 million in 2023, saying the company repeatedly failed "to identify and report customers who qualified as large traders." The company also agreed to pay $16 million in fines to the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022 for using unauthorized communication channels.
Should Lutnick be confirmed as commerce secretary, Accountable.US said a "major regulatory conflict" could arise due to a dispute between the BGC Group, a spin-off brokerage of Cantor Fitzegerald, and futures and commodities exchange CME Group, over a competing trading platform BGC Group is launching.
"Lutnick's company's violations resulting in financial regulator fines and millions in right-wing political donations shows that political devotion takes precedence over actual experience to do the job in Trump's Cabinet," said Carrk.
Trump campaigned as a champion of working people as he railed against high grocery prices. As The New Republicreported on Tuesday, Lutnick has showered Trump's plan for across-the-board tariffs with effusive praise—even as leading economists warn the plan to impose tariffs on foreign imports will pass higher costs onto consumers, not foreign countries.
"In September, Lutnick told CNBC that 'tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use—we need to protect the American worker,'" wrote Edith Olmsted. "Lutnick also gushed about tariffs at Trump's fascistic rally in Madison Square Garden last month, claiming that America was better off 100 years ago, when it had 'no income tax and all we had was tariffs.' His high praise for tariffs came even as he admitted Americans would face higher prices as a direct result."
Lutnick's nomination, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), "is a win for the billionaire class at the expense of working people.
"The across-the-board tariff plan," she said, "is a distraction from the MAGA scam to extend tax giveaways for giant corporations and billionaires like Howard Lutnick."
Trump's Cabinet of horrors exposes his totalitarian drift
John Stoehr November 19, 2024 Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attends a campaign rally of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. October 22, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Donald Trump nominated an alleged rapist and sex trafficker to be attorney general. He picked a Russian asset to be director of national intelligence. He chose a religious fanatic and Kremlin stooge to be secretary of defense. And for secretary of health and human resources, he selected an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who once had a literal brain worm, and who habitually takes (“legal”) steroids to maintain, at the age of 70, the appearance of a physique of a man half his age.
There are the obvious things to say about this motley crew. Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr are , respectively, not qualified to lead the agencies they have been chosen to lead. None has managed anything larger than an office. None has the expertise required. Gaetz has never worked in law enforcement, Gabbard in intelligence, Hegseth in military leadership or Kennedy in public health. Their only qualification is their loyalty to the man who picked them, and how they look to him when they are on television.
Right now, the discussion seems to be concentrated on the Senate Republicans, who will have majority control of that chamber in January. They will be responsible ultimately for vetting Trump’s cabinet picks. The question is whether they will find the courage to restrain the President-elect or roll over, either by approving them or by letting Trump have what he wants through recess appointments.
Among liberals, the discussion seems to be limited to the absurdities each of these people brings to governance as well as the dangers they pose. “Yes, shake your head at the seeming absurdity of these picks,” wrote MSNBC’s Jen Psaki. “But don’t stop there. These choices aren’t just controversial; they require us to stay vigilant about how each potential new Cabinet member could negatively affect our lives.”
But I think we’re missing the bigger picture. These nominations signal the totalitarian drift that’s coming to Washington and the country. Yes, that’s right. No, I’m not exaggerating. It’s time to start using that word.
Totalitarianism seeks dominion over the individual to the point where individuality is erased. That’s what happened to the Republican Party. Individuals have looked the same, talked the same, acted the same and thought the same for a long time. (The men sometimes literally dress the same as Donald Trump, with a blue suit and a long red tie.) After the election, however, Republican behavior has finally been totalized.
As one GOP congressman said, Trump “is the leader of our party. … His goals and objectives, whatever that is, we need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. If Donald Trump says jump three feet high and scratch your head, we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads.”
The objective is forcing the rest of America to conform the way the Republican Party has conformed. This can be seen in the anger expressed by some MAGAs. It wasn’t enough to win. Losers must now shut up and get in line, too. As a Trump attorney said recently: “You’ve got to own when you lose and say: this is America. We have to stand behind President Trump.” Senate Republicans are likely to approve his picks, no matter how bad, because the losers must be taught a lesson.
Totalitarianism also seeks to dominate the individual’s mind by going to war against facts, reason, science and any useful meaning of the word “proof.” In normal times, pre-Trump, we could expect the Senate to have a spirited debate over a President-elect's cabinet nominations, beginning with whether they’re qualified. Such debate is going to be impossible now, because “being qualified” is a meaningless term.
It is a stone-cold fact that Kennedy’s views on vaccines are not only insane, but in direct opposition to the moral principles of public health. But that fact won’t be accepted as fact. It will be taken as evidence of Trump’s enemies trying to sabotage his presidency. And there’s no way to break through this "conspiracist mindset," as Lindsay Beyerstein calls it. It is impervious, she said. “When scientists or the government or journalists come forward with evidence that vaccines save millions of lives and prevent untold suffering, the conspiracist answer is: Well, that’s what conspirators to kill our children would say.”
Because there’s no empirical anchor to conspiratorial thinking, totalitarians can make reality into whatever they want. Up is down, left is right – or in the words of the totalitarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
Therefore, the Republicans are likely to see nothing wrong with his picks. His nominee for the law is anti-law. His nominee for national intelligence is anti-intelligence. His nominee for national defense is anti-defense. His nominee for science is anti-science. But there’s no dissonance in the world of conspiratorial thinking. Up is the new down, and the only measure of morality is whether it pleases the dear leader.
The drift toward conformity and away from individualism isn’t limited to the GOP. Thanks to the right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, totalizing groupthink has also been growing in the culture at large. The trick is that it comes disguised as subversive individualism.
During his interview with Trump, popular podcaster Joe Rogan said, “the rebels are Republicans now. They’re like, you want to be a rebel? You want to be punk rock? You want to, like, buck the system? You’re a conservative now. That's how crazy. And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism. They’re pro-censorship online. They’re talking about regulating free speech and regulating the First Amendment.”
If you are listening to liberals directly, you know there are no such efforts. But if you are listening to the right-wing media apparatus, or if you just feel the conspiratorial ambiance that it generates, it’s possible to cast yourself as a person who’s bucking the system, as if the party of billionaires is the party of the common people, as if people who look the same, talk the same, act the same and think the same are punk rock.
But the strongest evidence of totalitarian drift is the plain awfulness of Trump’s cabinet picks. They have not earned the right to be called on. They haven’t studied or mastered their disciplines. They haven’t built reputations among leaders, peers and professionals in their fields. They haven’t overcome adversity and hardship. They haven’t reached high and achieved. They certainly haven’t followed the road toward the American dream, which asks us to work hard and play by the rules.
And that’s the point. Totalitarians fear individual excellence, first because they can’t understand it, and second because excellence threatens their goal of totalizing conformity. They are not humble enough to admit that they are mediocre people but they are arrogant enough to believe they can force the rest of us down to their level.
With this cabinet, Trump can pick up where his second campaign left off, which is a movement toward “the consistent persecution of every higher form of intellectual activity …” as Hannah Arendt once wrote.
“Total domination does not allow for free initiative in any field of life, for any activity that is not entirely predictable,” she said. “Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty” (my italics).
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