Thinking about Russia’s successful hacking of the 2016 US election. It shouldn’t be seen in isolation. 

It should be understood as part of the ancient human struggle to manage illusion. The war on reality. 

In the US the reality wars were once bipartisan. Over the past few decades they have become a GOP specialty. From Reagan to Gingrich to the Tea Party to Trump. In the 21st century we began seeing books like “The Republican War on Science”. 

AM talk radio was infested. Then came Drudge and Fox. Later Breitbart and finally the Facebook fake news stream. From the Clinton “murders” to birtherism to child pizza porn slaves. 

This wasn’t bipartisan. The anti-reality meme, a core historic component of fascism, became concentrated in the GOP. Russia jumped on board, but Russia can be seen as more of a plague carrier than an intelligent agent.  They lost their reality-war in the 90s. All their news is unreal. Putin, like Trump, takes the fakes.

Trump’s victory is a triumph of the unreal. Of Will, I suppose. A big victory in a primeval struggle. 

We need to know what war we are fighting. We are fighting a reality war.