You can find the original version of this essay HERE.

“They aren’t even good at it” is what I have found myself thinking more and more often since the MAGA regime has taken power. The thought isn’t in reference to Musk’s DOGE attacks on the federal infrastructure (though the application there certainly would be apt) but to the MAGA/Christian Nationalist/US-fascist attempt to embody a certain masculine imperial vibe to which they purportedly aspire. We shouldn’t be surprised I suppose; Hannah Arendt warned us long ago of the banality of evil, and the peculiar smallness that inclines a person to embrace fascism is hardly a secret. These are people who want to see themselves as masculine kings and nobles harkening back to the chivalric myths of medieval Europe and noble illusions of classical Rome, and they are just bad at it.

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