Remember the U.S. ‘War on Terror’ and our frequent condemnation of state-sponsored terrorism? Well, now the shoe is on the other foot. Today, it’s the ‘free,’ ‘democratic’ U.S. that is one of the primary global instigators of state-sponsored madness, terrorism, and oppression — along with Russia, Iran, and Israel (and other criminal regimes).
The past decade — coinciding with the rise and ‘reign’ of Donald Trump — has seen an unprecedented onslaught of partisan madness, paranoia, the crazed ‘politicization’ of everything, and overt oppression of Blacks, Hispanics, LGBTQ+ folks, and even women in general. We’ve seen our federal government gutted and our foreign policy and international alliances ‘sliced and diced.’
Over the entire decade, our American madness kept expanding and intensifying — until today, with Trump and ‘his’ GOP firmly ensconced in Washington, the madness is exploding exponentially and is out of control.
Our current ‘reality’ is crazy, oppressive, and dangerous
Scarily, this is not an exaggeration. Political, economic, and social madness; paranoia; deep racism; and ethnic hatreds are spreading through our nation like wildfire, resulting in wave upon wave of crazy, oppressive, and dangerous policies/actions. Here are a few potent examples:
1) First, and most dangerously, there’s the totally unprecedented and tyrannical way that Trump is running roughshod over all the other ‘coequal’ branches of government. Our famed ‘checks and balances’ have been utterly failing, and neither Congress nor the Supreme Court is willing or able to slow his momentum. He governs via royal decrees — so-called ‘executive orders.’ Worse, the other branches of government are just rolling over and allowing all this lawless craziness/domination… even though government by decree is directly opposed to the founders’ and our Constitution’s stated intent and ideals.
2) Trump’s and the far-right’s incessant attacks on the media have undermined and destroyed Americans’ trust in basic news and essential public information. Despite the documented fact that Trump is a prodigious pathological liar and scheming con man, he has successfully painted the media as the ‘fake news media’ — while convincing many Americans that HE is truthful and is the only trustworthy information source. Along with Fox ‘News,’ he has turned truth on its head, to the point that now real news is ‘fake’ while obvious deceptions and manipulative ‘news’ are viewed as ‘real’ and ‘true.’ Reality itself is fast becoming a lost cause — a deepening, tragic casualty of MAGA and ‘Trumpism.’
3) Trump and MAGA have seized on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies and programs and are demonizing and ‘canceling’ them all across the nation. The right’s hysterical anti-DEI push is directly tied to increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and thinly veiled racism. No matter what Trump and MAGA say, it’s clear that they want to return to the ‘good ol’ days’ of White supremacy, when Blacks and Hispanics were oppressed and their economic, social, and voting opportunities were severely limited. Most fundamentally, Trump and MAGA do not believe in ‘liberty and justice for ALL’ and do not agree with the Constitutional ideals that support our representative democracy. To them, White men — and no one else — should hold power, and the very concepts of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ are evil, ‘woke’ non-starters (since they are so terribly ‘unfair’ to Whites!).
4) Trump and MAGA have greatly eroded trust in U.S. election processes and the fairness and accuracy of our elections. They have successfully convinced 35–40% of the voting populace that Democrats always cheat and try to ‘rig’ our elections — when the actual truth is that they try to manipulate and ‘rig’ election results. When a Republican wins, it’s ‘all good,’ but when a Democrat wins, suddenly the election was ‘rigged’ and fraudulent. It’s a crazy-making, idiotic mindset — yet it has spread across the country like a contagious disease and is now an uncontested ‘fact’ for most of the GOP. Plus, right now, the GOP is using bizarre, extreme partisan gerrymandering to cement its power in Washington and disenfranchise Democrats. It’s a dark, deepening political nightmare.
5) The Trump/MAGA ‘war on truth’ has resulted in another severe casualty: our public health system. Whether we’re talking about vaccines, the CDC, or public health programs in general, Trump, MAGA, and RFK Jr. have sliced and diced our public health policies and programs. Over the past few months, RFK Jr. has fired the entire federal vaccine advisory board, gutted the staffing of the CDC, and fired the new head of the CDC because she was too ‘woke’ and believed in the efficacy of vaccines. Then, most senior officials at the CDC immediately resigned in protest. At the same time, RFK Jr. and Trump are touting their “Make America Healthy Again” initiative — go figure. Removing a few additives and colorings from our food supply does not compensate for stripping away vital protections, health programs, and proven medicines like vaccines.
We’re stuck in a dark downward spiral — and we’re suffering
There are many more examples I could cite, but my main concern is not with specific examples or actions — though these are obviously crucial. Rather, my main concern is the big picture: their overall impact on the American mind and heart. Over the past decade, we’ve seen an insidious, paranoid type of mass ‘group-think’ spread across our nation, with highly destructive results.
By now, almost everyone has experienced the total frustration and sheer horror of trying and trying to talk/reason with MAGA folks and ‘Trumpists’ — only to be rebuffed again and again, in a barrage of anger, deflection, distortions, ‘justified outrage,’ conspiracy theories, and outright lies.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that, at this point, MAGA and most of the GOP fully believe in and inhabit an ‘alternate reality’ from most human beings — meaning, most other Americans as well as most humans around the world. We Americans have always been oddly self-centered, parochial, and largely oblivious to what’s happening in other parts of the world. Sadly, with our current Trump-inspired isolationism and economic protectionism, we’ve gotten much more self-centered and even more oblivious to global affairs. We can’t seem to ‘get’ why so many other nations and peoples around the world now hate and distrust the U.S.
Yet, it’s quite obvious why this is happening. The U.S., under Trump and his ‘MAGAfied’ GOP, has become incredibly aggressive on the world stage with our bizarre, bullying tariff strategies, threats to take over other nations or territories like Canada and Greenland, and withdrawal from key international trade and climate pacts. Plus, Trump constantly dishonors and trashes our long-time allies and NATO — while cozying up to a ruthless dictator, Vladimir Putin!
The simple truth is that Trump is a persistent, pathological, and menacing bully, and now the U.S government takes its cues directly from him and has become a persistent, pushy, even worse bully on the world stage. The sad, scary truth is: we are alienating the entire world and losing allies at a rapid clip. No one likes or trusts us anymore — except for a few autocrats and dictators.
The ‘last days’ of U.S. democracy may be looming
As all these pernicious and destructive changes unfold in the U.S., Americans’ mental and emotional health continues to deteriorate. Frighteningly, the Trump/MAGA ‘program’ for our nation is guaranteed to make things worse.
For starters, Trump and his Cabinet and allies are fully committed to ramping up immigration enforcement (ICE) raids and rapid deportations — which are already destabilizing the country and instilling mass fear and anxiety in our Black and Hispanic residents (and our immigrant workforce). Plus, they’re going after women in general with their oppressive anti-abortion policies and actions, and are targeting the extensive LGBTQ+ community with harsh policies and open harassment.
In other words, unless you’re a White, privileged, straight Christian male, your well-being or even your very life is being threatened and heavily oppressed by Trump and his loyal ‘groupies.’
The hateful, racist, and misogynist group-think that makes up the bulk of MAGA’s ‘reality’ is SO destructive and so saturated with White rage that it is making people crazy. It’s inspiring overt racism, mass shootings, and all manner of social atrocities.
And the craziness isn’t confined to MAGA followers. It intensifies, festers, and spreads. Their bullying tactics and hateful beliefs have a huge impact and are scaring, hurting, and even terrifying many people (and sometimes, this is the exact intention). They are scaring people silly. Trump and MAGA, working together, are wrecking Americans’ mental and emotional health. They are luring us into supporting insane, tyrannical ‘policies’ with the (false) promise to “Make America Great Again.”
However, all of these horrific beliefs and actions will never make America ‘great again.’ It’s a complete impossibility. Instead, they are making the U.S. increasingly paranoid, unstable, aggressive, and untrustworthy — and are causing millions of us to lose our emotional balance, mental clarity, any remaining trust, and any sense of hope for our collective future. Increasingly, bizarre conspiracy theories, racism, misogyny, fear, and rampant anger rule our society and our collective minds.
Under Trump and MAGA, we are indeed enduring systematic, state-sponsored madness, terror, and oppression. And the window is closing — fast!— to even begin turning this horror show around.
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This post was previously published on Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs.
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