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Confronting Large-Scale Lies Through Satire, Opera & Humor By Matthew Fox 2/14/2026 |
We meditated in yesterday’s DM on challenging “large-scale social lies” (Becker’s words) through naming them, which is journalism’s task. And indeed, a task for all of us. |
But another way to confront large-scale lies is through satire. As America is becoming a laughing stock in the world today—as well as a source of fear—Europe is responding in creative ways that tell our sad and scary story through satire. Webster’s Dictionary defines satire as “holding up
human |
“Donald Trump is in Greenland… Because He Needs It!”| CBC.CA satiric news program 22
Minutes |
vices and follies to ridicule or scorn; also a trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.” Synonyms include sarcastic, ironic, and sardonic humor, and a wit that is bitter and caustic and often ironic. In Europe today, new art is emerging that is built around
holding the current political scene in America up for ridicule and laughter. This is important because fascists, by definition, have very underdeveloped senses of humor. They are so always in control that they cannot laugh: that would leave them far too vulnerable. They even have to control the paradoxes of life that are the stuff of humor. In an article entitled “Opera vs. Policy,” Mary Geddry shares with us how, in Hamburg, Germany, the world premiere of Monster’s Paradise recently opened to a very enthusiastic reception.* Maybe it should play in the newly named “Trump-Kennedy Center” and could have so many successful runs that it would bring audiences back to the nation’s premier theater. But I digress. The world premiere of Monster’s Paradise is described as follows: |
“World Premiere of Monster’s Paradise – Who will save us from the despots? A wild satire on the state of the world: of giant monsters and political tyrants.” Staatsoper Hamburg | A President-King so gluttonous, ravenous, and absurdly swollen with ego that he enters a gilded Oval Office with a Coca-Cola fridge, a crown on the desk, and a literal eject button for unwanted visitors. Chorus members |
dressed as zombies roam the opera house. Disney princesses drift through the foyer. Vampires frame the action like Wagnerian narrators. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg appear as countertenor tech-adjutants singing syrupy lines about ‘high numbers.’ Trump, rendered as a diapered titan with a golden necktie, grows to monstrous proportions and plants a golf club like a flag on conquered territory. The overall review of the opera from Geddry? “It’s grotesque and hilarious. It’s satire so blunt it risks becoming documentary before intermission.” The director of the opera admitted that Washington is “sprinting toward parody so fast that the production might be outdated in eight hours.” Comments Geddry, “that’s where we are now: the metaphor can’t keep up with the man.” She adds, “Europe laughs because it can see the monster whole. America scrolls because it’s standing too close to notice it’s being eaten.” |
Sadly, in America, we are often too close to the reality of the evil emanating from the current MAGA presidential cult to laugh at it. Of course, Project 2025 is not a laughing matter, and neither is substituting fascism and rule by billionaires for a government of the people, by the |
Bad Bunny brings Puerto Rico to Super Bowl halftime show.” Good Morning
America offers a capsule of the 13-minute cultural extravaganza. |
people, and for the people. But laughing can be one tool in one’s toolbox since fascists everywhere are notoriously deprived of a sense of humor—especially when it’s aimed at them and their ever-so-fragile egos. We can honor Europe’s humor while also learning from Bad Bunny’s (now Good Bunny’s) message on Super Bowl Sunday: “Love is more powerful than Hate.” |
Queries for Contemplation Do you agree that satire is a powerful way to stand up to “Large-Scale
Lies”? And Humor is pretty rare among fascists and can be used to tell the truth in ways that come home? Do you believe Americans are “standing too close to notice it’s being eaten”? |
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