Joe Biden Is Making Americans’ Political Nihilism Worse
By making big promises and then steadfastly refusing to deliver on them, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s power brokers are helping Republicans convince the country that government and politics can’t make life better for average people.
US president Joe Biden delivers remarks in the South Court Auditorium on March 30, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?” — the Joker
“I’m going to become the Joker” is some of the Internet’s most poignant shorthand. Referencing Todd Phillips’s 2019 film noir, the phrase describes becoming so thoroughly disillusioned that one loses faith in everything.
The process is a dark descent: individual indignity after interpersonal insult after institutional injustice prompts a downward spiral from George Costanza screaming, “We’re living in a society!” to nihilists barking, “We believe in nothing, Lebowski” to finally just a depressed clown laughing at the idea of anything mattering at all.
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