264 vs 214. The count of votes obtained by the candidates for the presidency of the United States has stopped for hours. Trump talks about fraud, claims to have evidence, says he’ll go to the Supreme Court. Twitter labels his tweets as fake news. Journalists interrupt his live press releases to warn their viewers that what their president is saying has no basis. Biden has practically won, but maybe he still hasn’t realised it. He is silent. When he speaks, he says nothing concrete. “Sleepy Joe” is the closest thing there is to non-Being: even now that he has won, he makes sure that the entire world only talks about Trump.
Two diametrically opposed candidates, perhaps. The first is close to former segregationist senators, has opposed the practice of desegregation to promote racial integration in schools, is accused of sexual harassment and/or inappropriate behaviour by eight women, is (was?) disliked by the #MeToo movement, in the Senate he voted in favour of the war in Iraq and helped get it started. The other, on the contrary, is considered by the whole world a racist, misogynist, molester, warmonger, dangerous, with ridiculously yellow hair and orange skin. Oh, and his wife actually looks maliciously at Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau.
What is worse, what is really impossible for me to tolerate, is the moralistic teaching that is given to us by famous stars and the media. The world intelligentsia knows what we have to do and is ready to tell us for our own good.
We could take a quiz while waiting for the great result. Who was it that on the radio during the election campaign said: “if you don’t vote for me, then you are not black?” (Biden). Who referred to Haiti and El Salvador as “shithole countries”? (Trump). Who said at a rally: “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids”? (Biden). Who invited the terminally ill to resist at least until election day so that they could vote for him? (Trump).
Yet the world of the right-thinking and politically correct knows exactly in which direction to polarize their accusations. Trump is the enemy to bring down. Biden has been acquitted, he has come out clean from the universal judgment as if he were radiant and pure. It is, therefore, necessary to sweep the dust under the carpet in order to be able to fight Trump, the common enemy, who was formerly declared guiltier.
The #MeToo movement suddenly makes exceptions for Biden. To the motto “believe women” we must now add an “until they accuse a Democratic candidate”. Biden himself, in 2018, said: “For a woman to come forward in the glaring light of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real”. Should we then believe Tara Reade, who accuses him of pushing her against a wall and spreading her legs wide open and then touching her while she was working as his Senate staff?
Then again, to understand this paradoxical situation better, Stephanie Sims, a member of the board of “She votes Illinois” (who fights for women’s political representation), comes to our aid. Sims said: “The behaviour he (Biden) is alleged to have done is inexcusable”, but… “it doesn’t change the way I’m going to vote (for him)”.
Even in regards to racism, the world has decided to apply the usual elegant hypocrisy, so that Biden can pass unscathed. Let’s dust off a photo of the former vice president together with Obama, while the two laugh with complicity at a basketball game, and we immediately feel a little light-hearted. Even Kamala Harris, after accusing him of having a racist past, then agreed to be his vice-presidential candidate. During the Democratic Party primaries, Harris had in fact attacked Biden. Firstly, she blamed him for being close to two former segregationist senators, she then added: “And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing [the practice of racial integration in order to diversify the racial composition of schools]. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me”. That said, she ended up accepting the nomination as her vice president. A choice, on Biden’s behalf, made explicitly with the intent to get into the good graces of the Black Lives Matter movement. Biden had always assured that he would take a woman as his vice, and after the protest demonstrations that broke out following the killing of George Floyd, he chose to take a black woman. Moreover: Harris’ name is written in large letters on all the election posters. Why is that? Because with the accusations of sexism and racism against Biden, it was good to make sure that everyone read that his vice president is a black woman. So much so that when he was Obama’s vice-president, his name was much less present on the election posters: after all, he was a white man, so there was nothing to be proud of. I, therefore, ask myself: isn’t it an act worse than sexist, worse than racist, to choose above all a woman so in order to be able to flaunt one’s own progressivism and choose her black with the sole purpose of calming people down about possible racist tendencies?
In this scenario what is worse, what is really impossible for me to tolerate, is the moralistic teaching that is given to us by famous stars and the media. The world intelligentsia knows what we have to do and is ready to tell us for our own good. An intelligentsia composed of journalists who four years ago predicted Hilary Clinton’s triumph over Trump and who until a few days ago gave Biden seventeen points advantage more than the current president. Journalists who predicted the end of the world if Trump had won in 2016. Journalists who, after spreading such nonsense, have the courage to be outraged by Trump’s words and explain that he is a liar, creator of fake news and that those who believe his lies are functionally illiterate. An intelligentsia composed of stars who talk about punching Trump or offer fellatio to those who do not vote for him, but who are indignant about the president’s vindictive violence and his sexism.
Lady Gaga explains to us, from an election stage, that deep in our hearts we know that Biden is the right choice. Harrison Ford, Beyoncé, Jennifer Aniston, Bella Hadid and many others are all busy on social media reminding us how we should vote – and that it’s a good thing they are there to explain it to us. The front is so compact that it has created a sort of witch hunt, which today would be more like a functional illiterate hunt. It is no longer possible to say that you vote or that you prefer Trump, the illiterate hunters are everywhere and even include people who want to know nothing about politics. If you try to say that you prefer Trump over Biden, the most you are given is the chance to admit that you were joking. It doesn’t matter if nonconformist intellectuals and not consensus seekers like Michel Houellebecq are pro-Trump. Better to rely on Miley Cyrus who cries on Instagram as maître à penser. It doesn’t matter if Trump was the protagonist of a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates or if he averted a possible war with North Korea. But who is Trump? The madman with the necessary codes, ready to drop the bombs.
I, a maverick thinker, who goes against the grain, decide to stay on the loser’s side, on the threshold of his defeat. Not so much out of admiration for him, but because of the intolerance I have towards pro-Biden thinking. If to be on the right side of History I have to pretend not to see the naked Emperor, I choose to sit on the wrong side.
Out of diligence and on a libertarian basis, I refer at the end of this reflection to the reading of what is different from me, yet fraternal, to the other from me; dialogue as the first form of philosophy is reaffirmed today. The text to refer to is “The lesser evil” written by Sara Simon.