The Idiot’s Guide to American Collapse

Greetings to all the anxious and overwhelmed denizens of what we arrogantly call ‘American civilization.’ I feel your pain and frustration. I know you feel crushed, immobilized, trapped.

So do I.

Why? It’s simple: our souls are being crushed. Our souls are dying under the toxic onslaught of lies, disinformation, partisan insanity, cruelty, racism, and general idiocy.

We’re suffering and drowning under a tsunami of deliberate lies, provocations, and calculated deceptions. We’re reeling from the nonstop ‘firehose to the face’ of way, way too much false, negative, and/or antisocial (dis)information.

But I’ll try to (bravely, foolishly) guide us through this crazy-making maelstrom. I’m hoping to dispel at least some of the dark confusion and fear that paralyzes and tortures us.

I want to cut through the noise, nonsense, and idiocy and help us reclaim our own inner power and knowing.

An ugly and dangerous transformation

As Fuhrer Trump — sorry, I meant President Trump — assumes semi-dictatorial power in the United States again, it’s crucial to see and deeply understand what’s happening here in the ‘land of the free’ (ha-ha! Or… do I hear sobbing?).

Over the past decade, which not coincidentally revolved around the rise of Donald Trump and ‘Trumpism,’ the United States has gone through an ugly and super-dangerous transformation. Such vicious transformations have happened before, in places like 1930s Germany and Italy; they produced (and always produce) tyrants and demagogues like Hitler, Mussolini… and now Trump.

Understanding and fully ‘getting’ the causes and symptoms of such widespread social unrest, disease, collapse, and cruelty is crucial if anything resembling ‘civilization’ is to survive.

To that end, I’m going to simplify and clarify the basic underlying trends as much as possible.

Remember, this is the idiot’s guide to U.S. collapse (and these days, almost all of us are behaving like idiots). I will assume the background reality of economic issues and folks’ ongoing economic pain — which some believe is our prime and only motivator — and won’t discuss this further here, since I think this belief is a vast oversimplification.

Let’s dive in.

Identifying and analyzing the ‘Six D’s’: Denial, Deception, Disinformation, Distraction, Devolution, and Destruction

I thought of a convenient mnemonic device to help us comprehend and get through this convoluted, uber-anxious era: the Six D’s of Denial, Deception/Disinformation, Distraction, Devolution, and Destruction. These are the primary forces or social trends that are driving America’s painful and catastrophic transformation.

The truly horrifying thing about these six forces or trends is that they all amplify and strengthen each other. Together, they create and keep reinforcing a dark downward spiral of mental and moral decay, violence, and collapse.

The U.S. could be making very different choices — choices that create an upward spiral of burgeoning optimism, collective hope, and growing contentment. But due to the overwhelming influence of the Six D’s, we’re doing the exact opposite. Instead of spiraling upward and truly being ‘the land of opportunity,’ we’re zealously driving our society to disintegration and destruction.

Here are my brief descriptions of the Six D’s:

1)Denial: This is a ‘biggie,’ which is why it’s first on the list. In a way, it’s the essential precursor to ALL the others. Denial is now rampant in the U.S., and one of our two primary political parties — the GOP — is engaged in almost full-time denial. They deny systemic racism — which is obvious to even a casual observer of American life; deny that climate change is happening and intensifying; deny that we’re all equal and should have equal rights under the law; deny the right wing’s intense misogyny; deny the vital importance of public health programs; deny that Trump lost the 2020 election, even after many recounts and court cases affirming Biden’s victory; and deny that the crazed, violent insurrection on Jan 6, 2021 was an overt, vicious coup attempt (many rioters were even chanting “Hang Mike Pence!,” our Vice-president) — and instead insist it was a ‘peaceful demonstration’ overflowing with ‘love’! (And that’s just a small sampling; there are many more examples of widespread, grotesque denial.)

Denial of reality is a common human failing, but now ‘conservative’ denial has ramped up and become a vast tidal wave engulfing our society. We deny, deny, deny, in the vain hope that somehow our denial will ‘turn things around’ and make our lives and society OK again.

But here’s the problem: denial is a very primitive, backward, and ultimately destructive defense mechanism. Denial of reality always comes back to bite us in the ass, and often leads to far worse outcomes because it obscures our vision and awareness and encourages apathy or ongoing refusal to act (for example: refusing to phase out fossil fuels). Denial, at bottom, is merely fear-based escape from reality — and as such, it undermines or even undoes our ability to deal with reality directly and intelligently.

Denial leaves us deluded, frustrated, and helpless — which is exactly where the bullies, demagogues, and tyrants want us.

2) Deception/Disinformation: Our denial of reality and truth leads directly to ongoing deception and our current tsunami of lies and disinformation (propaganda). If the GOP, for example, wants to ‘turn back the clock’ and reinstate a 50s-style, White-centric Christian society — well, their furious denial of today’s multi-racial, multi-ethnic reality must result in aggressive propaganda and deliberate deception, in their quest to undo ‘liberalism’ and prop up their denial-based, racist worldview. Denial is inherently dangerous, but it becomes super-dangerous when combined with ongoing deception and disinformation.

The simple truth is that deep denial requires and also feeds off deception — starting with self-deception. It’s no coincidence that Trump is a compulsive liar with no apparent conscience; he is the perfect mirror for the deep denial and self-deception plaguing the U.S.

Trump, MAGA, right-wing media, and social media have worked together seamlessly to create a non-stop, overwhelming ‘firehose to the face’ of denial, disinformation, and outright lies — all in service of their denialist, racist, and misogynist ‘Christian’ agendas.

Deception and disinformation are the bedrock of fascism and autocracy, as the Nazis well knew. Trump’s and MAGA’s Big Lies about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection should be seen in that light; the wild success of these Big Lies has moved us ever closer to autocracy and tyranny.

3) Distraction: Our consumer society provides us with endless diversions, entertainment, and distractions. It’s no different, in essence, than the Romans’ cynical use of ‘bread and circuses’ to control the masses — except today, it’s happening everywhere and on a massive, all-encompassing scale.

Today we’re literally inundated with non-stop entertainment, infotainment, constant social media feeds and messages, and endless ‘influencer’ videos — the overwhelming ‘firehose to the face’ mentioned earlier — but we’re also deeply in thrall to our worship of gadgets and the latest technologies. We’re presented with a vast, unending series of so-called ‘choices’ — all those fancy smartphones, games, and gadgets to choose from! — but all this consumeristic ‘freedom of choice’ revolves around NOT seeing other vital options or alternatives and NOT making informed, healthy choices that could actually improve our lives.

That is, all our supposed ‘freedom of choice’ takes place within a severely constrained and limited view of reality. Capitalism and consumerism rule the day, so the only ‘choices’ we’re presented with support and enable both — while undermining our real freedom. All these endless material choices intentionally distract us from what is really happening and what is truly essential: human growth, healing, and social transformation.

All these constant distractions keep us enslaved, running frantically on the hamster wheel of consumerism.

4) Devolution: If our society and our citizens are running from reality and constantly choosing denial, our ability to consciously evolve, grow, and change is hampered or totally obscured. We’re constantly directed away from what’s truly essential, as noted above — and in place of human growth, healing, and social transformation, we’re coerced and corralled into the opposite: mental, moral, and social regression and devolution.

Instead of evolving and growing into a wiser, better future, we’re force-fed a diet of resentment, hate, envy, racism, misogyny, and fear. And more fear.

This steady drumbeat of hate and fear thrusts us back into the most primitive aspects of our minds and psyches. The vast tsunami of denial, deception, and distraction attacks our brains, our nervous systems, and our emotional core, and instigates a rapid devolution in affected humans — that is, all of us. And scarily, this is not accidental. It’s quite intentional — for the greedy, uncaring ‘powers that be’ need us to be scared, unaware, needy, and (seemingly) powerless.

Our mental/moral descent and devolution help them amass more power and stay in power.

5) Destruction: I mean this in both the popular sense and also the more formal sense of de-structuring, i.e. the literal taking apart, destruction, and re-structuring of our liberal democracy.

All the above factors — the Five D’s we’ve examined so far — hasten and contribute to the rapid de-structuring and replacement of liberal democracy.

You may ask, what is being created — audaciously imposed — in its place? Trump and the far right want and demand a White-centric, male-dominated, and heavily ‘Christian’ autocracy with a vengeful ‘strong man’ leader (Trump, of course!). They seek total domination, and will not be satisfied until they have oppressed and subjugated non-Whites, non-Christians, and women in general.

Plus, they are intent on ridding America of every ‘liberal’ or ‘woke’ idea and every ‘green’ policy — which translates to even more White-centric, ‘Christian’ BS, more antisocial, super-individualistic hatefulness, and ever more pollution and destruction of our planet’s ecosystems.

It’s utter madness, yet within the confines of this denial-based ‘group-think’ system… it all hangs together and makes perfect sense.

But the truth is, it’s hateful, it doesn’t make sense… and instead engulfs people in ‘the logic of insanity’ and soon makes them highly irrational or even batshit crazy— utterly out of touch with reality.

We’re entering the final ‘end game’ for America

Sadly, the U.S. is very far along this insidious path toward total denial, chaos, and collapse. All we horrified observers/participants can do, at this point, is try to wake people up and do our best to prepare for the dire and terrible events and trends that keep arising and growing, all around us.

Why are the ‘Six D’s’ so prevalent and powerful now? At bottom, it’s because the reigning ‘powers that be’ — Trump, Murdoch, MAGA, Musk, etc. — want it this way. They know that our present course is utterly unsustainable, indeed suicidal, but they don’t care; they only care about augmenting their power and control.

To that end, they are using every means at their disposal to confuse us, overwhelm us, and ‘divide and conquer.’ And their devious manipulations have proven highly successful, especially here in the U.S.

However, it’s easy to point fingers and say it’s all ‘their’ fault. They hold the outward power, clearly, but in the end, it’s ‘we the people’ who allow them to control and manipulate us and give away our power and autonomy. We look up to and enable these vicious, sociopathic abusers.

At this point, it’s safe to say that American — and soon global — collapse will continue and intensify unless and until ‘we the people’ wake up and throw off our oppressors (including our own brainwashed thinking).

If we can’t or won’t do that… well, the onrushing tsunami of mass social failure and collapse will soon inundate us all.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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Escape the Act Like a Man Box

What We Talk About When We Talk About Men

Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race

The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow

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