I have, on rare occasion, and in select company, floated an idea which one probably ought not voice publicly. That idea is, that in the good timeline, the Nazis won.

   I know, I know. Spicy. Certainly some explaining is required. Have I not read "The Man in the High Castle"? I haven't, and I didn't finish even the first of four seasons of the Amazon adaptation. My reasoning is thus: if all of the worst fears of the freedom-loving world and the wet dreams of wehraboos everywhere came to pass, then the reality of open fascism and its consequences would motivate people to develop systems of social organisation that were more fair and more just. That knowing the taste of the crushing bootheel of authoritarianism would have us forever disavowing such spectres and warding against their presence in our politics.

   But (spoiler alert) the Nazis didn't win. Well, Hitler lost, in any case. And therein lies the rub. Hitler lost, and most Nazis that had survived the war (read: most Nazis) quietly went back to work, some of them in very influential positions. Freedom had won! What possible harm could thousands of wealthy bigoted fascists do, even if they were company presidents, senior bureaucrats, and politicians. There's no way that kind of ideology could survive in this new, modern, enlightened age. Right...? Spoiler alert.

   Honestly, Adolf Hitler was, in my mind, the best thing that could have happened to fascism. Not just because he was very compelling, but because he was also so blatantly nuts. Truly unhinged, that guy, in case you weren't aware. But no less unhinged than the ideologies that soared to prominence around him. So, when the madness finally did him in, and the dust settled on the devastation of the war, Hitler could be written off as just some kooky guy who got too carried away, and the more cold-blooded operators of the death machine could claim they, too, hated Hitler, and really were just following orders.

   And what is some dishwater-dull pencil-pusher who occasionally voices their troubling opinions about minorities compared to a guy who was literally screaming those same thoughts on the regular, from podiums and over loudspeakers? It becomes very hard to recognise tyranny if that's where your benchmark is set. And if you can take credit for beating a guy like that? Why, how could you possibly even be put in the same category? Who cares if the Nazis got some of their worst ideas from policies practised by the American government? Who cares if, for example, Henry Ford was awarded one of the highest civilian honours given by the Third Reich? His company built bomber planes for the US Army Air Corps! Thousands of them! They were even called "Liberator"! The good guys won, so quit your griping.

   Is that what happened? Winston Churchill showed open contempt for Indians, Palestianians, and so many others; the Canadian government turned away a shipful of Jewish refugees fleeing genocide; American army medics worked with segregated blood supplies; but rest easy, for the good guys won. Please pay no attention as the labour rights fought for and won in the years of the Great Depression are eroded, one by one. Please pay no attention as campaigns for civil rights for the disenfranchised are warped into identity politics to divide workers against each other. Please pay no attention as the most brutalised groups throughout history are scapegoated again and again and again for the sins of empire and capital. Pay no attention.

   Because there's a circus in town, folks! The lights! The sounds! Wee! A circus! Lions, tigers, bears, elephants, and oh so many clowns! Who could even spare a moment for the distant humdrumming in corporate boardrooms when you can get squirted by some weirdo's corsage? Nothing could compare to that kind of novelty. Surely nothing important. They parade by, one after the other, until the big moment when King Clown himself hits the stage.

   Stuffed with pomp and bravado, in size 66 shoes, and sporting just the goofiest wig. Louder than the lions; sillier than the monkeys. You just can't take your eyes off this guy. He couldn't be more entertaining if he had some funny little moustache or something.

   I realise that comparison is a tired one, and a bit melodramatic. But, I don't worry about Trump as some champion of a new fascism. No, Donald, I believe, is ideologically void, and so is far more dangerous than Hitler ever was. This is for two reasons. The first is that he provides fantastic cover to the real villains, and the second is that he has dropped the bar of expectation for civil servants into a mile-deep toilet. The man himself is a threat to women and girls, to good taste, and to even passable manners, but only incidentally so to public order.

   Donald Trump is also a very old man. He was old when he ran in 2016, already the oldest person to ever hold the office of US President. Unless you are earnestly betting on him ascending as some kind of god emperor, do not expect much more of him. But JD Vance isn't very old. More importanly, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and so on and suchlike, they are not very old, either. And money? Money is ageless.

   Our newest Prime Minister here in Canada is Mark Carney. I'm not sure if anybody's mentioned this to him, but people are usually only one of those two things. But, he is a banker, is Mark, so maybe that first isn't referring to some victim of the second. On his first day on the job, Mr. Carney implemented a piece of policy long-championed by his rival in the election that would soon follow. Without even waiting for the legislative process, he axed a tax on fuel consumption that also redistributed those funds to lower-income Canadians, which up until then had resulted in most people gaining back more than they paid in. But, it had to go. Just like the proposed increase to the capital gains tax inclusion rate, which the Conservative leader had also decried....

   I fear our government could sell all of Manitoba to the lowest bidder and, as long as they didn't say anything openly rude about Indigenous people in the process, the transaction would be shrugged off, because, hey, at least we aren't the 51st state or whatever. And throw in some jabber about "economic reconciliation" and you might well be in the running for a sainthood. The bar is in hell, friends, and our fascination with the carnival of American federal politics put it there. Now there's a literal Carney in the Prime Minister's office. We might not have a clown riding an elephant, but make no mistake: we are still held captive by a circus.