A Stage of the Deluded – The Patriot Awards as the Holy Megalomania of an Unrestrained America – Wow, We Feel Sick...

There are shows you attend after not eating for at least eight hours. Not because you want to fast – but because the very thought of what awaits you makes your stomach turn. The so-called Patriot Awards from Fox Nation, which present themselves as a celebration of America’s heroes, were in truth a demonstration of tastelessness, a parade of self-adulation, exclusion, and emotional theatrics that is almost impossible to top.

Sean Hannity opened the evening with the fervor of a preacher and the self-image of a martyr. “This is not a show like Hollywood,” he declared before an audience basking in patriotic ecstasy. “We are here to honor the true patriots of America – the greatest country God ever gave to man.” It was the kind of religious nationalism that sounded, with every syllable, as if it belonged more in a campaign rally than in a television studio. When Pastor Denny Duron raised his hands and lifted his voice over the crowd, the hall was no longer an event space but a revival tent. “Father God…” echoed from the screens, as if the Almighty himself were being asked to watch over Fox Nation. The camera panned to the audience, nodding, murmuring, moving their lips like in a liturgical test. It was less a prayer than an act of collective self-assurance, a religious crescendo for a country that no longer knows whether it is calling on God or itself. The “patriotism” of this hour smelled not of courage but of incense and self-worship – a sacral nationalism where the line between faith and delusion had become nearly invisible.

Between hymns to soldiers, prayers, country music, and what Hannity called a “particularly energetic” invocation of God, the evening devolved into a grotesque spectacle of self-glorification. A Marine Corps officer was honored with a “Salute to Service Award,” a 13-year-old terminally ill boy received a medal, and two high school athletes who refused to share the winners’ podium with a trans athlete were awarded the title Most Valuable Patriot – a prize that says more about the moral state of this network than any critique ever could.

“Nothing will happen if you do nothing.”

Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, who refused to share the podium with a trans athlete at a track meet, were honored at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards with the “Most Valuable Patriot Award.” “Yes, what more can you even say?”

Erika Kirk took the stage with a firm voice and practiced tears to accept the newly created “Charlie Kirk Legacy Award” – a prize named after her husband, needed by no one, and one that served as a monument to the movement itself. In her short speech she thanked the “patriots in the room,” spoke about “family” and “values,” and highlighted her work at the intersection of children, education, and technology.

The most honest moment, however, happened away from the spotlight: backstage, she hugged 13-year-old DJ Daniel, who is battling a terminal illness – a quiet image of comfort and courage that broke through the noise of the night for a fleeting second, and at the same time revealed the misery of the event itself: the truly human moments happened in the darkness behind the stage, not on the brightly lit pulpit of self-display.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth appears as a special guest at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards to personally honor Major James Capers Jr. and thank him for his extraordinary service on the battlefield. MESSAGE DELIVERED: then the former Fox host had words for the “narco-terrorists” that we’ll spare you and ourselves.

Because Melania Trump also took the stage. She received the “Patriot of the Year” award, supposedly for her efforts to protect children and families, for a roundtable discussion on artificial intelligence, and for her warnings about non-consensual AI images.

The golden glow, the carefully rehearsed smile, the pose – everything looked like a parody of dignity. She stood there, flawless and untouched, while around her an evening unfolded that turned patriotism into kitsch. The applause sounded hollow, the words empty, the gestures exaggerated. It was the moment the show unmasked itself – as a circus of self-righteousness where vanity turned into pathos and pathos into embarrassment.

A show that claims to honor America but in truth celebrates everything else – exclusion, religious exaltation, moral complacency. It was a gathering of human contempt masked as patriotism. An event of the lowest order, where the self-certainty of those who believe themselves to be the “true America” bloomed unchecked. While outside a nation drifts apart, while millions go hungry and political divides deepen, Fox Nation handed trophies to itself – and called it virtue.

The true heroes of the night were not those who stood on the stage, but the few who still feel that humility, compassion, and reason are something other than applause. The Patriot Awards once again showed how far a network will go when it no longer seeks to inform its audience but to reassure it.

What remains is a roaring spectacle that has turned the word “patriotism” into something that has nothing to do with decency. And us? We need a strong coffee first – and an even stronger democracy. What madness. Wow.