Chernobyl and Joe Biden
Chernobyl and Joe Biden
A tale of two meltdowns
For anyone who came of age during the Cold War, there is a moment in HBO’s CHERNOBYL miniseries that brings back all the intense aniexty and paranoia of the era and shines a light on how bad things can get in a nation completely unmoored from the concept of objective truth.
Early in the disaster, one of the officials at the Chernobyl site refers to the event as a “nuclear accident”… “No no,” says the Party Official in charge, “It’s not a nuclear accident.”
“What do you mean?” asks the incredulous local official.
The Party Man looks at him and with a straight face says, “Nuclear accidents do not happen in Socialist societies… therefore, Chernobyl is not a nuclear accident.”
I thought of this scene after I watched Joe Biden’s bizarre Saturday speech in Warsaw, Poland where he seemed to announce that his Aministration had adopted a new policy of regime change in Russia.
Joe Biden’s quote, his exact quote, was:
"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
That is the entire quote… there is no additional context, and Biden himself did not provide any. How are average Americans, who do not spend every waking moment thinking about foreign policy or reading CIA briefing papers, supposed to interpret that quote?
Well, there is a very simple way to interpret that quote, and there is a very complex noted foreign policy “expert” Tom Nichols way that only those with severe cognitive dissonance have the courage to even attempt.
Nichols complained on Twitter that CNN (CNN!!!) was wrong to put that exact quote on the chyron beneath a video of Biden speaking because it made it seem like the President was advocating for regime change in Russia… which, whether you think it would be smart diplomay to do so or not, he absolutely was.
See what Tom is doing here?
Nichols, and others like him, are so invested in Biden being the perfect Anti-Trump… so sure that Biden is always good and Trump is always bad… that, just like nuclear accidents in Socialist societies, it’s simply not possible for Biden to say something as crazy or terrifying as what he said on Saturday. Therefore, he did not say it. He said something completely different, which Tom Nichols will be happy to explain to you because only he can underatand what Joe Biden really meant (he, and others like Bill Kristol and Jen Rubin, spent the rest of the weekend doing just that).
See, Tom already knows the true context of Biden’s statement without even having to ask. He knows it because what Biden said cannot be what he said, Tom’s cognitive dissonance won’t allow it. So he doesn’t even hear it. That Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia is so self-evident to Tom Nichols that it’s likely he didn’t even realize Biden’s quote could be interpreted that way until he saw it on the CNN chyron.
And then Tom’s cognitive dissonance kicked in and he ran to Twitter, his hair ablaze, to explain that Biden did not say what we all heard him say.
“Joe Biden does not say crazy Trumpian things that could destabilize the world…” the Party Official explained… “Therefore Biden did not say a crazy Trumpian thing that could destabilize the world.”
Like Chernobyl, Joe Biden too, is melting down… whether or not the damage is containable, we won’t know for years to come. But in the meantime, prepare to be reassured over and over again by all the wisest Party Officials that there is nothing at all wrong with President Biden and that you should continue to ignore your lying eyes and your deceitful ears.
To be fair to Tom, we must point out that after 24 hours of going to the mattresses to defend his position that it was not Biden’s gaffe, but CNN’s (and by extension your) interpretation of Biden’s gaffe that was the real problem, he has since published a piece conceding that Biden’s comments on Regime change in Russia were “an unforced error.” Good to know that reality can still sometimes intrude.