The facade of unreality is crumbling

Cooking the books, endless distraction, and truth breaking through

Trump just fired the person in charge of collecting jobs data and very nakedly declared that he would replace her with someone more loyal to him. The commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was fired immediately after releasing the July jobs report, which revealed that job growth has stalled this summer. As CNBC writes, “The weakness in job growth points to an economy that may be slowing even more than some of the traditional metrics are showing.” This latest data is the latest in a long series of recession indicators, but instead of confronting that reality Trump chose to shoot the messenger.

Shooting the messenger is actually underselling the president’s latest move. Beyond getting rid of unpleasant messages, he wants to craft a permanent state of good news. As the new jobs data was released, showing that May and June really saw 258,000 fewer new jobs than previously stated, the Trump Department of Labor put out a statement that reads, “Wages are up, investments are pouring into our nation, and native-born workers have accounted for ALL job gains since January!” Aside from being blatantly racist and xenophobic, this declaration is just obviously untrue. Of course people born here didn’t account for 100% of jobs created, that makes no sense. Never mind that the country also missed job creation expectations. For some portion of Trump’s political career these half-baked untruths didn’t seem to matter. Facts bounced off, lies stuck, the muddier the water the better he did. But, now, reality is catching up.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Reality, long delayed, appears to be coming due. Trump’s long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein is knocking louder every day. Israel’s forced starvation of all of Gaza, continuously enabled by America, is breaking through. The reality that our economy is weak and hollow, that tariffs are raising prices, that manufacturing is not in fact coming back to our shores, is all hitting home through the noise. This July, health care and social assistance, which added 73,300 jobs, accounted for the entirety of the month’s gains. Not only are Trump and the GOP attacking both of these industries, but the rise in social assistance jobs itself indicates a country in need, a society where people are struggling to get by.

And people are struggling. New car payments now average $750, and cars are mandatory in most of the United States. The typical new house now costs almost half a million dollars. Tariffs are driving up the price of food and basic goods. Conservatives are using their power both to enrich the super-rich and to gut the social safety net. In fact, they’re directly transferring wealth from the working class to the ruling class in a more brazen and audacious manner than ever. The results of this stealing from the poor to give to the rich are all around us, and even though the latest wave of oligarch theft is just starting to hit shelves and pocketbooks, the long-term effects are everywhere. This viral chart shows one element of the cumulative results of decades of neoliberalism and capitalist exploitation of the 99%:

Sixty years ago over half of 30-year-olds were married and owned a home. Now it’s below 15%. Of course, there are some good elements of marriages coming later. Women are pursuing careers more, people are choosing to have fewer kids in ways that are often healthy and freeing, and oppressive norms have been lifted in numerous ways. But, at the same time, we see the exponential rise of home prices in this data, we see the pressure to delay marriage for economic rather than social reasons, we see more and more people feeling that they are unable to marry and have kids for financial reasons, the same reasons that prevent them from owning a home.

Some of these difficulties manifest in nebulous discontent, in men being radicalized into fascism, in our politics moving right, but some manifest in concrete and quantifiable problems. Homelessness hit a record high last year. Americans have over $220 billion in medical debt. We live in a time of massive wealth, where a tiny number of people hoard mind-boggling amounts of money while more and more people struggle to get by. These very tangible, material problems are inextricably linked to the rise of fascism and to every other problem we face. And these material problems are coming due, are breaking through the facade of unreality that Trump and his entire MAGA movement desperately rely on for their success.

The premise of Trumpism was always the facade, the lie. From Obama’s birth certificate to migrant caravans to invading Greenland, the MAGA movement has always been a parade of mediocre storytelling meant to scare masses saturated with fear and hatred. It’s always been a bad puppet show with big shadows that distract and alarm and offer absolutely nothing of substance. But it turns out people need substance. We need sustenance. Even the true believers, the real Trump acolytes, are now hungry for answers when it comes to Epstein’s Island, when it comes to the cost of a home, when it comes to their jobs being replaced by AI. People need substance. But instead the Trump regime says JD Vance will be looking into alien life, a nuclear reactor will be built on the moon, zero migrants have crossed the border this year. These are all real claims being made, and they’re all equally dishonest and deluded, because that’s all they have left.

Reality has caught up. Fascism is one great lie that attacking the oppressed will somehow help the rest of us. The Trumpist iteration of fascism says that handing the rich money and handing one egomaniac unlimited power while scapegoating the vulnerable is somehow good for the 99% of us. It never made logical sense; it was always premised on emotional appeal and lies. And, as we know, the truth doesn’t always magically break through — truth does not inherently emerge victorious. Rather, as we’re seeing now, the lie of fascism emerges specifically to paper over the truth that capitalism fails us. It emerges to cover up the rot, the stench of capitalist excess. It rises at times when the masses of people grow angry at the ruling class, and waves flags in an effort to get the bull to charge at the immigrants rather than the billionaire. And, for a time, it works.

But now we find ourselves at a different stage. The distraction is worn thin. The show grows stale as the specter of reality pushes through the curtain, encroaches onto the stage. The fascist leader tries, harder than ever, not just to distract from reality now but to alter reality more than ever. He tries to edit the data and replace people who convey reality with those who will convey his distraction. But still the facts push through, the negative outcomes of decades of capitalist exploitation combine with the desire of the fascist regime to steal everything that isn’t bolted down, and the crushing impacts of reality are eventually too much to delay any further. That is where we find ourselves, right on that cusp. Reality is breaking through, undeniable, and we have to be ready to run with it, to run with the disillusioned and confused masses who are now being struck by the light. - JP