Trump and Big Tech and massive corporations play an entirely different game. For them, nations are nonexistent, just carcasses to feast on, and patriotism is just a disguise that makes their accumulation of wealth and power more convenient.

Duty and honor and sacrifice and basic human empathy are antithetical to the accumulation of mass wealth. They’re inconceivable and serve only as restraints. They make for effective PR and propaganda strategies, but an embrace of them would be self-destructive for these people.

Hypercapitalists like Trump and the exorbitantly wealthy have already moved onto a new stage of post-politics that is beyond ideology and inherently fascistic. We can reject it and restore democracy, but first we must recognize it, because they hide behind these myths.

While we’re focusing on Trump’s disrespect of veterans, what we’re missing is that the Right has continually hidden behind flag-waving rhetoric while using troops to secure their financial interests and consolidate personal power. It isn’t just Trump. It’s rotten to the core.

American Empire isn’t based on real patriotism or freedom or liberty but the subjugation of people by force and economic exploitation. That it has hidden so long behind propaganda is an intentional, destructive project. Trump has only made it readily and nauseatingly apparent.

There’s solidarity to be had between the people who have been exploited for their labor and for their service. Both receive lip-service until they ask for necessary resources, both have been used for mass accumulation of wealth and profit. The facade is crumbling in a hurry.

What’s holding us back are these myths of exceptionalism and faux-patriotism, the stuff of fascism and weaponized paranoia. They empower and embolden crooks and authoritarians who can simply wave a flag or stand in front of Mt Rushmore. We have to get past it before it’s too late