Why Economic Catastrophe Won't Break MAGA Mind Control

What we must do to reach them

Very late last night, in my nocturnal Internet scufflings, I found a few puzzle pieces that seemed to provide more clarity about America’s current sorrows. I want to explore those here, and in the next installment.

Right now, I find myself riveted, fixated, by the ongoing American catastrophe. We are in the midst of a dystopian horror show that will, eventually, impact many millions of people’s lives to a severe degree. Vast numbers of people — including people we know and care about — will be severely impacted. Many people will be made poorer, more miserable, and will die much sooner than necessary as a result of the self-inflicted economic wounds that Trump is inflicting on the country (more on this next time). My suspicion is that Xi / China are about to humiliate Trump / America in this disastrous trade war.

I find that many people I know continue to be kind of checked out and disconnected. They still avoid “politics” as if it is beneath them. This may because they see themselves as “spiritual,” “transpersonal,” or “shamanic,” or they consider themselves smart because they invested in crypto, or they still have some illusions about Elon Musk.

The hard fact is this: America is going down right now. If America goes all the way down, the whole planet may go down with us.

As Trump unleashes economic Armageddon here, all bets are off. How might this authoritarian regime — wrapped in Apocalyptic Christian theology — choose to use America’s immense military powers if things get desperate for them, for instance if other countries stop buying our debt or providing us with the raw Earth minerals we need for our computers and missiles? I strongly recommend that people break the dissociative trance to get involved with resisting this menace, in whichever way is best for them, whether American or not, wherever they are in the world.

Perhaps I don’t pursue enough of a balanced news diet since I don’t delve deep into the Right Wing media. The Right, presumably, has some ways of explaining Trump’s actions which, day by day, seem so incredibly destructive to everything worthy about this country. For instance, Trump is now weaponizing the Department of Justice against those he perceives as his enemies. He just issued new Executive Acts that, if allowed to stand, annihilate the Constitution and the First Amendment. He is ordering the Department of Justice to go after one former staffer who was so horrified by what he experienced during Trump’s first term that he wrote a book about it, which Trump calls “treason.”

An eternal optimist, I admit I had hoped, even assumed, that Trump supporters would, at some point, reject his disastrous agenda and “see the light” en masse. But on his blog, John Stoehr, a contributor to U.S. News & World Report, challenges my assumptions and smashes my fragile hopes.