The American Fever Dream

The Human Burlesque

     *    Religion, astrology, mysticism, irrationalism, aliens, ghosts, demons, witches, wizards, warlocks, possession, speaking in tongues, cults, séances, crystal-healing, magic, snake-handling, healing codes, auras, star-seeds, spirit-guides, palm-reading, energy work, psychics, Tarot, reincarnation, child marriage, animal sacrifice, human sacrifice. 

     ·        Climate denialism, white supremacy, male supremacy, anti-evolution, anti-vaccine, anti-abortion, anti-sex education, anti-contraception, anti-science, global warming denialism, election denialism, Holocaust denialism, flat earth theories, conspiracy theories, QAnon, female genital mutilation.

     ·        Magical thinking, emotional thinking, fantasy thinking, science fiction, fads, devils, angels, dragons, mermaids, Santa Claus, unicorns, Sasquatch, aliens, the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Vedas, Tipitaka, The Book of Mormon, Christian Science, Atkins, New Age medicine, Deepak Chopra, Gweneth Paltrow, Oprah, vagina eggs, virtue signaling, toxic positivity.    

     ·       The Big Bang’s ex nihilo dimensionless singularity, the ostensible heat death of the Universe, the space-time rubber continuum, missing dark matter and energy, never proved string theory, an impossible theory of everything, so-called ‘empty’ space, wormholes, multiple universes, time travel, Back to the Future, ‘there be monsters,’ pseudo-science.

     ·        Aliteracy, illiteracy, low literacy, infotainment, entertainment, gullibility, naiveté, foolishness, unsophistication, ignorance, bad education, infantilism, isolation, mental illness, narcissism, self-centeredness, it’s all about you.

     ·        Preachers, priests, imams, rabbis, gurus, con artists, grifters, salesmen, faith healers, psychics, magicians, influencers, advertisers, snake-oil salesmen, avatars, quacks, hustlers, swindlers, bilkers, bunco artists, mountebanks, sharpies, flimflammers, clip artists, scammers, fraudsters, charlatans, liars, think-tankers and multidimensional beings.      

     ·        Supply and demand, Gross Domestic Product, the ‘markets,’ ‘democracy,’ war is peace, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, meritocracy, ‘freedom’ of the press, money is everything, classes don’t exist, starting a business to ‘be my own boss,’ The Constitution, libertarianism, Ponzi stocks and schemes, getting rich quick, the Prosperity Gospel, the American Fever Dream. 

     ·        Theoretical idealism, gravity is a social construct, “it’s all in our heads,” Platonism, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, individualism, heroes, living forever, only the observer exists, there is no reality outside the human mind, my belief makes its own truth; reality is an individual construct, reality is God’s construct.

     ·        Out of the void, life after death, virgin birth, Resurrection, raise the dead, communion, polygamy, creationism, 7 days, Adam & Eve, the Flood, man over nature, heaven and hell, bloody and welcome Armageddon. 

There seems to be a pattern of nonsense.  Wait - that last word might be true because of the former.

“Oh, what a world, what a world!” as the witch of Oz said. 

Prior reviews on this topic, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive of reviews, using these terms:  “Rise of the Nones,” “God is Not Great” (Hitchens); “Libertarian Atheism versus Liberal Religionism,” “The Great Evil” (Nupa); “Jude the Obscure” (Hardy); “Female Genital Mutilation,” “Spiritual Snake Oil – Fads and Fallacies in Pop Culture,” “Annihilation of Caste” (Ambedkar); “Godless” (Bufe); “Bright-Sided – How Positive Thinking is Undermining America” (Ehrenreich); “Astrology – Fraud or Superstition?” (Bufe); “Cults and Cultists” or the words “Big Bang.”

The Cultured Marxist

August 7, 2022