Tim Blair: Frantically fearful anti-Trumpers putting on quite the freak show

Much of the anti-Trump rhetoric being thrown about reads like a 1950s horror movie poster, but rather falling for this terrifying nightmare, observers should just sit back and enjoy the show, writes Tim Blair.

Intellectuals and the over-educated used to sneer at B-grade horror movies, what with all their ridiculous tales of nuclear monsters, gigantic mutants and murderous space creatures

Those goofy films were a happily exploitative product of their paranoid Cold War times. As movie site Rotten Tomatoes summarised: “1950s horror films reflected the pervading invisible fear of death from above.”

The smart set, of course, never fell for these schlock-horror stories. Surely only the dumbest of rubes and hickiest of hicks could possibly be frightened by make-believe Hollywood demons.

But here we are in 2024, and every supposedly sophisticated and worldly media outlet from the New York Times to our own ABC is in utter horror-movie panic about the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency.

Trump is their Godzilla, their Creature from the Black Lagoon, their Thing From Another World, their Crawling Eye. Or their Hitler, according to current US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Democrats are whipping up fear with claims that Donald Trump is chasing unchecked power. Picture: AFP

“Donald Trump is out for unchecked power. He wants a military like Adolf Hitler had, who will be loyal to him, not our Constitution,” Harris wrote online last week.

“He is unhinged, unstable, and given a second term, there would be no one to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses.”

Add a few exclamation marks and it would read exactly like a 1950s horror movie poster — which is apparently the tone sought these days by the New York Times.

On Sunday, the Times turned the front page of its opinion section into a full length, all-caps, unpunctuated Trump-terror screamfest.

“DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE WILL PROSECUTE HIS ENEMIES ORDER MASS DEPORTATIONS USE SOLDIERS AGAINST CITIZENS ABANDON ALLIES PLAY POLITICS WITH DISASTERS,” the Times railed. “BELIEVE HIM.”

Front page of The Times’ opinion section.

The Times and their high-minded allies treat Hamas more gently than they do the former president, whose previous four years in office were notably free of bloodshed.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has labelled Trump as unhinged and unstable. Picture AFP

Here are some current Times headlines on their all-horror homepage:

“How Trump Exploits Divisions Among Black and Latino Voters”; “My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say Enough With Trump”; “Trump’s Extraordinarily Negative TV Ads”.

And there’s also this cute line from a live news report: “Kamala Harris’s speech on the Ellipse, at the site of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, is intended to be a contrast to the hateful rhetoric from his rally on Sunday.”

Speaking of hateful rhetoric, a video compilation of anti-Trump loathing — all broadcast on mainstream US television — was published last December by American journalist Tom Elliott.

This compilation has lately been revived online. Highlights:

“You can’t imagine the things that he’s going to do.”

“Shoot visitors to the White House … that means he can shoot the First Lady.”

“He will make himself into the Fuhrer and he will make everybody raise their hand and salute him.”

“Using martial law against the American people.”

Mr Trump campaigning in Pennsylvania. Picture: AFP

“Create mass internment camps.”

“Every one of us, our freedom, our liberty … none of us is safe.”

“Ordering troops to attack American citizens.”

“Democracy is dead if Trump is re-elected.”

“A vote for Donald Trump may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in.”

These people are so frantic with fear that they’ve lost all powers of critical reasoning.

At least screaming teenagers watching those old horror movies came to their senses after the credits rolled.

By comparison, today’s terrified anti-Trumpers are living their own nightmares.

Worse still, they’re inflicting those nightmares on what’s left of the rational world.

My advice? Enjoy the show. Admission to this freak parade is absolutely free.

Originally published as Tim Blair: Frantically fearful anti-Trumpers putting on quite the freak show