Golden Age

“Remember how great things were in politics until Trump came along?”

“I don’t remember that actually, no.”

“Your memory is playing tricks. Practically all politicians besides Hitler and Richard Nixon were noble and honest and trustworthy until Trump, and if we can get rid of him then things will be wonderful just like that again.”

“No, that doesn’t really line up with how I remember things. My intellectual impressions kind of led me as a general rule to regard anyone who might reach the highest offices as being virtually by definition lying, degenerate, murderous freaks seen fit to parade in front of the cameras by the real powers and more serious sociopaths behind the scenes. I remember for example the English writer Harold Pinter - and Nobel Prize winner, whatever that’s really worth - but I remember him describing American foreign policy, regardless of the particular regime, as amounting to, ‘Kiss my ass or I’ll kick your head in.’”

“No, no. There may, yes, have been a few things a little bit shady here and there, but overall it was a golden age of virtue and intellectual integrity until Trump came along.”

“So the cesspit was all just an illusion?”

“Yes, of course. It was all in your imagination.”