From “The Free Thought Project”
The sociopolitical situation here in the United States is becoming increasingly absurd, some could argue deliberately so. Yet as much as we would like to ignore the bizarre and the asinine, it’s important to face it head-on to recognize it for what it actually is: a symptom of the greater systemic issues that we all face.
Things are getting absurd. Well, things have been absurd for quite some time now, to varying degrees. But the frequency with which we are seeing strange and outright perplexing things take place that makes it feel like we’re living in some sort of inverted Twilight Zone world, or perhaps some spin-off of Idiocracy, does appear to be occurring with more regularity as of late.
The sociopolitical situation here in the United States is becoming increasingly ludicrous, some could argue deliberately so. Yet as much as we would like to ignore the bizarre and asinine of the reality that we find ourselves in, it’s important to face it head-on to recognize it for what it actually is: a symptom of the greater systemic issues that we all face.
Perhaps some might not be exactly aware of what it is we are referring to, either through virtue of simply not noticing, or having tuned out their attention to such things. So allow us to elucidate upon some of the more preposterous and even disturbing developments worthy of note to illustrate our point.
Among one of the more recent instances of ridiculousness, the world watched as social media influencer siblings, and renowned con artists, Logan and Jake Paul were — for reasons left completely unexplained — invited to the Pentagon to give a speech to some of America’s top military officials.
About what you may ask? Perhaps Logan offered some advice on how to effectively run a cryptocurrency scam, or maybe Jake had some words of wisdom on how to not get knocked out in your own staged boxing match. Sarcasm aside, reports indicate that the brothers speech amounted to little more than a motivational pep talk.
Surely the career warmongers with decades of experience at the forefront of the US Empire greatly appreciated being patronized by two social media scamsters who’ve made a career off of brain rot.
Among further examples, many may remember the profoundly unserious way in which this administration commemorated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Culminating with the epitome of the commercialization of our political institutions by hosting an event for the Ultimate Fighting Championship on the White House lawn.
In a similar vein, who can forget when the now dead, racist, wife beating pro wrestling “icon” Hulk Hogan took center stage at the 2024 Republican National Convention to give a glowing endorsement to Donald Trump in the form of a grandiose pro wrestling style promo that was not too dissimilar to scenes portrayed by Terry Crews in his role as President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in the 2006 film Idiocracy.
Or shall we reminisce on that time Nicki Minaj of all people, again for reasons yet to have ever been adequately explained, took the podium to give an address to the United Nations in November of 2025.
As imbecilic as they are, these are some of the more light-hearted insensate instances. Others are far more egregious.
On Friday September 4th, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals officially ruled in Sterling V. City of Jackson, Mississippi that Americans do not have a constitutionally protected right to clean, safe drinking water. The precedent setting ruling came amid years of litigation by residents against the city of Jackson for deliberately lying to its citizens about the quality of its drinking water, leading to several instances of lead poisoning.
Since 2015, Jackson, Mississippi has experienced a water contamination crisis rivaling that of the infamous case of Flint, Michigan.
The court ruled not only do citizens not have a right to safe drinking water, it also ruled that citizens are not entitled to honest and accurate information from their elected officials.
For those paying attention to the boom in AI data centers, this ruling is particularly telling. According to the Mississippi Free Press, Ridgeland, Mississippi, a community neighboring Jackson, is in the process of developing a major data center which can consume over 3 million gallons of water daily. All while neighboring residents endure a water crisis.
But Jackson is hardly the only community undergoing this spurious state of affairs. According to a report from The Guardian, the majority of data centers being built in the United States are being constructed in areas affected by drought, making their over consumption of water all that more perilous.
The decision being made is clear; water for machines, but not for people.
Unfortunately, this lunacy doesn’t stop there. Around the same time as the fifth circuit courts ruling, the seventh circuit court of appeals delivered a decision that is downright deplorable.
On August 25th, Judge John Z. Lee of the 7th Circuit Court ruled in the case of United States v. Anderegg, that AI generated images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are protected under the First Amendment and therefore legal.
And yet, in this demented dystopia of ours where AI generated child porn is apparently okay, one can still be arrested and hauled out of a city council meeting for criticizing the illegal mass surveillance of flock cameras, such as with the case of Mia Hyder of Springfield, Missouri.
Even more recently, over one hundred protesters organized by the anti-war organization Jewish Voice for Peace had their first amendment rights trampled as they were arrested outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 24th as they protested the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed in his ongoing genocide in Gaza.
That’s the world we live in now. AI kiddie porn is a-okay, but protest against kids getting bombed? Straight to jail.
This kind of backwards logic, as unsettling as it is, is sadly par for the course when we recall our dotish despot-in-chief. The sitting president of the United States himself is an adjudicated rapist. He is also a pedophile who has allocated a considerable amount of resources to protect himself and his pedophile friends implicated in the Epstein files. And contributed overwhelmingly to the deteriorating quality of life in this country as American’s feel the disastrous consequences of his wars of aggression abroad and fascistic policies here at home.
People see this clownish buffoonery underpinning the profoundly perturbing reality we all find ourselves in, and very rightly clamor for change.
But where does that change come from?
Many Americans, particularly among the younger generations, are completely disillusioned with the two party system, as it has become quite clear that neither Republicans nor Democrats serve the interests of the people.
The political tides are turning in a direction that has seen a fervor of support for supposed alternatives to the establishment order, with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America at the forefront.
And while mainstream political pundits continue to regurgitate Cold War propaganda fear mongering about the rise of socialism, it undercuts the very real criticisms of the DSA and the movement behind it that expose it for the fraud that it actually is.
TFTP has previously outlined some of the ways that the movement led by the Democratic Socialists of America only seeks to reorganize the existing status quo, rather than dismantling it outright.
Recent developments have illustrated that point even further. For all of his rhetorical bluster offering lip service to pro-Palestine / anti-genocide sentiments, DSA firebrand and mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani has, as the time of this writing, yet to condemn the mass arrest of the aforementioned protesters outside of the UN by his NYPD.
Mamdani has previously offered a myriad of excuses as to why he in his capacity as the mayor of the largest city in the United States is incapable of enforcing the international arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu when he enters the city. This, however, is sharply contrasted by the fact that the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, illegally kidnapped by the Trump regime earlier this year is still being held as a political prisoner in a New York City facility. Clearly, for mayor Mamdani, violations of international law are perfectly fine as long as it favors US imperialist interests.
Two recent articles, authored by Joseph Kishore for the World Socialist Website outlined this in more detail, highlighting how Zohran Mamdani is actively lending his assistance to aligning the DSA with contemporary American establishment politics, as well as elaborating further how the DSA as a whole operates as an appendage of American imperialism.
The latter article is particularly telling and very well worth the read, as it elucidates that this position held by the DSA is not a recent development, but rather a characteristic ingrained in the organization from its very inception. Effectively operating as an extension of the Democratic Party and acting as a kind of controlled opposition presenting a false alternative to ensure disenfranchised voters remain within the sphere of the corporatist, imperialist ruling class.
The same is seen with the positions held by various other DSA aligned political figures. The likes of Senator Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Talib and others, for all of their grandstanding and virtue signaling regarding prominent issues, have remained firmly in line with the agendas of empire — whether that be with the US / NATO instigated neo-Nazi proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, antagonisms against China, or recent aggressions against Cuba.
Another figure worth mentioning is that of prominent Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has quickly risen in popularity due to his supposedly outspoken solidarity with the pro Palestine movement. However, just like the rest of those within the milieu of the DSA, El-Sayed has also shown his true colors, coming under fire for aligning and campaigning with former Vice President Kamala Harris in what has been viewed by many as a staunch betrayal given Harris’ complicity with the Gaza genocide and overall subservience to corporate interests and the ruling class.
And so, with all of this being said, what is to be done? How do we uproot ourselves from this absurdity that seeks to drag us ever deeper into the pits of degradation?
Of course, frequent readers of The Free Thought Project already know the answer to this, but it bears repeating. One cannot repeat solutions too often.
At its core, all of this decay stems from the state. More specifically, the subservience of statism and the over reliance on coercive, hierarchical systems of control and the inherent oppression, exploitation, and abuse that comes with it.
We have opined on this very subject quite a lot recently, regarding areas of class consciousness, the fallacy of voting, the concept of resistance and social liberation, and an overall understanding of the anarchistic principles of basic human decency.
The principal lesson remains the same. Real change can never come from deferring one’s accountability and social responsibility to anyone else, not to a supposed representative, not to a so-called vanguard party, the seeds of change must be planted by the people, for the people. A system that has proven itself to be antithetical to the well being of the people cannot be appeased, it cannot be reformed. It must only be abolished.
Such abolition comes through struggle, through horizontal organization, and taking an active role in working to create a better future. Such a struggle does not necessarily have to entail violent militancy, as history shows this often simply leads to a reorganization of bureaucracy instead of real human emancipation, but rather optimizing the effectiveness of abolition through obsolescence. Meaning the creation of parallel systems and societies that effectively render the existing structure obsolete.
The Free Thought Project and our colleagues refer to one such method as Exit And Build, whereas other methods can take the form of mutual aid networks, worker cooperatives, community unions, local defense coalitions, self-managed social centers, and more.
These previously delineated instances of absurdity are a product of a politics in decline. The current political structure is failing, while the powers-that-should-not-be desperately attempt to maintain their fragile grip of control. The time is now for the people to take it upon themselves to reject the irrational, the absurd, and all of its detriments, to throw off the yoke of authoritarianism and embrace the liberation of autonomy.
Freedom can only come when the people have the courage to exercise their own self determination.