Recently, I was participating in a protest march against Trump's fascist policies and was dismayed when the speakers at the march were muddling around with all sorts of distractions, all of which were important but blurring the focus of the gathering. I care about gender and race issues. I care about veterans' benefits and other social safety net funding issues, but none of this matters unless we focus on the primary priority of stopping the MAGA onslaught.
The one advantage of an autocracy is its singular focus. Liberals are playing checkers while MAGA is playing at the World Chess Championship level. At the core of fascism is a religious zeal. They are on a "mission from God". The Left will have to calm down and find the quiet voice of a kinder God to focus our efforts upon.
I have a slightly different take on the checkers/chess analogy. I would say that MAGA plays checkers really really well. And if they look like they might lose they cheat or use violence or the threat of violence. Democrats on the other hand play 4 dimensional chess really, really badly. There is nobody in charge, nobody making intelligent moves. You can’t beat MAGA at checkers which is the game in play, like it’s almost impossible to beat Trump at golf because he cheats. And MAGA aren’t interested in chess. They have overturned the table. We are all playing, perforce, at the lowest common denominator (I almost put “demon-inator”which comes to the same thing).
Stuart, I do not think your view and John's are different; you state them differently. I find in many discussions with others the propensity to equate Biden's cognitive dysfunction with Trump's strong personality. However, suppose one has a smattering of discernment. In that case, it is clear that Trump's braggadocio persona is coupled with a 4th grade vocabulary, and "like you've never seen before" stupidity about history, the Bible, ecology, the weather, ad nauseum, coupled with non-stop lying, diviseness, retribution, bullying, all typical of a nationalist.
In medicine, when we face a patient with multi-factorial disease conditions, the real physician thinks, "What is going to kill this person or do the most harm?" We do not focus on trimming the patient's nails while he is having a GI hemorrhage and is in shock. Believe that this is a real issue. As a resident, highly trained in the US military before my residency, I was faced with a young woman who was bleeding out from what later was found to be a large gastric ulcer. I used my prior training to insert an intravenous internal jugular line to administer blood and other fluids rapidly. I inserted a Foley (indwelling) urinary catheter to measure urine output. The next day, on ICU rounds, the attending MD, PW, chastised me for doing the above. He wanted me to do a cut-down procedure on the brachial vein - that would have taken me time to order up the procedure kit, and do a surgical procedure that all together would have spanned at a minimum 20 minutes. He objected to inserting a Foley catheter.
Meanwhile, the patient was wide awake, normal blood pressure, and doing well enough that within a few days she was able to be discharged. The THL (take home lesson) from this is have perspective on what is most threatening in a situation where a negative outcome has severe consequences. This is what is missing in so many Americans. They equate Biden's frailty with Trump's immorality, destructiveness and vile behavior towards other humans and towards the environment.
Stephen, Yes indeed. In addition to needing to be able to perceive what is most important at any given moment (what medical procedure in your example is most efficacious and desirable) is the need to see the benefits long term versus short term. My concern for blue collar MAGA supporters (at the risk of sounding elitist) is my thought that many are more interested in "owning the libtards, reeking revenge on those they see who have wronged Trump" than they are about truly understanding the impact of deporting millions of people - will jobs get done, will tax revenue go down significantly, especially social security? - than seeing the devastation that Trump's policies are already having on many of their lives. Trump offers a good/bad, us/them, black/wide philosophy which has for many a certain appeal. What frustrates me to no end (and this happened in the 1930s In Germany, Italy, Spain) is that the bad guys are not seen as the capitalists, the billionaires, but as the poor people next door. The illegals are somehow more a threat than the billionaires. As of late 2024, the combined net worth of all U.S. billionaires is estimated at $6.72 trillion, spread across 813 individuals. Assuming there are about 15.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the aggregate net worth would be roughly $589 billion. So the immigrants with 10% of the wealth of the billionaires are more a problem than the billionaires who have over 1000% as much?? But that landscaper, that painter, that housecleaner is the problem? On average each billionaire is worth more than 100,000 illegal immigrants with a net worth of $38,000. But the immigrants are the problem, not our tax system. And MAGA people either don't care, don't believe or are ignorant of even a smattering of this. And so it continues from one generation to the next....
Whatever game metaphor is used, the end result is that the left is checkmated and 'trumped' by the right. Where is our Project 2025 checklist? Where is our leader as an alternative to Herr Trump?
The nation is on critical life support, and, like Dr. Strum mentions below, we need to focus on survival efforts, not random superficialities. When the going gets tough, we need to remove our rose colored glasses and toughen up.
I totally agree. I was not amused when Kamala Harris disappeared for 5 plus months into hibernation after losing the election. Yes she lost but then she also abandoned the leadership of the Democratic Party. I am sorry but while I might have voted for her, I think she is in the game as much for self-glorification as she is to find solutions and work with other Democrats. While Harris technically remained active, her visibility and political clout diminished significantly after the loss, and she was not a central voice in Democratic politics during that time. This has led to the perception—even among some of her supporters—that she "disappeared" from the national scene and became politically sidelined.
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
The nation was in shock after the election, and the Dems were in disarray. Trump imagines that leadership can be forced on the public, but we need to do some collective self-analysis and discover what we want to stand for as a nation. I don't think we're there yet.
The marches I attended were haphazard and uninspiring. There was a stark contrast to the anti-war excitement during the 70's, where the counterculture fervor of race, gender, and social change came together with intensity. It took the horror of the Vietnam War to focus our efforts then, and I am not sure what trauma will trigger the next awakening.
A leader, be it Obama or Kamala, cannot do it alone. We collectively have to find our voices and ask for what we want. Sadly, we've painted ourselves into a corner, and it will take a massive shock to the old system to make room for change. We no longer know who we are, but don't know yet what we are to become. It is a time of gestation and mystery, much like a pregnancy. Too bad our current spouse is so abusive...
Mike, another great piece. I have a long ongoing text conversation (for years) with a MAGA friend “Christian” nationalist. He is smart (actually a minor TV personality who is on FOX business network frequently) but he always plays this tactic of distraction. If I bring up the huge issue of grifting and using the Presidency as a cash cow he doesn’t answer the accusation but talks about the Hunter laptop, corruption of the Clintons, Joe Biden’s grift. “Fine,” I say. “Take them to court”. Of course they don’t because there is barely any there, there. If I point out the hypocrisy of so called Christians supporting Elon Musk who said “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy” he glosses over it. It doesn’t seem to bother him that Jesus, upon whom he bases his faith, centered everything he said and did around compassion, would not in a million years , have supported a grifter like Trump. Trump would have been in the temple wheeling and dealing when Jesus had his temper tantrum. And yes he tries this moral equivalency over and over. Somehow Biden was as bad or a worse tyrant than Trump. Or Biden was not fit for the job. The infantile tariff saga doesn’t bother him. He sees Trump and Musk as “champions”. And in the end Trump plays a role in the End Times narrative which includes events leading to the rapture, the return of Christ and the restoration of Israel. And what Trump has done and is doing is confirmation of that. My mind reels. This is not discussed so much but I think is a big part of the underpinnings of what is going on for the religious right. My view: it’s a huge, highly dangerous cult.
Stuart, I have experienced the same with many MAGA acquaintances. And sadly, this has also occurred with my older sister and her two daughters, all of whom are university graduates. In my last interaction with a 100% pro-Trumper, I later sent him printed pages using the AI assistant Gemini. I used the pro-Trump advocate's exact statements, and Gemini answered with references and clarity. The pro-Trumper, amazingly, responded in a way that indicated a 3rd party had challenged his thinking. This was the first time I have seen such an effect. Try it.
This: "Let us speak plainly: Trump is the problem. Trumpism is the threat. Biden is not the danger. Biden is the spectacle being used to distract from the danger."
Thank you so much, Mike Brock, for not being distracted and/or duped. I am so mortified by the obscene blather of Joe Klein, Maureen Dowd, and company on this whole "Biden-as-puerile-distraction" from what you so carefully and determinedly focus on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks for your usual interesting insight,but what are us the regular working citizens supposed to do to deter the destruction of our govt? We go to pro democracy rallies,call our congressmen, joined a grassroots group , it all seems futile as Rep Congress goes along with all the takeover
Does the problem lie in the power that editors-in-chief hold over journalists who actually do report beyond the spectacle? Who makes the decisions on what is considered “headline news”?
Reporting has changed in my lifetime. If you Google or use the Google AI assistant called Gemini, "Wayne Barrett", you will find both books and op-eds on Donald Trump. These date back to the 1980s with the op-eds published in The Village Voice. He documents the repetitive fraudulent activities of Donald J. Trump and his father, Frederick Christ Trump, in the Queens, NY area. He does the same for Rudy Giuliani. We did not use history in 2016 and 2020 to inform the public. We still do not have in-depth reporting on matters like COVID-19 and preventing a late diagnosis of prostate cancer, as we see with Joe Biden.
Today's newscasters on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN are wishy-washy when it comes to calling a spade a spade. Only recently have I seen courageous discussions by Jen Psaki and Lawrence O'Donnell pointing out the blatant pathology of Trump and his band of misfits. The USA is a fascist country under Trump and his cohorts. Violations of the 1st, 5th, and 14th Constitutional Amendments are all impeachable offenses. The GOP House and GOP Senate are corrupt, and therefore, Trump goes unimpeached. Further violations of the Constitution will occur. Trump will "run" for a third term with elections that are rigged.
Americans were too naive, or stupid, to realize that Trump accuses others of what he plans to do or has done himself. That is basic psychiatry 101. We are no better than the German population, blinded by the spiel and lies of Hitler.
First, they came for immigrants of color
And I did not speak out
Because I am white.
Then they came for the FBI
And I did not speak out
Because I am not an agent.
Then they came for the Department of Education
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a member of that department.
Then they came for the Judges of the Supreme Court
These comments—to a Canadian eye—are a load of pseudo-intellectual drivel confirming Mike Brock’s point. You’ve all lost the plot.
Trump isn’t the problem, he is the symptom. To use Stephen’s inexplicable analogy, the MAGA base is the perforated ulcer which, if left unaddressed, makes the choice of Brachial Artery versus Jugular Vein moot. (The latter preferred in trauma for speed, safety and volume of blood infused.) I’m not clear on the relevance of haste to the issue, though.)
The issue is that the MAGA base wants what Trump is delivering. And clearly the authors of Project 2025 want what Trump is delivering. Further, I speculate that there are many more Americans who are quite happy—if not with outcome of what Trump is delivering—then certainly with how Trump is delivering it. In fact, Trump is delivering exactly what all Americans want. You’ve just yet to admit it. Land of the free and entrepreneurial. Become a millionaire. Own a Frigidaire and a gun. Go bankrupt from medical bills. Fear “socialism”. Fear change.
The commonality is that every American has turned their patriotism against every other American. In fact, The Bill of Rights isn’t a social contract of bonhomie and accord with government as in Canada, but the weaponry (figuratively and literally) which by Malicious Compliance facilitates injury on others.
America has turned on itself. It isn’t checkers or chess—it’s leprosy.
Maybe there is need for haste. There is a sea change happening the world over—economically, socially, politically and ethnically.
There are pharaonic societal inevitabilities that Americans—as a nation—are unwilling to face. DEI. An aging population in a world of younger nations. A shrinking population in a world of burgeoning populations. A less educated population while other nations advance. An ethnocentricity that blinds.
The most damning thing that Donald Trump has done to all Americans, and the world, is to destroy confidence in the institutions of government of the United States. I don’t see how you can recover from that. Will the few separate voices come together into a nation-saving infusion of democracy before the body politic bleeds out? Anyone up for a game of checkers while we wait?
“the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction... and the distinction between true and false... no longer exist.”
Then Mike said:
"The goal is not to make you believe specific falsehoods, but to exhaust your capacity to distinguish between what matters and what doesn't."
Both quotes are 'meat pie.' By this I mean they are both intellectual deserts and of the meatiest significance. As to the Arendt quote, George Orwell's version in "Such, Such Were the Joys" from the 1940s was,
"In nationalist talk, there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unknown."
There may be somewhat of a solution to the "true and untrue" fact. It seems that psychologically, an argument, even a friendly one, between two people with opposing views is not well-tolerated by the MAGA "mind." But a 3rd, or independent part, lacking human emotion, seems to be a better tie-breaker. Try presenting arguments to an AI assistant like Gemini (Google's) and share the output with both sides. So far, this has been the first positive result I have personally seen that may unlock the closed mind of the Trump enthusiast.
Mike's point about prioritizing matters for Trump-afflicted minds has challenged me. To liken or equate Trump's corruption over 5 decades with Hunter or Joe Biden's corruption is absurd, but routinely done by MAGA. It would be similar to an argument between a German in Nazi, Germany and an American equating Hitler with Joe McCarthy. That would be a stretch given that Joe Biden is nothing like McCarthy, and Hunter Biden's level of corruption equals, at most, one 'facet' of the multi-faceted examples of Donald Trump for 5 years. We are back to a scenario where one party is concerned that the ship's captain is running the boat aground, versus the other complaining that the ship's cook burned the french toast.
Good post but I think Hilary’s email server fiasco was a self inflicted wound. It never should have happened in the first place. Also why did Biden not run in 2016? Probably a case of identity politics gone wrong! Hillary was arrogant and definitely the wrong person for the job. Democracy should never forget that basket of deplorables remark and not be surprised when people see us as elites.
Recently, I was participating in a protest march against Trump's fascist policies and was dismayed when the speakers at the march were muddling around with all sorts of distractions, all of which were important but blurring the focus of the gathering. I care about gender and race issues. I care about veterans' benefits and other social safety net funding issues, but none of this matters unless we focus on the primary priority of stopping the MAGA onslaught.
The one advantage of an autocracy is its singular focus. Liberals are playing checkers while MAGA is playing at the World Chess Championship level. At the core of fascism is a religious zeal. They are on a "mission from God". The Left will have to calm down and find the quiet voice of a kinder God to focus our efforts upon.
I have a slightly different take on the checkers/chess analogy. I would say that MAGA plays checkers really really well. And if they look like they might lose they cheat or use violence or the threat of violence. Democrats on the other hand play 4 dimensional chess really, really badly. There is nobody in charge, nobody making intelligent moves. You can’t beat MAGA at checkers which is the game in play, like it’s almost impossible to beat Trump at golf because he cheats. And MAGA aren’t interested in chess. They have overturned the table. We are all playing, perforce, at the lowest common denominator (I almost put “demon-inator”which comes to the same thing).
Stuart, I do not think your view and John's are different; you state them differently. I find in many discussions with others the propensity to equate Biden's cognitive dysfunction with Trump's strong personality. However, suppose one has a smattering of discernment. In that case, it is clear that Trump's braggadocio persona is coupled with a 4th grade vocabulary, and "like you've never seen before" stupidity about history, the Bible, ecology, the weather, ad nauseum, coupled with non-stop lying, diviseness, retribution, bullying, all typical of a nationalist.
In medicine, when we face a patient with multi-factorial disease conditions, the real physician thinks, "What is going to kill this person or do the most harm?" We do not focus on trimming the patient's nails while he is having a GI hemorrhage and is in shock. Believe that this is a real issue. As a resident, highly trained in the US military before my residency, I was faced with a young woman who was bleeding out from what later was found to be a large gastric ulcer. I used my prior training to insert an intravenous internal jugular line to administer blood and other fluids rapidly. I inserted a Foley (indwelling) urinary catheter to measure urine output. The next day, on ICU rounds, the attending MD, PW, chastised me for doing the above. He wanted me to do a cut-down procedure on the brachial vein - that would have taken me time to order up the procedure kit, and do a surgical procedure that all together would have spanned at a minimum 20 minutes. He objected to inserting a Foley catheter.
Meanwhile, the patient was wide awake, normal blood pressure, and doing well enough that within a few days she was able to be discharged. The THL (take home lesson) from this is have perspective on what is most threatening in a situation where a negative outcome has severe consequences. This is what is missing in so many Americans. They equate Biden's frailty with Trump's immorality, destructiveness and vile behavior towards other humans and towards the environment.
Stephen, Yes indeed. In addition to needing to be able to perceive what is most important at any given moment (what medical procedure in your example is most efficacious and desirable) is the need to see the benefits long term versus short term. My concern for blue collar MAGA supporters (at the risk of sounding elitist) is my thought that many are more interested in "owning the libtards, reeking revenge on those they see who have wronged Trump" than they are about truly understanding the impact of deporting millions of people - will jobs get done, will tax revenue go down significantly, especially social security? - than seeing the devastation that Trump's policies are already having on many of their lives. Trump offers a good/bad, us/them, black/wide philosophy which has for many a certain appeal. What frustrates me to no end (and this happened in the 1930s In Germany, Italy, Spain) is that the bad guys are not seen as the capitalists, the billionaires, but as the poor people next door. The illegals are somehow more a threat than the billionaires. As of late 2024, the combined net worth of all U.S. billionaires is estimated at $6.72 trillion, spread across 813 individuals. Assuming there are about 15.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the aggregate net worth would be roughly $589 billion. So the immigrants with 10% of the wealth of the billionaires are more a problem than the billionaires who have over 1000% as much?? But that landscaper, that painter, that housecleaner is the problem? On average each billionaire is worth more than 100,000 illegal immigrants with a net worth of $38,000. But the immigrants are the problem, not our tax system. And MAGA people either don't care, don't believe or are ignorant of even a smattering of this. And so it continues from one generation to the next....
Whatever game metaphor is used, the end result is that the left is checkmated and 'trumped' by the right. Where is our Project 2025 checklist? Where is our leader as an alternative to Herr Trump?
The nation is on critical life support, and, like Dr. Strum mentions below, we need to focus on survival efforts, not random superficialities. When the going gets tough, we need to remove our rose colored glasses and toughen up.
I totally agree. I was not amused when Kamala Harris disappeared for 5 plus months into hibernation after losing the election. Yes she lost but then she also abandoned the leadership of the Democratic Party. I am sorry but while I might have voted for her, I think she is in the game as much for self-glorification as she is to find solutions and work with other Democrats. While Harris technically remained active, her visibility and political clout diminished significantly after the loss, and she was not a central voice in Democratic politics during that time. This has led to the perception—even among some of her supporters—that she "disappeared" from the national scene and became politically sidelined.
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
The nation was in shock after the election, and the Dems were in disarray. Trump imagines that leadership can be forced on the public, but we need to do some collective self-analysis and discover what we want to stand for as a nation. I don't think we're there yet.
The marches I attended were haphazard and uninspiring. There was a stark contrast to the anti-war excitement during the 70's, where the counterculture fervor of race, gender, and social change came together with intensity. It took the horror of the Vietnam War to focus our efforts then, and I am not sure what trauma will trigger the next awakening.
A leader, be it Obama or Kamala, cannot do it alone. We collectively have to find our voices and ask for what we want. Sadly, we've painted ourselves into a corner, and it will take a massive shock to the old system to make room for change. We no longer know who we are, but don't know yet what we are to become. It is a time of gestation and mystery, much like a pregnancy. Too bad our current spouse is so abusive...
I think liberals are having a come to Jesus moment so I think we’re getting our own religion 😎
Mike, another great piece. I have a long ongoing text conversation (for years) with a MAGA friend “Christian” nationalist. He is smart (actually a minor TV personality who is on FOX business network frequently) but he always plays this tactic of distraction. If I bring up the huge issue of grifting and using the Presidency as a cash cow he doesn’t answer the accusation but talks about the Hunter laptop, corruption of the Clintons, Joe Biden’s grift. “Fine,” I say. “Take them to court”. Of course they don’t because there is barely any there, there. If I point out the hypocrisy of so called Christians supporting Elon Musk who said “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy” he glosses over it. It doesn’t seem to bother him that Jesus, upon whom he bases his faith, centered everything he said and did around compassion, would not in a million years , have supported a grifter like Trump. Trump would have been in the temple wheeling and dealing when Jesus had his temper tantrum. And yes he tries this moral equivalency over and over. Somehow Biden was as bad or a worse tyrant than Trump. Or Biden was not fit for the job. The infantile tariff saga doesn’t bother him. He sees Trump and Musk as “champions”. And in the end Trump plays a role in the End Times narrative which includes events leading to the rapture, the return of Christ and the restoration of Israel. And what Trump has done and is doing is confirmation of that. My mind reels. This is not discussed so much but I think is a big part of the underpinnings of what is going on for the religious right. My view: it’s a huge, highly dangerous cult.
Stuart, I have experienced the same with many MAGA acquaintances. And sadly, this has also occurred with my older sister and her two daughters, all of whom are university graduates. In my last interaction with a 100% pro-Trumper, I later sent him printed pages using the AI assistant Gemini. I used the pro-Trump advocate's exact statements, and Gemini answered with references and clarity. The pro-Trumper, amazingly, responded in a way that indicated a 3rd party had challenged his thinking. This was the first time I have seen such an effect. Try it.
This: "Let us speak plainly: Trump is the problem. Trumpism is the threat. Biden is not the danger. Biden is the spectacle being used to distract from the danger."
Thank you so much, Mike Brock, for not being distracted and/or duped. I am so mortified by the obscene blather of Joe Klein, Maureen Dowd, and company on this whole "Biden-as-puerile-distraction" from what you so carefully and determinedly focus on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks for your usual interesting insight,but what are us the regular working citizens supposed to do to deter the destruction of our govt? We go to pro democracy rallies,call our congressmen, joined a grassroots group , it all seems futile as Rep Congress goes along with all the takeover
Does the problem lie in the power that editors-in-chief hold over journalists who actually do report beyond the spectacle? Who makes the decisions on what is considered “headline news”?
Reporting has changed in my lifetime. If you Google or use the Google AI assistant called Gemini, "Wayne Barrett", you will find both books and op-eds on Donald Trump. These date back to the 1980s with the op-eds published in The Village Voice. He documents the repetitive fraudulent activities of Donald J. Trump and his father, Frederick Christ Trump, in the Queens, NY area. He does the same for Rudy Giuliani. We did not use history in 2016 and 2020 to inform the public. We still do not have in-depth reporting on matters like COVID-19 and preventing a late diagnosis of prostate cancer, as we see with Joe Biden.
Today's newscasters on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN are wishy-washy when it comes to calling a spade a spade. Only recently have I seen courageous discussions by Jen Psaki and Lawrence O'Donnell pointing out the blatant pathology of Trump and his band of misfits. The USA is a fascist country under Trump and his cohorts. Violations of the 1st, 5th, and 14th Constitutional Amendments are all impeachable offenses. The GOP House and GOP Senate are corrupt, and therefore, Trump goes unimpeached. Further violations of the Constitution will occur. Trump will "run" for a third term with elections that are rigged.
Americans were too naive, or stupid, to realize that Trump accuses others of what he plans to do or has done himself. That is basic psychiatry 101. We are no better than the German population, blinded by the spiel and lies of Hitler.
First, they came for immigrants of color
And I did not speak out
Because I am white.
Then they came for the FBI
And I did not speak out
Because I am not an agent.
Then they came for the Department of Education
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a member of that department.
Then they came for the Judges of the Supreme Court
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a Justice.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me….
Stephen B. Strum (1942-202?)
with apologies to Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)
These comments—to a Canadian eye—are a load of pseudo-intellectual drivel confirming Mike Brock’s point. You’ve all lost the plot.
Trump isn’t the problem, he is the symptom. To use Stephen’s inexplicable analogy, the MAGA base is the perforated ulcer which, if left unaddressed, makes the choice of Brachial Artery versus Jugular Vein moot. (The latter preferred in trauma for speed, safety and volume of blood infused.) I’m not clear on the relevance of haste to the issue, though.)
The issue is that the MAGA base wants what Trump is delivering. And clearly the authors of Project 2025 want what Trump is delivering. Further, I speculate that there are many more Americans who are quite happy—if not with outcome of what Trump is delivering—then certainly with how Trump is delivering it. In fact, Trump is delivering exactly what all Americans want. You’ve just yet to admit it. Land of the free and entrepreneurial. Become a millionaire. Own a Frigidaire and a gun. Go bankrupt from medical bills. Fear “socialism”. Fear change.
The commonality is that every American has turned their patriotism against every other American. In fact, The Bill of Rights isn’t a social contract of bonhomie and accord with government as in Canada, but the weaponry (figuratively and literally) which by Malicious Compliance facilitates injury on others.
America has turned on itself. It isn’t checkers or chess—it’s leprosy.
Maybe there is need for haste. There is a sea change happening the world over—economically, socially, politically and ethnically.
There are pharaonic societal inevitabilities that Americans—as a nation—are unwilling to face. DEI. An aging population in a world of younger nations. A shrinking population in a world of burgeoning populations. A less educated population while other nations advance. An ethnocentricity that blinds.
The most damning thing that Donald Trump has done to all Americans, and the world, is to destroy confidence in the institutions of government of the United States. I don’t see how you can recover from that. Will the few separate voices come together into a nation-saving infusion of democracy before the body politic bleeds out? Anyone up for a game of checkers while we wait?
Mike quoted Hannah Arendt:
“the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction... and the distinction between true and false... no longer exist.”
Then Mike said:
"The goal is not to make you believe specific falsehoods, but to exhaust your capacity to distinguish between what matters and what doesn't."
Both quotes are 'meat pie.' By this I mean they are both intellectual deserts and of the meatiest significance. As to the Arendt quote, George Orwell's version in "Such, Such Were the Joys" from the 1940s was,
"In nationalist talk, there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unknown."
There may be somewhat of a solution to the "true and untrue" fact. It seems that psychologically, an argument, even a friendly one, between two people with opposing views is not well-tolerated by the MAGA "mind." But a 3rd, or independent part, lacking human emotion, seems to be a better tie-breaker. Try presenting arguments to an AI assistant like Gemini (Google's) and share the output with both sides. So far, this has been the first positive result I have personally seen that may unlock the closed mind of the Trump enthusiast.
Mike's point about prioritizing matters for Trump-afflicted minds has challenged me. To liken or equate Trump's corruption over 5 decades with Hunter or Joe Biden's corruption is absurd, but routinely done by MAGA. It would be similar to an argument between a German in Nazi, Germany and an American equating Hitler with Joe McCarthy. That would be a stretch given that Joe Biden is nothing like McCarthy, and Hunter Biden's level of corruption equals, at most, one 'facet' of the multi-faceted examples of Donald Trump for 5 years. We are back to a scenario where one party is concerned that the ship's captain is running the boat aground, versus the other complaining that the ship's cook burned the french toast.
Good post but I think Hilary’s email server fiasco was a self inflicted wound. It never should have happened in the first place. Also why did Biden not run in 2016? Probably a case of identity politics gone wrong! Hillary was arrogant and definitely the wrong person for the job. Democracy should never forget that basket of deplorables remark and not be surprised when people see us as elites.