Ours is an age where once-hoary clichés have been given new life by the rise of right wing authoritarianism: "The banality of evil." "First they came for the [fill in the blank]." "2+2=5." Then there is the famous quote, translated from Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities." That's the one that popped into my mind when I read that newly-elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., believed demons were attacking his family through the TV set.
Johnson largely managed to keep his name out of the national news before his ascendance as the highest-ranking Republican on Capitol Hill. That's why he won, as Republicans hoped to conceal his far-right radicalism under the veil of ignorance. But prior to the current unearthing of Johnson's long history of creepy and fascistic behavior, he did get a small amount of national attention in September 2022 for posting an '80s-style Satanic panic about a cartoon show on FX.
