John: the MAGAts that I know are still giving me the thumbs up and smiling telling me to be patient, the greatness is just around the corner. However, I also hear that many at the Jim Jones compound also died with smiles on their faces. Such is the nature of a cult.
And they also drank the cyanide laced in their punch or Kool-aid. The Trumpers sadly enough drank the Kool-aid and are still drinking it. When we have a POTUS who feels he does not have to abide by the Constitution of the US-we don't just have a problem. We have grounds for impeachment and to get him thrown out of the highest office of the Land. And how dare he put up an AI image of him as the Pope. Shame on him.
Impeachment brought more support from his minions. The House and Senate are bought and paid for (many on both sides or we would hear more opposition— insider trading anybody?). We need another alternative.
Agree with all of it, John, but I am still terrified he will take care of his own, at least the wealthy ones. Exhibit A——-rich Iowa and other farmers who voted for him not once, not twice, but THREE times, who are going bankrupt because their customer was USaid or China, etc. I bet they get bailed out and vote for him again in 2028—-if we have an election. The moral bankruptcy runs very deep and very wide with all my white Christian brothers and sisters, and especially my fellow evangelicals. When “sharing the Gospel” is now a well deserved and hard earned insult and pejorative and despised term, the church has not just lost its way, it is frighteningly evil to be honest. I will never understand these last ten years ever. My heart is broken as is yours. The brainwashing by Fox and so many others is totally complete……..
If recent polls are any indication, the MAGA cult is still drinking the kool aid. When their lives are directly impacted we may see a different attitude. I doubt it though, just like Trump, they’ll blame Biden and the “libs”. What a bunch of fools.
You prayed for a king and got a con. You kissed the ring of empire and called it freedom. You chanted “lock her up” while your own soul was pickpocketed in broad daylight.
You didn’t just vote for a man. You lit a signal fire for every wounded ego, every racist ghost, every theocratic fever dream—and you did it smiling. The rest of us have been choking on the smoke ever since.
Now the economy’s bleeding, the air’s poisoned, and your golden calf is melting into a puddle of indictments. And still—some of you clutch the flag like it’s a flotation device on the Titanic.
But here’s the holy truth: fascism is a cannibal. It devours its own worshippers next.
So yes, the tax is due. Not just in dollars, but in dignity. In the mirror. In your children’s eyes.
John, I find your writings so cathartic and comforting. I know when the time comes we will feel the forgiveness towards some of his supporters that will be deserved but for now, you are not screaming into the wind. I hear you, and agree with you, and will keep reading and caring. Thank you for giving me a touch of extra strength each week.
“I hope you still feel like you're winning.” Sorry, but I don’t! I want them to feel like the losers they are. They brought this on themselves justly, and on the rest of us unjustly. I know—not very Christian of me.
Maybe today's comments are meant to illustrate not only the distortions and outright lies which have been accepted by the MAGA crowd, but I sense something missing, and that is compassion and understanding. In other words, please don't blame the victim. Blaming the victim, in this instance, is a little like blaming, say, a 12 year old boy who has been brutalized by his father, for acting hateful on the playground. Some MAGA folk are indeed racists, xenophobes, misogynists, and ought to be called out on this, clearly and even passionately. But others are simply afraid and confused by the many rapid changes this country has been undergoing, the pace of change, and the fact that some of them have been left behind by the offshoring and automation of jobs that formerly gave them a sense of stability. And those folks are suckers for a charlatan who feeds them 'red meat' and weaponizes their outrage. We ought not hate our neighbors, even as we hate what they're becoming as they are increasingly let by crooks and autocrats. The tech bros and their social media inventions, which prioritize profit over civility and sanity, as well as their collaborators in politics and others who prioritize tax breaks over social and economic justice are the people we should be angry about, not their dupes and other victims.
I used to think that too. However, we ALL had access to the same information. How come you, for example, managed to make sense of it and they couldn't be bothered? We were all bombarded by the same amount of misinformation, same bots, same clips, same social media posts. Yet, tens of millions of us managed to sort out where the lies were and acted accordingly.
Moreover, we offered them the simplified versions! To help them understand. On a platter, dissected, broken down piece by piece into manageable portions. What did they do? Call us fear mongers and libtards.
I am willing to explain things to someone who is willing to listen - and I have. But there are only so many times I am going to do that over the course of 10 years before finally realizing it's useless. They don't have the "I am confused" excuse anymore - not after all this time. They could be confused in 2016 - ok. But not afterwards.
There is no longer an excuse to any of it - they are not victims. They are willing participants. The real victims are their children who are dying of preventable diseases, their immigrant neighbors, whom they will gladly turn over to ICE, their estranged family members and friends. After all this time, after all the effort that's been made to make it less confusing? No. No excuse.
And unfortunately, the damage is being incrementally increased by those that have children. They are raising up a whole new generation of little Charlie Kirks, and it's absolutely demoralizing to think about how this planet is going to look and feel in another 10 years.
Not an excuse, but god alone knows how easy it is to get confused, sold down the river by malign influencers, and to get out from under the mindset that there's a magical or easy solution to your economic, social and psychological woes. Perhaps this is why so many naive 'evangelicals' of whichever faith community, are so easily led. They have failed to mature under all of these pressures, and remain in some ways like the damaged adult children who can't regulate their emotions and so cede their nonexistent autonomy to whichever authority promises to 'take care of them.' I basically share your outrage, but I also know that if we can't see past our human foibles and 'hate the sin but forgive the sinners' we will not have the power we need to create an improved society built on community, communication and care. That's honestly my whole aim, and I know it's a reach, but...
Having a hard time seeing the MAGAs as victims. They are grown-ass adults who had access to countless sources of information but chose not to. I do not hate them, but do not feel sorry for them. Actions have consequences and they chose poorly. Now we all suffer consequences of their poor decisions.
I agree, except that, as a retired therapist I'm only too aware that many people reach physical adulthood lacking the maturity, knowledge and skills of an adult. Take our current POTUS as an obvious example. And, like him, many people then suck up to those they perceive as powerful and likely to reward them with some kind of easy to grasp reward (a lollipop, a million cryptocoins, a country where you don't have to educate yourself and participate responsibly in its governance), rather than taking on the adult responsibilities they are manifestly unequipped to handle. I'm sure you know at least some people who fit this bill. And we need to try to help them, eventually, because otherwise we will never create or sustain a democracy worth the name. They will then remain a thorn in our side, and a handy bunch for manipulative demagogues to blame for our problems. Sound familiar? It should. That doesn't mean we should coddle the MAGAs, just do what we can to help them 'grow up' and become full partners in democracy. It will take time, and effort and things like tax reform, better schools, better housing, more (ahem) psychological understanding, etc. etc. But my invitation to those of us with eyes to see, is TO see and step up.
Where has MAGA condescension and hatred gotten me?
In all likelihood, I'm skipping this year's family reunion. A majority of my relatives are evangelical Christians and several are Christian Nationalists; most are MAGA and believe that Trump can do no wrong. Frankly, I've got better, and more productive things to do than to subject myself to two days of that bullcrap.
Where am I now, in all of this? I refuse to barter or trade with MAGAs. I keep a list of companies who donated to Donald Trump. I don't buy products made from companies who donated money to Trump or who worship at Trump's feet. If, in the course of conversation, I find out someone is MAGA or a Trump supporter, I abruptly end the conversation and walk away without saying goodbye. MAGAs are not welcome in my house. If I'm driving, and I see a car by the side of the road with a Trump bumper sticker on it, I hand them a card with the phone number to Trump's compound at Mar-a-Lago and advise them to call Trump for help - and then I drive away. (500 business cards cost $9.80 at CostCo. I keep some cards on hand with me in case I run into a MAGA whose car has broken down.)
I spent 40 years working in information technology. If I'm repairing someone's computer, and I find out that they're MAGA, I first check to see if there is pornography on the computer. (I would guess upwards of 80 percent of MAGA men have porn on their computers.) If I find there is CP on the computer, I contact the police, and I now contact ICE. MAGAs have insisted that prison in El Salvador isn't so bad, and Abrego Garcia got what he deserved for being an illegal alien. If CECOT prison is good enough for an illegal alien like Abrego Garcia, then it's good enough for Frank MAGA who has CP on his computer.
I refuse to be a victim of MAGA stupidity, or to enable MAGAs who are Trump supporters in any way. The MAGAts wanted this war: I'm going to make sure they get EVERYTHING they truly deserve.
I sympathize with your feelings and will not knowingly work for or with MAGA types myself, but isn't refusing to help people stranded on the road going a bit too far? You never know - you might cause one or two to change their minds if you don't act like they do and leave them to suffer an accident, starvation or robbery. We have to be better than them, or else we're just as bad as them.
Also, Garcia was here *legally* - not illegally. Even Trump admitted that deporting him was a mistake - but he refuses to fix it.
In the last 15 years, I have been doxxed by MAGAs and had my identity stolen (and used) by these shitheads. One of the MAGAs contacted my employer to tell them I was gay. (My employer already knew and had no problem with it.)
I was using MAGA terminology to describe Garcia. Of course he was here, legally. You and I are here, legally. Hell, I can trace my ancestry in the U.S. all the way back to Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island in 1635. Does that mean shit to Trump and the ICE? Nope. I'm very well aware that even though I'm a U.S. citizen with a pedigree, I could be deported on a whim. That makes my hatred towards Trump and MAGA burn even hotter.
I wonder if Matthew Shepard should have been "better" than the two thugs who beat him nearly to death and left him to freeze on a barbed-wire fence in Wyoming. Maybe Billy Jack Gaither should have been "better" than the two men who beat him, then set his still-living body on a pile of burned tires and burned him to death in Sylacauga, Alabama. How about the dead gay man in Senegal whose body was exhumed and burned by a crazed, homophobic crowd? How about Normunds Kindzulis, 29, a gay paramedic who died after he was doused in flammable fuel and set ablaze in Latvia? I'll bet if all these people had been "better" than they're attackers they'd still be just as dead.
I ran out of good cheeks to turn in 2010. Now, I don't even give them a chance. Sorry, but I'm not willing to extend grace to them. I don't "dislike" Trump and MAGA: I *HATE* them. If that means I'm a "bad person" and "I'm going to Hell" -- so be it. I'm good with that.
It's a moral dilemma. I think of the Nuremberg trials. Eventually, bad people will (hopefully, if we even have a legitimate legal system left in this country) get their comeuppance. But even the defendants at the 1940's war tribunals got their day in court, something Trump doesn't want to allow.
I can see where your compassion runs out, your understanding, and your tolerance. We are not the law, so are we morally obligated to act respectfully to those who commit these terrible acts? Or to those who don't even commit them but justify them, enable them? Maybe discussions need to be had about what we'll do once Trump and the MAGAs are no longer in power. We need to fix what's broken in the minds of these people. When people are indoctrinated in a cultist-mindset, you have to deprogram them to undo the brainwashing. Could we do that to hundreds of thousands of people? And could we hold mass tribunals to hold every politician who backed these illegal actions to account so that no one tries to do again what we're currently seeing?
There's more that needs doing, like finding a way for our government to earn back the trust of the American people and we can only do that by getting money out of politics. As long as corruption in politics exists, people are going to distrust the government, as they well should. But it does make many more susceptible to misinformation/conspiracy theories.
I wish "we" were there yet, but we are not. They are not feeling the pain, the bubble of hubris has not popped, the wave of arrogance and self righteousness continues to swell.
Back in the first Trump administration, he infamously stated, “what was in it for them?” When viewing the graves at Normandy. Presumably, he was wondering why anyone would sacrifice one’s life for something so intangible as the freedom of Europe. The freedom of other people, the end of a brutal regime, the establishment of a world order that, though imperfect, has until now prevented another global conflagration.
Trump couldn’t imagine how such sacrifice benefited those in the cemetery. He couldn’t comprehend how their lives had benefited him. Trump always viewed the world through the extraordinarily narrow perspective of receiving personal gratification..
The MAGA cult is beginning to feel the consequences of their misinformed selfishness. Hurting and depriving others isn’t as gratifying as they expected. And now, they are beginning to feel the cost of shortsightedness and greed. Sure trump will urge them to endure, but the tipping point has already passed.
Very well written, John. Thank you for your brilliant but very sad column. My heart breaks for the destruction and hatred. It's very depressing. My only glimmer of hope were the 2 recent anti f45 elections in both Canada and Australia.
I really feel we are living in the world of Satan these days. I believe the world is getting sicker and sicker and it should not have to be this way. People have enough problems these days just with the experience of living. We go through disease, marital traumas, financial hardships and Lord knows what else. In the movie. "As Good As it Gets"-Helen hunt laments, in referring to Jack Nicholson' "Why can't I have a normal boyfriend"? I say to myself" Why can we have a normal President? Can we?
When Nixon got out after his corruption we wanted someone the opposite and we voted in Jimmy Carter. He was a strong moral man and look how he was treated.
This is a heartbreaking piece, but then, they all are on this space. I think what’s so compelling in the way John writes is that he could have just said FAFO, or , more precisely, when you cheer as someone pokes a hole in the bottom of the boat, we all sink. I don’t want anyone to suffer. Even if it’s divine retribution, I don’t think retribution is the answer. But I suppose that only by feeling the pain can some finally realize that cruelty hurts us all, makes us less.
I spoke to one of my MAGA relatives recently. She has been angry and afraid for al one time, and suddenly she seems less so, despite how uncertain her future is now, as she relies on social security and Medicare for survival. I wonder if it’s denial over what is happening, or relief that she no longer has to feel loyalty to a monster? I wish I knew. And I hope it’s the latter.
I hope it's the latter too. Never really thought about the burden folks HAVE to feel to continue their blind toxic loyalty to a sociopath who hates them with his every fiber. They are slowly poisoning themselves with daily hate and anger. Their elevated cortisol levels alone do significant damage over time. That's why we need to support each other, and lift ourselves up on the daily.
Governments most likely can be repaired, although our health and the planet's health may be beyond help if all the insanity continues. If Kennedy has his way, many of us might not survive, and if Burgum and Wright have theirs, our environment could be beyond repair.
Let's work together and put up the strongest opposition possible; we can't let Marc Ellias do it on his own.
John: the MAGAts that I know are still giving me the thumbs up and smiling telling me to be patient, the greatness is just around the corner. However, I also hear that many at the Jim Jones compound also died with smiles on their faces. Such is the nature of a cult.
And they also drank the cyanide laced in their punch or Kool-aid. The Trumpers sadly enough drank the Kool-aid and are still drinking it. When we have a POTUS who feels he does not have to abide by the Constitution of the US-we don't just have a problem. We have grounds for impeachment and to get him thrown out of the highest office of the Land. And how dare he put up an AI image of him as the Pope. Shame on him.
Impeachment brought more support from his minions. The House and Senate are bought and paid for (many on both sides or we would hear more opposition— insider trading anybody?). We need another alternative.
Agree with all of it, John, but I am still terrified he will take care of his own, at least the wealthy ones. Exhibit A——-rich Iowa and other farmers who voted for him not once, not twice, but THREE times, who are going bankrupt because their customer was USaid or China, etc. I bet they get bailed out and vote for him again in 2028—-if we have an election. The moral bankruptcy runs very deep and very wide with all my white Christian brothers and sisters, and especially my fellow evangelicals. When “sharing the Gospel” is now a well deserved and hard earned insult and pejorative and despised term, the church has not just lost its way, it is frighteningly evil to be honest. I will never understand these last ten years ever. My heart is broken as is yours. The brainwashing by Fox and so many others is totally complete……..
If recent polls are any indication, the MAGA cult is still drinking the kool aid. When their lives are directly impacted we may see a different attitude. I doubt it though, just like Trump, they’ll blame Biden and the “libs”. What a bunch of fools.
To the MAGA faithful:
You prayed for a king and got a con. You kissed the ring of empire and called it freedom. You chanted “lock her up” while your own soul was pickpocketed in broad daylight.
You didn’t just vote for a man. You lit a signal fire for every wounded ego, every racist ghost, every theocratic fever dream—and you did it smiling. The rest of us have been choking on the smoke ever since.
Now the economy’s bleeding, the air’s poisoned, and your golden calf is melting into a puddle of indictments. And still—some of you clutch the flag like it’s a flotation device on the Titanic.
But here’s the holy truth: fascism is a cannibal. It devours its own worshippers next.
So yes, the tax is due. Not just in dollars, but in dignity. In the mirror. In your children’s eyes.
I hope the dopamine was worth the democracy.
– Virgin Monk Boy
John, I find your writings so cathartic and comforting. I know when the time comes we will feel the forgiveness towards some of his supporters that will be deserved but for now, you are not screaming into the wind. I hear you, and agree with you, and will keep reading and caring. Thank you for giving me a touch of extra strength each week.
“I hope you still feel like you're winning.” Sorry, but I don’t! I want them to feel like the losers they are. They brought this on themselves justly, and on the rest of us unjustly. I know—not very Christian of me.
MAGA folks will be hurt the most ironically.
I wish that were true, but I think the pain is felt more keenly by the rest of us.
Maybe today's comments are meant to illustrate not only the distortions and outright lies which have been accepted by the MAGA crowd, but I sense something missing, and that is compassion and understanding. In other words, please don't blame the victim. Blaming the victim, in this instance, is a little like blaming, say, a 12 year old boy who has been brutalized by his father, for acting hateful on the playground. Some MAGA folk are indeed racists, xenophobes, misogynists, and ought to be called out on this, clearly and even passionately. But others are simply afraid and confused by the many rapid changes this country has been undergoing, the pace of change, and the fact that some of them have been left behind by the offshoring and automation of jobs that formerly gave them a sense of stability. And those folks are suckers for a charlatan who feeds them 'red meat' and weaponizes their outrage. We ought not hate our neighbors, even as we hate what they're becoming as they are increasingly let by crooks and autocrats. The tech bros and their social media inventions, which prioritize profit over civility and sanity, as well as their collaborators in politics and others who prioritize tax breaks over social and economic justice are the people we should be angry about, not their dupes and other victims.
I used to think that too. However, we ALL had access to the same information. How come you, for example, managed to make sense of it and they couldn't be bothered? We were all bombarded by the same amount of misinformation, same bots, same clips, same social media posts. Yet, tens of millions of us managed to sort out where the lies were and acted accordingly.
Moreover, we offered them the simplified versions! To help them understand. On a platter, dissected, broken down piece by piece into manageable portions. What did they do? Call us fear mongers and libtards.
I am willing to explain things to someone who is willing to listen - and I have. But there are only so many times I am going to do that over the course of 10 years before finally realizing it's useless. They don't have the "I am confused" excuse anymore - not after all this time. They could be confused in 2016 - ok. But not afterwards.
There is no longer an excuse to any of it - they are not victims. They are willing participants. The real victims are their children who are dying of preventable diseases, their immigrant neighbors, whom they will gladly turn over to ICE, their estranged family members and friends. After all this time, after all the effort that's been made to make it less confusing? No. No excuse.
And unfortunately, the damage is being incrementally increased by those that have children. They are raising up a whole new generation of little Charlie Kirks, and it's absolutely demoralizing to think about how this planet is going to look and feel in another 10 years.
Not an excuse, but god alone knows how easy it is to get confused, sold down the river by malign influencers, and to get out from under the mindset that there's a magical or easy solution to your economic, social and psychological woes. Perhaps this is why so many naive 'evangelicals' of whichever faith community, are so easily led. They have failed to mature under all of these pressures, and remain in some ways like the damaged adult children who can't regulate their emotions and so cede their nonexistent autonomy to whichever authority promises to 'take care of them.' I basically share your outrage, but I also know that if we can't see past our human foibles and 'hate the sin but forgive the sinners' we will not have the power we need to create an improved society built on community, communication and care. That's honestly my whole aim, and I know it's a reach, but...
Leigh
Having a hard time seeing the MAGAs as victims. They are grown-ass adults who had access to countless sources of information but chose not to. I do not hate them, but do not feel sorry for them. Actions have consequences and they chose poorly. Now we all suffer consequences of their poor decisions.
I agree, except that, as a retired therapist I'm only too aware that many people reach physical adulthood lacking the maturity, knowledge and skills of an adult. Take our current POTUS as an obvious example. And, like him, many people then suck up to those they perceive as powerful and likely to reward them with some kind of easy to grasp reward (a lollipop, a million cryptocoins, a country where you don't have to educate yourself and participate responsibly in its governance), rather than taking on the adult responsibilities they are manifestly unequipped to handle. I'm sure you know at least some people who fit this bill. And we need to try to help them, eventually, because otherwise we will never create or sustain a democracy worth the name. They will then remain a thorn in our side, and a handy bunch for manipulative demagogues to blame for our problems. Sound familiar? It should. That doesn't mean we should coddle the MAGAs, just do what we can to help them 'grow up' and become full partners in democracy. It will take time, and effort and things like tax reform, better schools, better housing, more (ahem) psychological understanding, etc. etc. But my invitation to those of us with eyes to see, is TO see and step up.
Where has MAGA condescension and hatred gotten me?
In all likelihood, I'm skipping this year's family reunion. A majority of my relatives are evangelical Christians and several are Christian Nationalists; most are MAGA and believe that Trump can do no wrong. Frankly, I've got better, and more productive things to do than to subject myself to two days of that bullcrap.
Where am I now, in all of this? I refuse to barter or trade with MAGAs. I keep a list of companies who donated to Donald Trump. I don't buy products made from companies who donated money to Trump or who worship at Trump's feet. If, in the course of conversation, I find out someone is MAGA or a Trump supporter, I abruptly end the conversation and walk away without saying goodbye. MAGAs are not welcome in my house. If I'm driving, and I see a car by the side of the road with a Trump bumper sticker on it, I hand them a card with the phone number to Trump's compound at Mar-a-Lago and advise them to call Trump for help - and then I drive away. (500 business cards cost $9.80 at CostCo. I keep some cards on hand with me in case I run into a MAGA whose car has broken down.)
I spent 40 years working in information technology. If I'm repairing someone's computer, and I find out that they're MAGA, I first check to see if there is pornography on the computer. (I would guess upwards of 80 percent of MAGA men have porn on their computers.) If I find there is CP on the computer, I contact the police, and I now contact ICE. MAGAs have insisted that prison in El Salvador isn't so bad, and Abrego Garcia got what he deserved for being an illegal alien. If CECOT prison is good enough for an illegal alien like Abrego Garcia, then it's good enough for Frank MAGA who has CP on his computer.
I refuse to be a victim of MAGA stupidity, or to enable MAGAs who are Trump supporters in any way. The MAGAts wanted this war: I'm going to make sure they get EVERYTHING they truly deserve.
I sympathize with your feelings and will not knowingly work for or with MAGA types myself, but isn't refusing to help people stranded on the road going a bit too far? You never know - you might cause one or two to change their minds if you don't act like they do and leave them to suffer an accident, starvation or robbery. We have to be better than them, or else we're just as bad as them.
Also, Garcia was here *legally* - not illegally. Even Trump admitted that deporting him was a mistake - but he refuses to fix it.
In the last 15 years, I have been doxxed by MAGAs and had my identity stolen (and used) by these shitheads. One of the MAGAs contacted my employer to tell them I was gay. (My employer already knew and had no problem with it.)
I was using MAGA terminology to describe Garcia. Of course he was here, legally. You and I are here, legally. Hell, I can trace my ancestry in the U.S. all the way back to Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island in 1635. Does that mean shit to Trump and the ICE? Nope. I'm very well aware that even though I'm a U.S. citizen with a pedigree, I could be deported on a whim. That makes my hatred towards Trump and MAGA burn even hotter.
I wonder if Matthew Shepard should have been "better" than the two thugs who beat him nearly to death and left him to freeze on a barbed-wire fence in Wyoming. Maybe Billy Jack Gaither should have been "better" than the two men who beat him, then set his still-living body on a pile of burned tires and burned him to death in Sylacauga, Alabama. How about the dead gay man in Senegal whose body was exhumed and burned by a crazed, homophobic crowd? How about Normunds Kindzulis, 29, a gay paramedic who died after he was doused in flammable fuel and set ablaze in Latvia? I'll bet if all these people had been "better" than they're attackers they'd still be just as dead.
I ran out of good cheeks to turn in 2010. Now, I don't even give them a chance. Sorry, but I'm not willing to extend grace to them. I don't "dislike" Trump and MAGA: I *HATE* them. If that means I'm a "bad person" and "I'm going to Hell" -- so be it. I'm good with that.
It's a moral dilemma. I think of the Nuremberg trials. Eventually, bad people will (hopefully, if we even have a legitimate legal system left in this country) get their comeuppance. But even the defendants at the 1940's war tribunals got their day in court, something Trump doesn't want to allow.
I can see where your compassion runs out, your understanding, and your tolerance. We are not the law, so are we morally obligated to act respectfully to those who commit these terrible acts? Or to those who don't even commit them but justify them, enable them? Maybe discussions need to be had about what we'll do once Trump and the MAGAs are no longer in power. We need to fix what's broken in the minds of these people. When people are indoctrinated in a cultist-mindset, you have to deprogram them to undo the brainwashing. Could we do that to hundreds of thousands of people? And could we hold mass tribunals to hold every politician who backed these illegal actions to account so that no one tries to do again what we're currently seeing?
There's more that needs doing, like finding a way for our government to earn back the trust of the American people and we can only do that by getting money out of politics. As long as corruption in politics exists, people are going to distrust the government, as they well should. But it does make many more susceptible to misinformation/conspiracy theories.
Let them eat ivermectin.
And LOTS of it!
I wish "we" were there yet, but we are not. They are not feeling the pain, the bubble of hubris has not popped, the wave of arrogance and self righteousness continues to swell.
Back in the first Trump administration, he infamously stated, “what was in it for them?” When viewing the graves at Normandy. Presumably, he was wondering why anyone would sacrifice one’s life for something so intangible as the freedom of Europe. The freedom of other people, the end of a brutal regime, the establishment of a world order that, though imperfect, has until now prevented another global conflagration.
Trump couldn’t imagine how such sacrifice benefited those in the cemetery. He couldn’t comprehend how their lives had benefited him. Trump always viewed the world through the extraordinarily narrow perspective of receiving personal gratification..
The MAGA cult is beginning to feel the consequences of their misinformed selfishness. Hurting and depriving others isn’t as gratifying as they expected. And now, they are beginning to feel the cost of shortsightedness and greed. Sure trump will urge them to endure, but the tipping point has already passed.
Very well written, John. Thank you for your brilliant but very sad column. My heart breaks for the destruction and hatred. It's very depressing. My only glimmer of hope were the 2 recent anti f45 elections in both Canada and Australia.
I really feel we are living in the world of Satan these days. I believe the world is getting sicker and sicker and it should not have to be this way. People have enough problems these days just with the experience of living. We go through disease, marital traumas, financial hardships and Lord knows what else. In the movie. "As Good As it Gets"-Helen hunt laments, in referring to Jack Nicholson' "Why can't I have a normal boyfriend"? I say to myself" Why can we have a normal President? Can we?
When Nixon got out after his corruption we wanted someone the opposite and we voted in Jimmy Carter. He was a strong moral man and look how he was treated.
This is a heartbreaking piece, but then, they all are on this space. I think what’s so compelling in the way John writes is that he could have just said FAFO, or , more precisely, when you cheer as someone pokes a hole in the bottom of the boat, we all sink. I don’t want anyone to suffer. Even if it’s divine retribution, I don’t think retribution is the answer. But I suppose that only by feeling the pain can some finally realize that cruelty hurts us all, makes us less.
I spoke to one of my MAGA relatives recently. She has been angry and afraid for al one time, and suddenly she seems less so, despite how uncertain her future is now, as she relies on social security and Medicare for survival. I wonder if it’s denial over what is happening, or relief that she no longer has to feel loyalty to a monster? I wish I knew. And I hope it’s the latter.
I hope it's the latter too. Never really thought about the burden folks HAVE to feel to continue their blind toxic loyalty to a sociopath who hates them with his every fiber. They are slowly poisoning themselves with daily hate and anger. Their elevated cortisol levels alone do significant damage over time. That's why we need to support each other, and lift ourselves up on the daily.
Thanks Lisa. Well said.
Governments most likely can be repaired, although our health and the planet's health may be beyond help if all the insanity continues. If Kennedy has his way, many of us might not survive, and if Burgum and Wright have theirs, our environment could be beyond repair.
Let's work together and put up the strongest opposition possible; we can't let Marc Ellias do it on his own.