I have been in a silent rage since about 9pm last night. Thinking about all the people who told me I am too pessimistic and suspicious, who told me I was overstating things, and how much I feel like Cassandra. No, I will never give up, never back down, and I'm done being civil to Trump supporters. I will call them nazis to their faces and refuse to support their businesses, and when they complain about high prices and government overreach I will laugh at them and remind them that this is what they voted for. I will be the most acerbic I-told-you-so bastard there is as things start to go sideways for them.
I'm sofaking tired of taking the high road while people like you and your ilk try and gaslight us. Democrats have always been too nice and went the get into the mud like you magats, you scream like schoolyard bullies finally getting punched back.
I'm tired of playing nice too.
You think the cheetah isn't going to eat your face? Dream on. Wait until the tariffs start and you can't afford anything
Wait until the deportations start and you can't get any fresh food, meat, or poultry (as those jobs are traditionally held by immigrants) or when you're 9 year old is conscripted to fill those jobs.
Wait until it is someone you love dying in a hospital ER because they're either bleeding out or dying from sepsis.
The hellscape that is coming is because of you and your ilk. You won't be spared unless you're a millionaire/billionaire.
I live in the DC area and while I'm not a federal employee, I work with regulatory agencies (EPA, OSHA, FDA.) In thirty years I've seen different administrations have different priorities, but literally dismantling the regs has never been one.
I'm also struggling with not hating half the country, since they have no trouble hating me and people I care about.
I went through this to some extent with Brexit and then the re-election of the Tories in the late '10s. Brexit touches me personally as a British immigrant living in France; it doesn't really affect my daily life that much but it does add another layer of bureaucracy to some administrative tasks, and to traveling back and forth to England. I tried the first way with the Brexiters and concluded that there is no way to be understanding, there is no way to engage them in discussion because part of their philosophy- even a large part of it - is to stick their fingers in their ears and go 'lalalalala' when you try to do so. They are, it seems to me, physically incapable of engaging in rational discussion. Their philosophy is, in MAGA terms, 1. Stick it to the libs; 2. Suck it up buttercup; 3. No you're wrong and I'm not listening. Trump, and the Brexit crowd, connected with these people by saying 'Yes, yes, you're right, I'll fix it for you don't worry' and then simply telling lie after lie after lie. They don't care about the things we do like facts and evidence and thoughtful discussion, and there's no shaking them from that position. None. The British are sort of starting to think that Brexit was a bad idea - it's roughly 60-40 now (https://www.statista.com/statistics/987347/brexit-opinion-poll/ - see, facts!) - but Labour (and, of course, the Tories) say that we'll never rejoin ('Never in my lifetime - Sir K. Starmer). So I have stopped even talking about it now, it's not worth it because there is literally nothing I can do about it. There's nothing even a majority of people thinking like me can do about it, because there's no political party we can vote for that will do what we want, because they're all terrified of losing the Brexit voters. The fear I have for America is that the Democrats will do something similar and start listening to the MAGAs and start doing what they want too. So personally I chose the second path personally some time ago; I look after myself, I do things that I like doing, I connect with my family and friends and I generally ignore the larger goings-on in the outside world. Trump winning is both baffling and entirely predictable because for the past decade half the Western world has been driven by anger and rage against the other half. I could devote the remaining 10 or 20 years of my life battling futilely against them but I'm not going to. I will argue with them, given enough provocation, but I no longer seek them out and I no longer write or comment on their stupidities voluntarily. My friends who have gone right-wing nutter, anti-trans, homophobic, sexist, racist and/or stupid no longer hear from me and I ignore them. I live, like you, in a beautiful part of the world and I'm withdrawing more and more into it. Namaste.
Yep, right now I'm feeling all of this. Staring down the barrel of at least four and probably eight years of Republican/MAGA government and it feels like there's a limit to what I can do except in my local community and with friends and family. It's a shame, but... and I do reserve the right to change my mind ;-)
You are at least fortunate that you don't have to stay in Post Brexit Britain, you got out, I am trapped there. I can only stay in France for a certain amount of time these days.
I’m not even American, but we went through a slightly similar thing in the UK with Brexit. Not so grave a threat to our daily lives (but ours will last longer) but there was that sudden realisation that a majority of our compatriots were thinking of themselves and lacking compassion for others (a large part of Brexit was anti-immigration).
Even so, this election result has made me realise I need to reduce my engagement on social media and I’ve deleted X off my phone and I’m going to try to turn to more local things and get out more and try and be bored and try and read more.
Yep, I'm going to do at least some of the same. And I will always remember — and not fondly — the night when my wife and I sat and listened aghast in California as the Brexit results came in...
I think we underestimated the misogyny. I'm not sure race had a lot to do with it. What scares me is when he said that this would be the last election; then the leaked Project 2025.
I’ve spent the day having conversations about normal things with everyone I meet with a smile as brittle as crystal, carefully not bringing up what happened today, because I’m terrified that if I bring it up they might break down in tears at what we’ve seen happen. Or they might gleefully celebrate it and the one breaking into tears will be me. Or they might be mostly indifferent to it, and I won’t understand how.
The blow is dramatically softened by me being on the other side of the ocean, of course: the UK has a Labour government! Who are doing… ok? Ish? But I did not expect that we are now suddenly one of the few leading, torch-carrying non-fash members of the western alliance, there to provide a shining light for others to follow. I don’t think they expected it either; certainly I’m not confident they’ll be very good at it.
I have no good suggestions for what’s best to do for everyone there in the US, whether already on the list of acceptable targets or soon to discover that them disassembling the government while enriching themselves won’t fix literally any of the hundreds of problems for everyone else. I’m sorry: partially that I have no good ideas, but also… I’m sorry.
I think I thought Harris would win, not from optimism, but because I could not imagine how it could be the other way. I still can’t understand it. As Mike says, if you think the point of it all is to improve the lives of others as well as your own, then…how did this happen? Do people think that’s what this is doing? Or worse, do they not think that’s the point? How can you not think that’s the point?
It’s hard to feel hopeful. Still, gotta try, that being the point of hope and all. Maybe locally, maybe globally, maybe something.
Locally, globally, both and somewhere in between. I think it's going to take a long time for the ramifications and implications of this result to sink in to people. And I'm very glad that at least for now the UK is resisting the hard pull to the right...
Oh, the UK isn't resisting. Labour did as well as they did largely because the fash right party split the votes of the merely deeply crazy right party.
The world desperatly needs more empathy and understanding, not something I feel like giving today but I think it is the only way forward. Well written and level headed which I haven’t been able to be today. Thank you for this.
I am thinking that I am a very sad cat lady, but you did make me feel a tiny bit better. I like the idea of keeping it local. I can't help that so many people vote against their best interest. I have tried! You reminded me about how grateful I am to live in beautiful Santa Cruz. After all, 77% of us here voted for Kamala.
It’s just exhausting to know how much work is ahead to keep things running and stable. Say what you will about Biden, but it was nice having a few years “off” from worrying every single day about basic human rights. I would love to just write songs and poems about the banal — nature, ocean, the scent of coffee, the feeling of holding hands — but at this point all the banality seems frivolous and we’re all forced to contend with this upcoming tsunami of red fury.
Fully agree. The energy to resist will come from the joy of being local absent the deplorables backed up by a motorized swivel mounted shiny new 50 caliber fully automatic tank and helicopter slaying weapon. Roof top. Going to need some training first.
I was fairly confident that sanity would prevail this election, just as it did in 2020, especially with the recent elevated public craziness of Trump, his increasing incoherence, and diminishing rally success.
So I was really sucker punched on Election Day. I’m still stunned and depressed.
It was horrifying to realize that a majority of people chose a screamingly unfit criminal buffoon over decency and democracy. I found myself feeling a bit disconnected from reality, not wanting to believe that fellow Americans could actually have made that terrible choice.
My knee jerk reaction was thinking “I’m now living in a majority of tragically gullible, ignorant or vile humans. I will never trust or respect them ever again! Screw them!”
After much reflection, I believe that’s not at all true.
I’ve slogged through the endless posts blaming this thing or that, but I realized that the answer is really pretty simple and obvious. At least, it’s what I think, right or wrong.
It’s not that 51% of Americans chose a disgusting, unfit, dangerous conman who incoherently babbles about Hannibal Lector and sharks, knowing exactly what they were choosing.
No, most of these voters made their choice based on the lies and misinformation they were fed by our mainstream media and social networks. Notably Fox, but all the other major players as well. They normalized and sane-washed Trump’s disqualifying behavior and vile intentions. Repeatedly.
These voters voted based on lies. They’ve never heard of Project 2025 or watched debates. They’d likely be surprised if you told them about mass deportations.
Those of us immersed in all the breaking details of everything maga was doing and saying every day tend to forget that a LOT of Americans aren’t doing that. They aren’t seeing all of that. They likely don’t care about politics, hate thinking about it, don’t want to take the time. All they see is the sanitized or misleading headlines: “Rampant Inflation!” “Terrible Economy!” “Immigrant crime!”
So I don’t think 51% of Americans are tragically gullible, ignorant or vile human beings. A much smaller percentage—certainly. In my opinion, most of them voted Trump/Republican based on their false perceptions, which were expertly manipulated by misinformation, both from American sources and foreign actors. The Republican campaign strategy was an effective firehose of lies.
It’s nothing new or surprising. We’ve been posting about it for years. Our news media, once defenders of the truth, failed America.
I think this is exactly correct. I've avoided pretty much all social media and all news this week, on the grounds I just can't ****ing bear it... or bearing seeing endless analyses of a done deal, from media that failed us. I agree that:
1. There's a certain base level — a non trivial number of people — who are just assholes.
2. The various media (gently directed by billionaires) misinformed a vast number of the others.
3. More controversially, that certain aspects of liberalism have been overly high-lit — like "wokism" — in a way that made easy targets for the ignorant and bigoted.
4. That, as political philosophers like Richard Rorty have been warning for decades, America was simply lurching toward a time when a "strong man" would appeal to enough voters that something bad would happen.
We exist in a state of unprecedented self-awareness, capable of recognizing the machinery of culture while remaining bound within its confines. Yet this awareness carries with it an inevitable strain of postmodern cynicism: we understand that transcendence is illusory, that culture itself is but a simulation designed to capture our attention, that meaning must either be self-created or found in collective narratives like religion. But this cynicism is not our destination—it is merely a waypoint on our journey.
In our digital age, Descartes' axiom has evolved: "I think, therefore I Google." We verify our own thoughts against the vast digital archive, blurring the lines between individual creativity and collective knowledge. Who owns our ideas when every conceivable thought has been catalogued and uploaded? In this landscape where information equals power, identity becomes our most precious currency.
We find ourselves caught between object and identity, between the desire for uniqueness and the fear of becoming mere data points. The heroes of our time are those who can liberate identities from the machinery of categorization, returning them to the realm of the ineffable. Yet we are drawn inexorably to synthetic identity—the carefully curated social media presence, the branded lifestyle, the projection of self that transcends our physical form.
Our existence unfolds in a world where every place, object, and person carries its own brand manual. Cities become living galleries, their brutalist architecture standing alongside Anish Kapoor sculptures. Culture has been reduced to a series of experiences to be consumed: holidays, beach trips, museum visits—each moment waiting to be captured, shared, and commodified.
Democracy, that sacred cow of Western civilization, has devolved into yet another spectacle of simulation. The vote, once a weapon of revolution, now serves as a sedative for the masses. We click buttons, fill in ballots, and participate in the grand theatrical performance of choice, all while algorithmic manipulation and data-driven campaigns predetermined our decisions months ago. The polling booth has become our confessional, where we absolve ourselves of responsibility by participating in a ritual that merely reinforces the illusion of agency. Like choosing between brands of toothpaste in a supermarket, our democratic choices have been reduced to marketing exercises—different packaging for the same product. We celebrate our freedom to choose while ignoring that the menu itself was written by those who profit from our selection.
A vote is a noctotic.
In a world where attention is scarce, it becomes the ultimate commodity. We witness this in the marketing of "ethical" products—the Alpaca sweater from a "developing" nation, promoted as empowerment while perpetuating post-colonial power structures. Our very existence is distilled into digital footprints: birth, life, death, and the social media memorial that follows.
Can we craft new narratives that make our lives appear desirable to strangers and past acquaintances, even as we drift further from our former selves? We curate our identities with the precision of museum directors, measuring our worth in profile picture updates and engagement metrics. We stream Netflix while traveling to the Peak District, capturing empty fields for our Kinfolk-reading friends, living in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance.
In this era of self-censorship, our life stories become assets, our personal information reduced to digits in corporate databases. We are units of data, endlessly replicated and analyzed:
Data data data data data data...
Until we reach the void—the empty space where meaning once resided.
As a certain tech visionary (and master of marketing who coned the world) once said: "Here's to the crazy ones..." But perhaps the truly crazy ones are those who still believe they can find authenticity in a world of endless simulation.
I feel I've seen all this before. And no, it is not good. At the time of the 3rd Thatcher victory, neither I nor my friends believed she would win again. She won with a landslide. What followed was not merely the expected attacks on unions, the poor, etc, and the inevitable financial corruption of people who have been in unchecked power for too long, but a complete overhaul of British politics. Labour rebranded itself under Tony Blair into Thatcherism-lite, no doubt thinking this was the only way to get back into government. Since then, there has been no effective opposition party in Britain (yes, I know Labour are in power again, but are they still the party that will fight for the common man? I doubt it.). There's a direct line between all that, Brexit, the buffoons who've been in charge since then, and the decline of the UK economy. Here in the States, the stakes are so much higher. Once you establish an authoritarian regime, catering for the rich and powerful, going back to a working democracy is almost impossible, barring war or revolution -- neither of which is a good option. If we want a kinder, more ethical society, it will not come from above. It will have to happen at street level. And -- forgive me, I'm still in doom & gloom mode -- most people will be too busy scrabbling to survive to offer any viable alternatives. I appreciate your efforts to offer strategies for survival, but I think the long-term effects of another Trump term are going to be far darker than we imagine -- especially since this time, he'll have complete immunity and really could shoot someone on 5th Ave and get away with it. Apologies for the pessimism, but...
No, I feel you. Have been trying to keep my chin up but am feeling equally gloomy and pessimistic myself right now. I'm not sure anybody is prepared for just how bad this is going to be, or how long it's going to last, or how hard it will be to ever try to change it back.
What I'm fighting against is the urge to just turn my back on it all and live my own life. Because if we all do that, it's not going to help. Dunno what comes next.
As much as I am sad for what will follow inside the US with Trump's revenge vendetta, Project 2025, RFK's anti-science agenda, and a score more little Gileads .... it's the global consequences which are perhaps graver: anti-climate science, technobro warlords buddying up with Putin, nuclear proliferation in Europe and SE Asia as nations realise they need to arm up against China & Russia in the absence of US as policeman, and the US giving a playbook to all the little Trumpettes who want to tear up social contracts...
I have been in a silent rage since about 9pm last night. Thinking about all the people who told me I am too pessimistic and suspicious, who told me I was overstating things, and how much I feel like Cassandra. No, I will never give up, never back down, and I'm done being civil to Trump supporters. I will call them nazis to their faces and refuse to support their businesses, and when they complain about high prices and government overreach I will laugh at them and remind them that this is what they voted for. I will be the most acerbic I-told-you-so bastard there is as things start to go sideways for them.
Yep. They'll learn what they've done, eventually.
My, how mature. You sound like a lot of fun.
I'm sofaking tired of taking the high road while people like you and your ilk try and gaslight us. Democrats have always been too nice and went the get into the mud like you magats, you scream like schoolyard bullies finally getting punched back.
I'm tired of playing nice too.
You think the cheetah isn't going to eat your face? Dream on. Wait until the tariffs start and you can't afford anything
Wait until the deportations start and you can't get any fresh food, meat, or poultry (as those jobs are traditionally held by immigrants) or when you're 9 year old is conscripted to fill those jobs.
Wait until it is someone you love dying in a hospital ER because they're either bleeding out or dying from sepsis.
The hellscape that is coming is because of you and your ilk. You won't be spared unless you're a millionaire/billionaire.
You're in a cult. Seek help. Leavingmaga.org No judgment
I relish people of differing views being here, but let's keep comments on other people's comments civil, please.
I apologize. But that was about as civil as I could get. I'm terrified of what's coming.
Oh, I wasn't talking to you... ;-)
I live in the DC area and while I'm not a federal employee, I work with regulatory agencies (EPA, OSHA, FDA.) In thirty years I've seen different administrations have different priorities, but literally dismantling the regs has never been one.
I'm also struggling with not hating half the country, since they have no trouble hating me and people I care about.
Yep - struggling with that one myself a little bit now. I hope they're too incompetent to do all the things they say they will...
I went through this to some extent with Brexit and then the re-election of the Tories in the late '10s. Brexit touches me personally as a British immigrant living in France; it doesn't really affect my daily life that much but it does add another layer of bureaucracy to some administrative tasks, and to traveling back and forth to England. I tried the first way with the Brexiters and concluded that there is no way to be understanding, there is no way to engage them in discussion because part of their philosophy- even a large part of it - is to stick their fingers in their ears and go 'lalalalala' when you try to do so. They are, it seems to me, physically incapable of engaging in rational discussion. Their philosophy is, in MAGA terms, 1. Stick it to the libs; 2. Suck it up buttercup; 3. No you're wrong and I'm not listening. Trump, and the Brexit crowd, connected with these people by saying 'Yes, yes, you're right, I'll fix it for you don't worry' and then simply telling lie after lie after lie. They don't care about the things we do like facts and evidence and thoughtful discussion, and there's no shaking them from that position. None. The British are sort of starting to think that Brexit was a bad idea - it's roughly 60-40 now (https://www.statista.com/statistics/987347/brexit-opinion-poll/ - see, facts!) - but Labour (and, of course, the Tories) say that we'll never rejoin ('Never in my lifetime - Sir K. Starmer). So I have stopped even talking about it now, it's not worth it because there is literally nothing I can do about it. There's nothing even a majority of people thinking like me can do about it, because there's no political party we can vote for that will do what we want, because they're all terrified of losing the Brexit voters. The fear I have for America is that the Democrats will do something similar and start listening to the MAGAs and start doing what they want too. So personally I chose the second path personally some time ago; I look after myself, I do things that I like doing, I connect with my family and friends and I generally ignore the larger goings-on in the outside world. Trump winning is both baffling and entirely predictable because for the past decade half the Western world has been driven by anger and rage against the other half. I could devote the remaining 10 or 20 years of my life battling futilely against them but I'm not going to. I will argue with them, given enough provocation, but I no longer seek them out and I no longer write or comment on their stupidities voluntarily. My friends who have gone right-wing nutter, anti-trans, homophobic, sexist, racist and/or stupid no longer hear from me and I ignore them. I live, like you, in a beautiful part of the world and I'm withdrawing more and more into it. Namaste.
Yep, right now I'm feeling all of this. Staring down the barrel of at least four and probably eight years of Republican/MAGA government and it feels like there's a limit to what I can do except in my local community and with friends and family. It's a shame, but... and I do reserve the right to change my mind ;-)
You are at least fortunate that you don't have to stay in Post Brexit Britain, you got out, I am trapped there. I can only stay in France for a certain amount of time these days.
I’m not even American, but we went through a slightly similar thing in the UK with Brexit. Not so grave a threat to our daily lives (but ours will last longer) but there was that sudden realisation that a majority of our compatriots were thinking of themselves and lacking compassion for others (a large part of Brexit was anti-immigration).
Even so, this election result has made me realise I need to reduce my engagement on social media and I’ve deleted X off my phone and I’m going to try to turn to more local things and get out more and try and be bored and try and read more.
Yep, I'm going to do at least some of the same. And I will always remember — and not fondly — the night when my wife and I sat and listened aghast in California as the Brexit results came in...
I felt as if a part of me had died that morning, still do, the sense of shock still hasn't faded completely, even after all this time.
I think we underestimated the misogyny. I'm not sure race had a lot to do with it. What scares me is when he said that this would be the last election; then the leaked Project 2025.
Day One of the Terran Empire, someone said.
I weep.
I'm kind of horrified at what may come. Just trying to keep the faith.
Same here.... it's going to be a damned long 4 years.
I’ve spent the day having conversations about normal things with everyone I meet with a smile as brittle as crystal, carefully not bringing up what happened today, because I’m terrified that if I bring it up they might break down in tears at what we’ve seen happen. Or they might gleefully celebrate it and the one breaking into tears will be me. Or they might be mostly indifferent to it, and I won’t understand how.
The blow is dramatically softened by me being on the other side of the ocean, of course: the UK has a Labour government! Who are doing… ok? Ish? But I did not expect that we are now suddenly one of the few leading, torch-carrying non-fash members of the western alliance, there to provide a shining light for others to follow. I don’t think they expected it either; certainly I’m not confident they’ll be very good at it.
I have no good suggestions for what’s best to do for everyone there in the US, whether already on the list of acceptable targets or soon to discover that them disassembling the government while enriching themselves won’t fix literally any of the hundreds of problems for everyone else. I’m sorry: partially that I have no good ideas, but also… I’m sorry.
I think I thought Harris would win, not from optimism, but because I could not imagine how it could be the other way. I still can’t understand it. As Mike says, if you think the point of it all is to improve the lives of others as well as your own, then…how did this happen? Do people think that’s what this is doing? Or worse, do they not think that’s the point? How can you not think that’s the point?
It’s hard to feel hopeful. Still, gotta try, that being the point of hope and all. Maybe locally, maybe globally, maybe something.
Locally, globally, both and somewhere in between. I think it's going to take a long time for the ramifications and implications of this result to sink in to people. And I'm very glad that at least for now the UK is resisting the hard pull to the right...
Oh, the UK isn't resisting. Labour did as well as they did largely because the fash right party split the votes of the merely deeply crazy right party.
The world desperatly needs more empathy and understanding, not something I feel like giving today but I think it is the only way forward. Well written and level headed which I haven’t been able to be today. Thank you for this.
Thank you... and yeah, today empathy feels like a struggle ;-)
I am thinking that I am a very sad cat lady, but you did make me feel a tiny bit better. I like the idea of keeping it local. I can't help that so many people vote against their best interest. I have tried! You reminded me about how grateful I am to live in beautiful Santa Cruz. After all, 77% of us here voted for Kamala.
I am very, very glad to live here today. All days, but especially today... and to know you guys are just around the corner!
It’s just exhausting to know how much work is ahead to keep things running and stable. Say what you will about Biden, but it was nice having a few years “off” from worrying every single day about basic human rights. I would love to just write songs and poems about the banal — nature, ocean, the scent of coffee, the feeling of holding hands — but at this point all the banality seems frivolous and we’re all forced to contend with this upcoming tsunami of red fury.
Yep, that's about right. But yes... at least we had a few years off under Biden: I just hope he's not the last safe pair of hands we ever have.
Also feeling tired of voting against my direct interests for those that don’t care. Maybe there’s a lesson for them to learn.
Yep, feeling you on that too, to be honest. There does come a point where you think: why am I doing this?
Fully agree. The energy to resist will come from the joy of being local absent the deplorables backed up by a motorized swivel mounted shiny new 50 caliber fully automatic tank and helicopter slaying weapon. Roof top. Going to need some training first.
That sounds fun. Can I join in?
More like 30 squirrels on meth in a bag with 20 tame mice who don't want any trouble.
Yep, that's more accurate sadly...
I was fairly confident that sanity would prevail this election, just as it did in 2020, especially with the recent elevated public craziness of Trump, his increasing incoherence, and diminishing rally success.
So I was really sucker punched on Election Day. I’m still stunned and depressed.
It was horrifying to realize that a majority of people chose a screamingly unfit criminal buffoon over decency and democracy. I found myself feeling a bit disconnected from reality, not wanting to believe that fellow Americans could actually have made that terrible choice.
My knee jerk reaction was thinking “I’m now living in a majority of tragically gullible, ignorant or vile humans. I will never trust or respect them ever again! Screw them!”
After much reflection, I believe that’s not at all true.
I’ve slogged through the endless posts blaming this thing or that, but I realized that the answer is really pretty simple and obvious. At least, it’s what I think, right or wrong.
It’s not that 51% of Americans chose a disgusting, unfit, dangerous conman who incoherently babbles about Hannibal Lector and sharks, knowing exactly what they were choosing.
No, most of these voters made their choice based on the lies and misinformation they were fed by our mainstream media and social networks. Notably Fox, but all the other major players as well. They normalized and sane-washed Trump’s disqualifying behavior and vile intentions. Repeatedly.
These voters voted based on lies. They’ve never heard of Project 2025 or watched debates. They’d likely be surprised if you told them about mass deportations.
Those of us immersed in all the breaking details of everything maga was doing and saying every day tend to forget that a LOT of Americans aren’t doing that. They aren’t seeing all of that. They likely don’t care about politics, hate thinking about it, don’t want to take the time. All they see is the sanitized or misleading headlines: “Rampant Inflation!” “Terrible Economy!” “Immigrant crime!”
So I don’t think 51% of Americans are tragically gullible, ignorant or vile human beings. A much smaller percentage—certainly. In my opinion, most of them voted Trump/Republican based on their false perceptions, which were expertly manipulated by misinformation, both from American sources and foreign actors. The Republican campaign strategy was an effective firehose of lies.
It’s nothing new or surprising. We’ve been posting about it for years. Our news media, once defenders of the truth, failed America.
Sadly, I don’t know what we can do about it.
I think this is exactly correct. I've avoided pretty much all social media and all news this week, on the grounds I just can't ****ing bear it... or bearing seeing endless analyses of a done deal, from media that failed us. I agree that:
1. There's a certain base level — a non trivial number of people — who are just assholes.
2. The various media (gently directed by billionaires) misinformed a vast number of the others.
3. More controversially, that certain aspects of liberalism have been overly high-lit — like "wokism" — in a way that made easy targets for the ignorant and bigoted.
4. That, as political philosophers like Richard Rorty have been warning for decades, America was simply lurching toward a time when a "strong man" would appeal to enough voters that something bad would happen.
And here we are.
It's an ancient paradigm,
We exist in a state of unprecedented self-awareness, capable of recognizing the machinery of culture while remaining bound within its confines. Yet this awareness carries with it an inevitable strain of postmodern cynicism: we understand that transcendence is illusory, that culture itself is but a simulation designed to capture our attention, that meaning must either be self-created or found in collective narratives like religion. But this cynicism is not our destination—it is merely a waypoint on our journey.
In our digital age, Descartes' axiom has evolved: "I think, therefore I Google." We verify our own thoughts against the vast digital archive, blurring the lines between individual creativity and collective knowledge. Who owns our ideas when every conceivable thought has been catalogued and uploaded? In this landscape where information equals power, identity becomes our most precious currency.
We find ourselves caught between object and identity, between the desire for uniqueness and the fear of becoming mere data points. The heroes of our time are those who can liberate identities from the machinery of categorization, returning them to the realm of the ineffable. Yet we are drawn inexorably to synthetic identity—the carefully curated social media presence, the branded lifestyle, the projection of self that transcends our physical form.
Our existence unfolds in a world where every place, object, and person carries its own brand manual. Cities become living galleries, their brutalist architecture standing alongside Anish Kapoor sculptures. Culture has been reduced to a series of experiences to be consumed: holidays, beach trips, museum visits—each moment waiting to be captured, shared, and commodified.
Democracy, that sacred cow of Western civilization, has devolved into yet another spectacle of simulation. The vote, once a weapon of revolution, now serves as a sedative for the masses. We click buttons, fill in ballots, and participate in the grand theatrical performance of choice, all while algorithmic manipulation and data-driven campaigns predetermined our decisions months ago. The polling booth has become our confessional, where we absolve ourselves of responsibility by participating in a ritual that merely reinforces the illusion of agency. Like choosing between brands of toothpaste in a supermarket, our democratic choices have been reduced to marketing exercises—different packaging for the same product. We celebrate our freedom to choose while ignoring that the menu itself was written by those who profit from our selection.
A vote is a noctotic.
In a world where attention is scarce, it becomes the ultimate commodity. We witness this in the marketing of "ethical" products—the Alpaca sweater from a "developing" nation, promoted as empowerment while perpetuating post-colonial power structures. Our very existence is distilled into digital footprints: birth, life, death, and the social media memorial that follows.
Can we craft new narratives that make our lives appear desirable to strangers and past acquaintances, even as we drift further from our former selves? We curate our identities with the precision of museum directors, measuring our worth in profile picture updates and engagement metrics. We stream Netflix while traveling to the Peak District, capturing empty fields for our Kinfolk-reading friends, living in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance.
In this era of self-censorship, our life stories become assets, our personal information reduced to digits in corporate databases. We are units of data, endlessly replicated and analyzed:
Data data data data data data...
Until we reach the void—the empty space where meaning once resided.
As a certain tech visionary (and master of marketing who coned the world) once said: "Here's to the crazy ones..." But perhaps the truly crazy ones are those who still believe they can find authenticity in a world of endless simulation.
Peace.
You may be right about that...
I feel I've seen all this before. And no, it is not good. At the time of the 3rd Thatcher victory, neither I nor my friends believed she would win again. She won with a landslide. What followed was not merely the expected attacks on unions, the poor, etc, and the inevitable financial corruption of people who have been in unchecked power for too long, but a complete overhaul of British politics. Labour rebranded itself under Tony Blair into Thatcherism-lite, no doubt thinking this was the only way to get back into government. Since then, there has been no effective opposition party in Britain (yes, I know Labour are in power again, but are they still the party that will fight for the common man? I doubt it.). There's a direct line between all that, Brexit, the buffoons who've been in charge since then, and the decline of the UK economy. Here in the States, the stakes are so much higher. Once you establish an authoritarian regime, catering for the rich and powerful, going back to a working democracy is almost impossible, barring war or revolution -- neither of which is a good option. If we want a kinder, more ethical society, it will not come from above. It will have to happen at street level. And -- forgive me, I'm still in doom & gloom mode -- most people will be too busy scrabbling to survive to offer any viable alternatives. I appreciate your efforts to offer strategies for survival, but I think the long-term effects of another Trump term are going to be far darker than we imagine -- especially since this time, he'll have complete immunity and really could shoot someone on 5th Ave and get away with it. Apologies for the pessimism, but...
No, I feel you. Have been trying to keep my chin up but am feeling equally gloomy and pessimistic myself right now. I'm not sure anybody is prepared for just how bad this is going to be, or how long it's going to last, or how hard it will be to ever try to change it back.
What I'm fighting against is the urge to just turn my back on it all and live my own life. Because if we all do that, it's not going to help. Dunno what comes next.
As much as I am sad for what will follow inside the US with Trump's revenge vendetta, Project 2025, RFK's anti-science agenda, and a score more little Gileads .... it's the global consequences which are perhaps graver: anti-climate science, technobro warlords buddying up with Putin, nuclear proliferation in Europe and SE Asia as nations realise they need to arm up against China & Russia in the absence of US as policeman, and the US giving a playbook to all the little Trumpettes who want to tear up social contracts...
Yep. That level is even more terrifying, to be honest.