Complicity / Collusion (Part 1)

Part 1 of a 4 part poem

1

In the bread and circuses phase
                            of an empire's waning days

skilfully framed  spin-riddled reports
devised and arranged to shape
rather than reflect     reality
                     are fed to the orderly hordes
                     of hoped-for unquestioning simps

by undercover PR pimps and their loyal whores
who serve in a mercenary corps
                                          that only sees action
in the act of producing  stupefying weapons
of both mass deception and mass distraction

       that saturate the faux-choice-filled menus
       that trumpet the criminocracy's media cartel
              with its ubiquitous platforms and venues

where platoons of well-groomed perfectly-plastic
false-narrative parroting  broadcast mannequins
along with their exhaustively-vetted
fact-free-conjecture-expert puppet-pundit guests

do their professional censorial  mockingbird best
to ensure unruly truths are ruthlessly suppressed.


2

With a guileful eye to fragmenting dissent
       by fomenting enmity of the tribal variety
through the not just methodically fostered
       but finely orchestrated discord of division

the masterfully vacuous coverage on offer
is  — besides its habitual exhibition
              of titillating bits of trivia and gossip —
sure to include great dollops of identity politics
              and similar wedge-issue-hammering
                            flame-fanning hot-button topics

       along with regular reason-freezing segments
              of bogeyman-conjuring fearmongering
       and narcissism-reinforcing grievance porn
                     in the form of advanced victimology.


In the artful pitting of all against all
and in league  with all these superb diversions
              never is heard an enlightening word
                            or insightful unfiltered opinion
from the self-styled aristocracy's
                                   obedient media minions

       that might   however vaguely suggest
       the all-pervasive predation
              insatiable unchecked theft
                     and normalized war criminality

that's practiced with presumptuous impunity
by the parasite class
       whose entitled clans of insider elites
       take for granted their blanket immunity
              from both rebuke   and prosecution
              with its threat of unwelcome scrutiny.


3

And so it is that we
benumbed  dumbed-down citizens
are  — in addition to the usual profusion
                            of obligatory inanities —

delivered a host of glittering
              obscenely obsequious displays
of glib-lipped line-toeing hokum
       pre-screened Q's & scripted A's
              rigged inquiries and fake debates

on shows featuring steady parades
       of ready-made gushing and groveling
from a kowtowing cast
of plutocracy-serving spittle-slurping lackeys

       happily chirping
              insufferably subservient views
       on programs   that laughably
              masquerade as hard-hitting news;

on programs  that while they may fool
              the bulk of the brainwashed masses
come across  as nothing but fluff and gloss
to the skeptical few who refuse to stuff
              their unbowed heads up their asses.