Colossus by Ross Barkan

Politics is the embodiment of hypocrisy. Colossus by Ross Barkan takes those extremes and highlights where the online right began, as drifting losers. Joey Salads, before being a failed congressional candidate, was best known as a guy who videoed himself peeing in his mouth, for the amusement of the internet, for clicks. Mr. Salads would love for you to forget that urination sensation, but it remains forever attached to him, because the Internet is forever. While perhaps nowhere near as extreme a 180, Pastor Starr has a similar bohemian, aimless origin story, though his lies are far more in line with the antics of reinvented losers, desperate for one more grift, one more way to make it. Pastor Starr even experiences a similar level of consequences for his desire for attention, flying too close to that social media sun, sermons uploaded for the anonymous millions to view unbeknownst to him. Though thankfully, Pastor Starr is considerably less disgusting than Mr. Salads, though that’s an easy achievement.

Colossus explores what the right has become, not a thing of principles, but an opportunistic predator. They go for whatever group is the easiest to sway to their side. For decades, there were at least rules running the show, lower taxes, God, etc. Yet, somewhere along the way, that promise became cynical, then rang hollow, then got ignored entirely, dependent on whatever the most powerful required. A catering to the lowest, most simplistic impulse, dressed up as something only the truly enlightened could possibly comprehend. That’s the trick, to make the sheep think they see something others don’t, like there’s a deeper level only they are privy to, that they are truly special. Others who point out the obvious truth just do not get it; they are simpletons. Sheep think 4-D chess is being played, which is easy for them to believe because they do not know the rules of the game, and those they admire do not either.

The congregation holds sway as the community to which Pastor Starr must speak, with everything else deemed secondary. Outside are the enemies, inside are the allies, the friends, those to be trusted. He does this to an appalling degree, using his pulpit to spread falsehoods and to have others accept half-truths. When the lie includes a degree of truth, it becomes much easier to accept. Because you do not need to lie with the whole heart, just part of it. Even those he preaches to understand that, they can sense the passion, the performance, and it goes viral for that fire, for the sheer madness of it. We want the spectacle so badly that we ignore the obvious truth for something far more unbelievable, yet ultimately more comforting.

We get a sense of the character of Pastor Starr. A haughty way of talking down to other people, something he inherited from his background as the favored child. Yet, no matter the favor, it is not enough. He needs to be the star of the show. He wants to answer to no one. The sheer fact that he would owe his station in life to his father is simply unacceptable. While this is perhaps amplified for the sake of drama, it is not too far off from many individuals who hail from similar levels of privilege. They grow resentful that they owe someone else, that nepotism exists, and that it will always be pointed out. A self-made millionaire, a self-made success, that’s what people really come for. Heck, even Trump has been referred to as a blue-collar billionaire, a guy just like you except for the billions he inherited.

Underneath the political and socio-economic forces at work, the book focuses on the concept of family. Pastor Starr has set his family up for success, and they can thank him for it. Interestingly, among his extended family, the ones hardest to sway are those who remember him as far from the success he represents now. His eldest son has a rebellious spirit like his, and if Pastor Starr were honest with himself, he’d see the commonalities. While he does possess insight, he has an equally high level of obliviousness. Nothing that is coming for him avoided detection – all was announced, foreshadowed. He had ample opportunity to self-correct, to take a different path. Yet the narcissist requires satisfaction above even self-preservation. Ironically, too, Pastor Starr tries to delude himself into thinking that he’s making that trailer park a classier thing, far above the slumlord title he was due to inherit.

Harsh, unrelenting, and brutal, Colossus taps into the zeitgeist of pure, bald-faced lies.