Redneck tavern is no alternative to the ivory tower

Not just in Slovakia, politicians have been telling us for some time that the ivory tower, meaning the educated liberal urban elite, cannot run the state, because it is a minority detached from everyday reality. In Slovak, the ivory tower is called "bratislavská kaviareň", literally "Bratislava café", named after the capital. Until recently, though, this was mostly just grumbling and the ivory tower quietly continued to rule. Since the last Slovak elections however, we’ve had the opportunity to see what happens when the ivory tower is replaced by a group of people so stupid, primitive, and unscrupulous that I will call them the redneck tavern in this article.

Let’s go over the ministries and see what the redneck tavern has accomplished so far:

• The Ministry of Culture is, unsurprisingly, in complete disarray under the redneck tavern’s leadership. Slovakia is mentioned right at the beginning of the open letter Resistance Now: Free Culture as a cautionary example.
• The Ministry of Education is preparing the next generation for the future using methods and content stuck in the past. Cosmetic changes that fail to address key issues are being presented as a “revolution in education.”
• The Ministry of Defense cannot even name the enemy. Defense budget is being diverted into the pockets of oligarchs, at a time when we urgently need to bulk up the military. The government is weakening country's will to fight, which means that the full warehouses will fall into enemy hands without a fight.
• At the Ministry of Interior, the priority is releasing criminals, reducing sentences, and protecting mobsters from investigation.
• The Ministry of Environment is focused mainly on looting the country's natural resources—one of the last things that haven’t been completely plundered yet.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ruined relationships with our allies, worsened our security by supporting autocrats, and it is now implementing Russian foreign policy in stark contrast to Slovak national interests.
• The Ministry of Health is just weeks away from total collapse of healthcare.
• The Prime Minister behaves like Putin’s subservient viceroy rather than the leader of a sovereign state.
• And then there’s the President, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, a pro-Russian politician who, in the event of war, would likely collaborate with the enemy and order the army to surrender.

If you look into the details, there’s even more: a government commissioner who denies the pandemic ever happened, a Ministry of Culture appointee who wants to debate whether the Earth is flat, and a coalition MP who called a female colleague from the opposition a bitch and then said he’d apologize—to his dog in the backyard. Even worse things are happening quietly and inconspicuously—especially the constant erosion of civil liberties, rising violence, and growing intimidation. The government is run by a coalition of traitors, thieves, and criminals who don't even bother to pretend anymore. This is what happens when you let the redneck tavern run the country.

The ivory tower has its flaws, for example its uncritical support for the unscientific concept of transsexuality and its embrace of modern feminism, which fuels needless conflicts between men and women and lowers birth rates. The ivory tower also tends to be blind to problems that are far from it. But no matter its shortcomings, the ivory tower is a thousand times better than the horror show the redneck tavern is putting on here.

PS: After writing this article, news about Trump's government in the US just started coming. Department of Health is headed by a quack and anti-vaxxer who recommends cod liver oil for measles instead of vaccines. Department of Education is being dismantled. Trump himself promotes fossil fuels, denying climate change and ignoring technology changes. Decisions about tariffs are motivated by spite rather than sensible economic policy, sending US economy into recession. US foreign policy is now clearly pro-Russian and at the same time hostile to other NATO members. US military will have to deal with massive budget cuts ahead of the most dangerous period since the Cold War. Atmosphere of freedom, tolerance, and progress has been replaced with intimidation, primitivism, and vengeance. And that's just the first two months of Trump. What happened in Slovakia in the last year and a half might well be a preview of what's going to happen in the US under Trump.