CSI: American Carnage (Sunday, October 27, 2019)
IN THE CYBER – The Diapered Anomaly and Guccifer 2.0 have dissolved, without explanation, into nothingness, and the air is still, tainted with the faint odor of rotting kitchen waste, as Little Timmy, pup reporter, and the Professor’s small strike force peer out from their rocky cover. Boris, genial triple agent, says, Where did they go? Mohammed, Timmy’s friend says, I don’t like this. What’s that smell? The Professor, looking out toward the rise, removes his spectacles and wipes them thoughtfully with a bright white handkerchief. He says, Well, Mohammed, I’d say that is the smell of garbage. A droning whine comes from the far field. Timmy says, Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good. The drone grows louder and then stops. Sarah, Timmy’s friend from the resistance pot luck, scans the treacherous sky and holds her breath. Moments later a great distorting Boom! ripples through the air and a sickly yellow light flashes, as though LED-suffused corn were instantly offering itself up for harvest. My goodness! the Professor exclaims. What carnage! Furries are stripped of their plush. Severed tree limbs crash down. The entire landscape seems spontaneously distorted into wavy lines and curlicues! Timmy says, Oh no! The Cyber’s elemental bedrock has been exposed! Words rise like carrion made animate again: Where’s the Whistleblower? HUGE! PERFECT! GENIUS! COUP! SICK! STABLE! spread like Round-up over the fields, defoliating all. FAKE! FAILING! CORRUPT! MORON! overwhelm and absorb everything within shouting distance. Phony Stories! ZERO SOURCES! IMPEACHMENT SCAM! I did nothing Wrong! STUPID! Shifty SCHIFF! WITCH HUNT! NO COLLUSION! Rat-tat-tat! Boom! Sarah watches the whole display of increasing madness and confusion and says at last, This is the power of the autocrat. He appropriates the most common words, the words of everyday speech. Who can hear collusion again and not think of his degradation? Or Fake or Scam or CRIMINAL? But to his cult, these are words of power. They are the words they use. Words of everyday discourse, shorn of ideas, broken words, phrases, void of thought, speaking only of instigation, spurring the believers on. Listeners fill in the blanks between the words and, in turn, they fill the autocrat with more power. She looks out on The Cyber’s rotting fields, chewed up by the deadly quotidian language. The curlicues and wavy lines render sight difficult, but The Cyber’s soundtrack is loud and clear. CORRUPT! DISGUSTING! HUGE! GREATEST! PATRIOT! Billions and Billions! Believe Me! echo and reecho and echo again and again, growing louder and louder, filling The Cyber’s Everywhere. – Sunday, October 27, 2019