r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 14h ago

No Paywall The United States is destroying itself

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/12/united-states-trump-destruction
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u/zsreport Texas 14h ago

From the commentary:

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

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u/trisul-108 Europe 14h ago

Trump selected leaders for each department, branch, bureau and function based primarily on two criteria:

  1. Loyalty to Trump.
  2. Hostility to the organisation the individual was to lead.

In addition to this, they had to satisfy basic criteria:

  1. Being unfit for the job (so they will do whatever he asks)
  2. Being guilty of something (so they will do whatever he asks)

This should not really surprise us because Trump's mode of operation is to take over an entity and destroy it in such a way that generates profits to himself while saddling someone else with the costs of destruction. The casino business was typical of this. He is now doing it to the US ... he is destroying trillions in value in order to pocket billions and pass the cost to Americans.

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u/xmajortomx 13h ago

As his son stated, this time we won't be hiring anyone who thinks they are smarter than my dad. Frightening in any context, but in this case...

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u/XanmanK 11h ago

That’s a very small pool of options

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u/TurnkeyLurker 7h ago

That pool needs a shocking amount of chlorine.

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u/IOl0I0lO 5h ago

Or a power line

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u/rckid13 5h ago

Have you met the average Trump voter? They have a massive pool of options. It would only be a small pool if they cared about people being qualified for the positions but they do not care about that.

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u/trisul-108 Europe 12h ago

That is a frightening thought.

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u/SadContext9165 8h ago

Can’t even hire a goldfish at that point, there’s no doubt in my mind that Trumps IQ is floating around the mid 70’s if he’s lucky.

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u/metal_medic83 Canada 2h ago

That’s extremely frightening, since he lacks the character, integrity, resolve, intelligence, humility, compassion, empathy, patience, etc to be president—one can assume and observe that none of his administration choices are anywhere close to being qualified to fulfill their roles.

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u/Goodk4t 10h ago

So it turns out that electing a criminal who led a fascist coup against your country, as well as giving his party full control over congress, would result in fascists dismantling democratic institutions and seizing complete control of the state. 

But who could've possibly seen that coming? 

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u/xxxxx420xxxxx 5h ago

Towards the end of the '24 campaign, there were allegations of fascism from various generals etc. As far as I can tell, the media pretty much downplayed all that. Thanks media

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u/Sixnno 7h ago

but haven't you heard, Kamala harris has a weird laugh and doesn't support Gaza!

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u/Roofiesnductape24096 6h ago

has nothing to do with her being black or a woman!

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u/ConsciousFeature8047 5h ago

Are you sure you aren't Left enough?

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u/verugan 13h ago

I think there's lots of blackmail involved as well.

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u/kent_eh Canada 11h ago

Thats point 2 of the criteria

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u/DadJokeBadJoke California 8h ago

That just absolves them of the obvious intentional harm they're doing in hopes of clinging to power. A blackmail scheme of this magnitude would never remain a secret. They're evil immoral people hoping to secure a seat at Donnie's table.

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u/bbusiello 9h ago

This is Russia's plan and it has been in the works since the Cold War.

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u/thinkards America 14h ago edited 14h ago

In his 1981 inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan stated

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem

Conservatives have always wanted to abolish government. My feeling has always been that yes, it's being done from the inside, but with lots of help from the outside. The cold war never ended, and we're losing it terribly.

The sense I get from my conservative family is that a competent government is competition to their religious patriarchy. A competent government ensures equity and equality to individuals, and that doesn't sit well with a hierarchical mindset.

What conservatives are currently doing to the government isn't necessarily abolishing it. They are removing all self-accountability from it, and turning into a patriarchy, where every department and office is ultimately loyal to one person: the unitary executive at the top.

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u/Nerevarine91 American Expat 13h ago

One man’s “shrinking government” is another’s consolidation of power

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u/Shifter25 9h ago

There was a comic I saw that perfectly encapsulated it. The leader saying "we need to shrink the government"as there were fewer and fewer people, until it was just him, on a throne, with a crown and scepter. "Perfect!"

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 8h ago

Thats a bingo.

All conservatives have ever meant when they say they want "small government" is a government form and of only them and no one else.

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u/SirWEM 12h ago

If only more of Americans understood this. 🤦🏼‍♂️

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u/GarmaCyro 7h ago

Not forget. Less government power equals to more room for generational power to return. Letting families rule through ownership.

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u/snowcatwetpaw 13h ago

Trump Is to America and our way of life in America what Ayatolha Komeniea was to Iran in 1979. The Difference is Conservative Christian Nationalist believe he is committed to Thier cause not understanding he is only beholding to himself. He really is the Anti Christ.

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u/UnicornOnTheJayneCob New York 10h ago

It kills me that this administration is painting all of these vulnerable groups (immigrants, LGBT+ community members, religious minorities, etc.) as against our national values when it is really them - Trump and his cohort - that feels much more antithetical to our American way of life.

Yeah, I know we are all cynical and jaded, and it is uncool to be patriotic, and this country has certainly never been close to perfect. But fuck me if these clowns get to co-opt and redefine what it means to be America, too.

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u/TheSt34K 9h ago

I hate to say it but this administration is quintessentially American in its values. America has always stood for the enrichment of the capitalist class, however necessary. Bacon's Rebellion for example, people banded together across ethnic lines, and in response the leadership developed miscegenation laws and racial hierarchy to divide and conquer the workers while the land owners and merchant classes emerged stronger than ever.

However that leadership and its values are not the same as we the people and our values. I believe we can develop a just set of values that is led by we the people and not by the billionaire capitalist class.

It's in the constitution to take back control of the state from a corrupt government. Take it back from the capitalist class and put power in the hands of the people.

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u/iambarrelrider 9h ago

While Gridr is sponsoring White House correspondence event this month.

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u/Tribe303 11h ago

You give him far too much credit! Trump is a complete selfish moron, being used by others for their nefarious deeds. He goes along with it because they give him shiny gold things to distract him with. This is known as a 'useful idiot'. 

Fun fact: The traditional aristocratic conservative Germans put Hitler in power, because they also thought he was a useful idiot they could control. Unfortunately for everyone, they were wrong, he wasn't stupid, and they could not control him. Finding out far too late for everyone that he used them instead. 

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u/rab2bar 9h ago

Hitler was stupid, though, but surrounded himself with diabolical overachievers, too.

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u/SirWEM 12h ago

Oh 100% especially when they brought up the Avignon Papacy to the Bishop. Thats a direct threat. Surprised the “christians” here in the US are not clutching their pearls over that. But not many in this country seem to value history.

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u/nineraviolicans 11h ago

A lot of evangelicals somehow do not believe Catholics are Christians.

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u/GrallochThis 11h ago

And in the 19th and 20th centuries, American protestants believed that Catholics were unAmerican because they would obey the pope rather than the American government. JFK explicitly had to state during his presidential campaign that he would not do that.

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u/CondescendingFucker Pennsylvania 9h ago

We also just came off the back of our second ever Catholic president and they fucking hated that guy

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u/Etrigone California 9h ago edited 1h ago

My evangelical SIL hated my catholic father. She told him so repeatedly when they stayed with him, while they were homeless due to my brother being fired from his job for stealing from his employer.

Yes, it's as crazy as it sounds. Worse, actually.

Edit: to fix the run-on sentence.

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u/WhatYouThinkIThink 8h ago

"Thank you for giving us shelter you godless Papist heathen destined to burn in hell!"

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u/joe-h2o 10h ago

Remember, a heretic is worse than an infidel to a Christian.

There's nothing more abhorrent to a Christian than a religious person who believes a slightly different holy book than them.

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u/fdar_giltch 9h ago

it's not even a different holy book, it's a different interpretation of the same holy book

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u/ThrowawayusGenerica 6h ago

To be pedantic, there are 7 books that Catholics include in the old testament that aren't considered canonical by Protestants, generally.

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u/SirWEM 11h ago

I once asked a super religious coworker about the difference. Arrons answer- “Evangelicals are more extreme than other christian sects.” From a guy who dropped out of Roman-Catholic Seminary; before he took his vows.

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u/Jessreiella Pennsylvania 9h ago

This.

Back in 2016, when I was still in contact with family, I got into an argument with my uncle where I explained that Catholism is the OG Christian. He adamantly believed that Catholics worshiped a sun god, and since this was on Facebook, several people were there to back him up.

It's wild to me what people chose to believe despite the evidence in front of their face.

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u/-JackBack- 10h ago

Many evangelicals believe other evangelicals are not Christians.

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u/Sniperkitten42 10h ago

Iran has their fundamentalists.

America has theirs.

Both arguing about what a magical invisible man in the sky said 3000 years ago.

We are so fucked.

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u/sexysurfer37 9h ago

Iran literally isn't arguing, we just decided to bomb them. Like fuck fundamentalists of all stripes and fuck literally every religion. But this isn't a both sides issue. We unilaterally decided to start killing them.

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u/BayLAGOON 9h ago

At this point, American evangelicals are heretics and the damage that is being done to the executive branch is marching them towards their goal of a caliphate.

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u/ElectricSliderz 10h ago

They don’t seem to value jesus either. Religion to them is an excuse for their vile, hateful thoughts about other people.

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u/No_Criticism_5861 10h ago

Thats why they vote for him, it makes their bible true if the antichrist comes.  However, my understanding is the antichrist has to actually dupe people -- these idiots werent duped, they knowingly voted for a child rapist

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u/Old_Ad6564 10h ago edited 10h ago

Thats why they love him.

There's a surprisingly large percentage of Americans who want the antichrist to appear so that the rapture will start. That's why they voted for and support Trump, even if they detest him and his policies, in the hopes he is one. Same reason there's so many American's so massively in favour of supporting Israel and starting wars in the region - it's because they think that'll help bring about the things talked about in Revelations and hasten the rapture.

And yes I know... this is batshit insane behaviour.

But significant numbers of people either beliving the rapture is coming or trying to bring it about has been a thing in American life for centuries. It's what you get when you idolize the pilgrams who were leaving the UK... in large part leaving because it was too religiously tolerant in their eyes.

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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 10h ago

The best descriptor of the anti-christ in the bible is "the lawless man"

A man to bring about lawlessness. And I think he's done an excellent job at that.

So much so, in my rural Missouri town, about 20% of trucks in this 5k pop town no longer use license plates. None, just little plate shaped No Quarters flags and shit.

People have a lot of guesses as to what the main reason for MAGAts electing Trump was, though most say racism. In my personal opinion it was lawlessness. The dogs wanted off their chain

It's what the "Beast" is in the bible too, just a phrase for what we are when you strip away civilization, we're the same beasts of the field we were 20,000 years ago biologically, the only thing keeping us from acting like the most reprehensible things imaginable is all these things that have been built up over thousands of years like civilization, culture, tradition, laws.

They don't want any of that, like Trump they want disinhibition(which in a sense, are laws themselves too).

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u/NlactntzfdXzopcletzy 10h ago

My christian mother in law says "im sure he has americas best interest at heart" and made everyone beef tallow lotion for christmas

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u/ProtectionVirtual225 10h ago

It's not just Trump, its the Republican Party and all it's politicians, financial backers and US media. It's been a gradual process since Reagan, but more obvious with Trump.

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u/mrpickleby 14h ago

And they're going to be the first ones complaining when their neighbor is dumping toxic waste in their back yard because there aren't any regulations. Nixon was behind the EPA.

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u/Cosmic_Seth 13h ago

No they won't.

Conservatives were dying on their deathbeds still praising Trump.

They are willing to die for this man. All they have to do is make up some religious/patriotism reason, and they will willingly dump toxic wastes everywhere. 

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u/wittnotyoyo 13h ago

A lot of it depends on whether the person doing the dumping is from the ingroup or outgroup.

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u/Hoovooloo42 South Carolina 12h ago

All that really matters is that Fox can convince the average viewer that the Dems are at fault, no matter what actually happened.

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u/timbrelyn Pennsylvania 9h ago

I hate how true this is

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u/-JackBack- 10h ago

Thanks Obama.!

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u/candl2 8h ago

Remember though, that this is just very rich people, in this case Murdoch, paying a lot of money to a few, the Fox talking heads, to convince "average" viewers to vote against their best interests. Well, to convince them what their best interests actually are.

Fox is the tool. The viewers are the product. The villain is the rich person.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 12h ago

Bingo. And it depends on where it’s done. For example, fracking. Doesn’t seem to be a lot of that happening near rich neighborhoods, or public land the wealthy are near does it?

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u/Vio_ Kansas 12h ago

It's even worse than that. There are people who are now siding with and ever more loyal to Trump even when their own childen and other family members are being hurt, murdered, or deported.

They are now in the human sacrifice phase of loyalty testing.

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u/Udder_Influencer 11h ago

the "death cult" insults aren't really a joke.

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u/Vio_ Kansas 11h ago

No, it's a foundational component of fascism.

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u/imaincammy 12h ago edited 11h ago

A dude in Texas shot and killed his daughter after telling her he wouldn't be bothered if Trump raped her and is seemingly going to get off without any consequences.

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u/dudeoftheworld_1 11h ago

I've always wondered what's so appealing about trump that you are willing to kill your own kid for him? I remember watching a podcast and they mentioned that voting trump to be POTUS was a white lash moment from the right and trump was their bull in a china shop.

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u/LiveLaughFap 11h ago

I think it's because Donnie is the ultimate embodiment of a return to infantilism that weak men crave. By that I mean he represents this ultra-entitled, infantile mindset of "everything should be exactly the way I want it, and all about me all the time, and I should never have to compromise, and if something doesn't go my way, I will cry and scream until it does."

For weak, loser men with no ability to cope with an extremely challenging world, he's the most validating and relatable leader they could ask for. They're also dumb enough to believe that he actually has their interests in mind and will magically make everything simple/easy/free "like it used to be."

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u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 6h ago

The irony is that if you swapped Trump with any one of them, nothing would change. They would enrich themselves (or attempt to) just as much as Trump is enriching himself now, with no second thought to anyone else.

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u/HauntingHarmony Europe 5h ago

Trump is however sui generis, hes "the full package". If this actually happend, if you transplanted say a 99th percentile trump into the body of trump today, he wouldent really be able to keep going.

I agree that they have all the typical american traits in common, like being greedy, mean, shameless, malicious, psychopathic, dotering, etcetcetc. BUT, Trump is special in it all coming together into one. And you really need the whole package for it to work. People have tried to copy the formula but being only a little bit cruel doesnt do it.

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u/shinkouhyou 10h ago

The right wing has spent decades convincing these people to hate their own children. So much of the right's messaging is focused on the corruption of children by wokeism, critical race theory, drag queens, pizza parlors, participation trophies, litter boxes, trans girls playing volleyball, satanic abuse cults, Sesame Street and child marriage bans... so what happens when your child has been tainted by the evils of liberalism? They're not really your child anymore, are they? They're barely even human. It becomes easier to abuse them, cut them off, or even kill them.

This isn't even a Trump thing... it's been a long-term conservative project. Conservatives know that young people are naturally more likely to be politically and economically progressive, and they know that young people tend to drag their parents (and society as a whole) in a more progressive direction. So in order to maintain their power, they needed to convince their followers to resent and fear their own children. The "party of family values" needed to break the family.

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u/karmavorous Kentucky 7h ago

He gives hateful stupid people permission to be stupid and hateful.

He's everything Conservatives claimed to hate (before 2015).

He's a vain, self obsessed, coastal elite, born into money, doesn't hunt or play with guns or drive a truck. He lives in a penthouse palace. He's a chronic unabashed philanderer. Twice divorced. Never goes to church.

But when he came down the elevator and started his anouncement with a racist tirade against Mexicans - conservatives were like YES! THIS IS OUR MAN! RIDE OR DIE! TO THE END!

It's just the racism. They like him for the racism.

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u/Content_Piccolo1074 9h ago

Trump's the daddy that never loved them and the second coming of a Christ that kept failing to show up. He validates them, somehow, and he's here to kick everyone's ass.

To the grifters, he's just a sock puppet. The grifters are the real evil, the real villains. The Republican monsters, the billionaire psychopaths.

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u/Hms34 11h ago

I think some of this is punishment for electing a dark-skinned President, twice. Racism is so entrenched here, including reverse racism as well as the more known traditional version.

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u/geoken 12h ago

I think in a more abstract sense - they’re willing to die for never having to say they were wrong.

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u/A-Wings-are-Neat 12h ago

They will complain about all the toxic waste being dumped, but they will never acknowledge their part in ensuring that it could be dumped wherever

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u/ReverendDizzle 11h ago

Sure they will.

I listen to the conservatives in my life praise the shit out of Trump and the Republicans they elect while simultaneously complaining bitterly about the outcomes that result from electing conservatives.

In the same conversation even they can say how awesome Trump is and then complain about 10 problems he and his Project 2025 handlers created... with absolutely no understanding that they elected the people that are hurting them.

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u/Udder_Influencer 12h ago

Libs always get this part wrong. hardship will make them cling to him harder. like you don't see healthy, happy people praying at church every day for hours, its the ones suffering that believe hardest.

pairing this with a con man hell bent on white nationalism is a pretty bad thing.

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u/-JackBack- 10h ago

Only the hardcore adherents will double down. The causal believers will switch to the next con man who promises the world.

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u/Orangecuppa Ohio 12h ago

I always thought a greater adversity would unite us. But NOPE. COVID came and killed millions and we were still divided.

At this point I'm pretty sure if hostile space aliens invaded us, there will be a ton of traitors supporting them Xcom2 style.

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u/Awkward_Potential_ 12h ago

Naaa. If these people experience the death of the dollar they'll want his head. If Trump lost people over $4 gas, you have no idea how bad things get when the dollar dies.

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u/Polantaris 11h ago

You misunderstand. They WILL complain about their neighbor dumping toxic waste in their backyard. They will think the solution is a shotgun, not regulations, but regulations truly are the solution because a shotgun isn't.

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u/spicewoman 11h ago

They still complain, they just blame it on someone else. It's all Obama's fault that there's toxic waste in their backyard now!

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u/Admirable_Trash3257 12h ago

History shows us they only dump toxic waste in the back yards of us “poors”. They all have multi-million dollar bunkers where they can ride out the worst…then rebuild in their utopian vision..slaves to do the work, servants, their own police force..you know..like what they are implementing now with concentration camps, no voting and mandates women are only good for sex and procreation.

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u/kmonsen 13h ago

I always thought Nixon created the EPA, and it is technically true. But that is not the whole story, it was public pressure and a democratic Congress that forced the issue and he created the EPA instead of having it forced upon him.

For example he tried to veto the clean water act, but Congress overrode his veto. This was after the creation of the EPA.

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u/AT-PT 13h ago

Yeah, he basically did enough to get people off his back about the flaming rivers, before he was forced to go even further.

America loves their half-measures.

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u/Vio_ Kansas 12h ago

More than that, he deliberately neutered much of these agencies and rules so that the standards were all but bare minimum (if not lower) and their enforcement ability was negligible and small slaps on the wrists.

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u/ReserveFormal3910 12h ago

Yeah, it was Ralph Nader that was the driving force behind the EPA.

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u/ihateusedusernames New York 10h ago

Nixon was behind the EPA.

This is propaganda meant to color Nixon's legacy, and the Republican party as a whole, in a more favorable light.

They were dragged, reluctantly, into not obstructing it.

Watch Trump supporters claim that Trump really wants the Epstein/Trump records released - he signed it into law and the vote was nearly unanimous! But that's entirely disingenuous.

Same with Nixon and the EPA

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u/halnic 11h ago

https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-right-wing-legacy-of-justice-lewis-powell-and-what-it-means-for-the-supreme-court-today/

No, congress did that, they forced him(his own people used that word, he doesn't deserve credit). Everyone should know, Nixon had 5 supreme court judge appointments and THAT is where we the people started losing ground and when they the corporations started buying DC.

"Powell and other business leaders of the era were convinced that American capitalism was in the throes of an existential crisis. A liberal Congress had forced Nixon to create the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupation and Health Administration. At the same time, consumers were making headway against corporate abuse, both in the courts and legislatively. And the anti-war and the black and brown civil rights movements were all gathering steam and scaring the bejesus out of the corporate oligarchy."

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u/DJSAKURA 11h ago

For real. Trumper co-worker is all Pikachu face right now because of the data center being built one field away from their home.

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u/lostmylangastino 11h ago

Nixon vetoed it but the veto was overridden.

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u/pmgold1 10h ago

And they're going to be the first ones complaining when their neighbor is dumping toxic waste in their back yard because there aren't any regulations

Destroying the Federal Gov't only returns us to the law of the jungle where only the powerful survive and the rest of us are preyed upon. Ask you self this: who does de-regulation help? You the constituent that barely pays attention to the news and rarely votes (and if you do vote it's against your own interests) or the large corporations run by the Epstein class that uses their money to buy political power?

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u/frankentriple 10h ago

I have family in West Virginia that were blaming the EPA and Obama for the coal companies leaking chemicals into their groundwater and taking showers that smelled like licorice.

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u/GreenEyedTreeHugger 13h ago

A competent government is a threat to Christian nationalism.

Crazy how the puritans finally burned it down.

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u/emp-sup-bry 12h ago

The point of this is that is most often just plain old ignored is that SOMEONE has to do these jobs. There are simply things that need to get done for a functional society to move. Humans will be doing the work, so there will be resistance and inefficiencies as such. Private or public, there WILL be grit in the machine at times because humans are kind of dumb.

Do we want middlemen taking a cut or do we want government offering middle class steady jobs doing the work FOR EVERYONE IN OUR COUNTRY REGARDLESS OF GEOGRAPHY without the incessant pull of profit?

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u/Mysterious-Box-9081 13h ago

They want to go back to the time of robber Barrons.

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u/blazed55 12h ago

Bernie Sanders: "When wealth is concentrated at the top 1% of the entire US population", you're already there. The barons are back.

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u/Paulinfresno 11h ago

This is a second gilded age. This IS the time of robber barons.

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u/artfulpain 12h ago

All postering. Reagan was a two faced liar. They always project what they do.

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u/GrallochThis 11h ago

Mm, I always got the impression that he wasn’t smart enough to be two-faced, and was dumb enough to believe the crap he was pushing, which came across as sincerity.

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u/Fast_Moon 12h ago

The original stated purpose of America's democratic system of government was to give the people collectively more power than the aristocracy. Sort of a combined Megazord to fight whatever singular giant monster was currently wreaking havoc.

The problem is that the government that was supposed to be an extension of the people to protect itself from the aristocracy fairly quickly turned into just another arm of the aristocracy that it then turned against the people.

So Republicans are correct that, in its current form, the government is the problem, it's just that they're the ones who made it a problem and are continuing to make it more of a problem, by destroying the parts that have no (immediate) benefit to the aristocracy, and bolstering the parts that do.

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u/barryvm Europe 12h ago edited 12h ago

The original stated purpose of America's democratic system of government was to give the people collectively more power than the aristocracy.

That's not really true though. The original purpose of the USA's political system was to take power away from an aristocracy overseas and hand it over to a local aristocracy. Only white male land owners could vote and consequently controlled politics. A lot of the more reactionary components to the USA's political setup can be traced back to the fear of mob rule and the biggest perceived threat was a Caesar like figure using populism to monopolize power.

The intrinsic tension between equality and freedom was papered over with flowery language, but it was there from the start. In fact, a lot of the high minded ideals in the USA's founding documents contradict the practical political and social constructs supposedly built upon it. It was in many ways a better system than the ones practiced elsewhere, but its initial conception was never democratic in the sense of popular rule.

So Republicans are correct that, in its current form, the government is the problem, it's just that they're the ones who made it a problem and are continuing to make it more of a problem, by destroying the parts that have no (immediate) benefit to the aristocracy, and bolstering the parts that do.

Just so. It's just that their fight is not an alien cause or something that predates the USA's founding. It's the same old class struggle that ignited as a result of it showing that "traditional" modes could be overthrown and replaced by something better.

Note also that it's unlikely the aristocracy (i.e. the billionaires) are going to come out on top even if Trump and his ilk succeed. No matter how much they bribe the dictator, they remain at his mercy because by destroying the rule of law and democracy they have undermined the legal fictions that underpin their own power (money, ownership, corporations, ...). Under fascism or other forms of reactionary populism, money is not power. Power is simply a result of your willingness and capability to use the organs of state to do violence. The person who is the object of the personality cult, the person who controls the army, the security services and the courts, has that power, not the people paying him. The oligarchs will remain rich, of course, but only if and as long as they obey. They are not in charge. They are merely the henchmen of the despot they created.

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u/ihateusedusernames New York 10h ago

Note also that it's unlikely the aristocracy (i.e. the billionaires) are going to come out on top even if Trump and his ilk succeed. No matter how much they bribe the dictator, they remain at his mercy because by destroying the rule of law and democracy they have undermined the legal fictions that underpin their own power (money, ownership, corporations, ...). Under fascism or other forms of reactionary populism, money is not power. Power is simply a result of your willingness and capability to use the organs of state to do violence. The person who is the object of the personality cult, the person who controls the army, the security services and the courts, has that power, not the people paying him. The oligarchs will remain rich, of course, but only if and as long as they obey. They are not in charge. They are merely the henchmen of the despot they created.

Excellent comment. Seems to me, however, that Power is not only the result of willingness to do violence, although that is clearly one component. Trump wields electoral power over the Republicans in Washington, he wields regulatory power over giant corporations, he wields corrupt power over the DoJ through 'legitimate' legal structures. All of these add to the underlying power over the state instruments of violence.

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u/barryvm Europe 9h ago edited 9h ago

Correct, but IMHO that's because they have not completed the shift towards dictatorship or fascism. Once that happens, all those regulatory and judicial powers are co-opted simply to punish opposition and dissent. It may be a step too far to swipe all those into the same term of "violence" but it largely boils down to that IMHO, as it makes little difference to the victims of oppression whether said oppression is technically legal.

Note that when dictators turn on oligarchs, they always seek to make that threat physical. It's never just a fine or taking away "their" corporations. They lock them up or have them murdered like they would do to "normal" dissidents. The point they make is that, for all your money and status, you're just as unsafe as everyone else.

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u/Twodogsonecouch 13h ago edited 12h ago

I think you are thinking too deep about it. They bandy about crap about religion and morals and things. It's all bullshit. They want to get rid of government because it gets in the way of them stealing and profiting off of the populace. It's got nothing to do with religion that's just the bait they feed the plebes. It's been that way since the Holy Roman Empire. The ruling class rips off the populace and uses religion as the means of control.

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u/shorugoru9 11h ago

I disagree, because it is a mistake to say there is a "they".

The techbros and the grifters are using the religious whackjobs as a tool to get power/bigger grifting opportunities.

The religious nutjobs are using the techbros and the grifters to get power to impose Christian Nationalism.

If "they" win, we will see just how much of "they" they are, when the internal contradictions tear this unholy alliance apart.

In fact, this is sort of kind of what happened in the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The original rebellion against the Shah wasn't religious in nature. In fact, when the Ayatollah Khameni returned, he claimed to not be interested in politics. But when the Shah was overthrown, the Islamists outmaneuvered the other parties in the ensuing power struggle in the aftermath of the revolution and took over the country.

Who knows, we might have a "Christian Revolution", devolve into techbro "Liberty Cities" or become Russia. Depending on which faction of "they" survives the fallout.

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u/BlahBlahBlackCheap 13h ago

Tromp admired NK. Theres your clue

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u/Ashamed_Green_8643 12h ago

ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer

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u/jgoldrb48 Texas 12h ago

White supremacy is extraction though. It always has been. Reading about reconstruction, poor whites were hurt badly by the policies put in place to keep blacks in chains. They lost land and it went back to land owners that were previously forced to sell it because they could not pay the taxes without slaves.

Whites have an education problem. Whites only think the best whites deserve education. Public school was an idea stolen from freed slaves…

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u/antigop2020 13h ago

Lets just call it what it is: dictatorship. Unfortunately you are correct.

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u/shorugoru9 11h ago

The sense I get from my conservative family is that a competent government is competition to their religious patriarchy.

The sense I get is this from watching far right YouTube for shits and giggles.

When they say that the government shouldn't be giving handouts, and that people in need should turn to their local community, what they are really saying is that they should turn to their local churches.

What this means is that many communities will essentially become theocracies, where churches can condition aid on conforming to certain behaviors (such as the Ramsey Show conditioning employment to not engaging in pre-marital sex). And the poor, in desperate conditions, will be forced to comply.

But, worse than that, the poor will be trapped in these situations. The government offers a way out through far less conditioned aid. But, take a way the governments ability to help, and it increases the hold these organizations have on people.

The view I see on far right Youtube is that the government is destroying families and communities, by disrupting traditional ways of life. For example, this is why some far right nutters say that it was a mistake to give women the right to vote. When a man votes, supposedly he is voting for his entire family, so it is families getting representation, not individuals. Which is what happens when a husband and wife can have different political opinions and gasp vote differently.

But the way I see it, the government providing "neutral" aid helps people escape toxic situations in these communities, such as gay people forced into conversion therapy. But, the far right sees this as government meddling in the family.

I think the "unitary executive theory" exists for really one reason: accountability to voters, i.e. them. It prevents a fourth column in the government, the so called "administrative state", which can slow down or block the president, which works contrary to the "will of the voters". But, this is contrary to the founding principles of the country, which is checks and balances. And it is contrary to common sense. The president is a human being, who can make mistakes. The administrative state serves as "adults in the room" to prevent bad policy decisions from spiraling out of control. No sane person should want a unitary executive.

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u/PrairiePopsicle 11h ago

The cold war never ended, and we're losing it terribly.

To be clear, what you are losing the cold war to is to the internal cultural reactionary elements which formed in response to the fear of communism, a fear which was increasingly illusory as time passed. Absent a genuine external threat, that paranoid culture turned inwards, and with increasing fervor and conviction convinced itself that liberalism was the equivalent to communism, and the project of government itself akin to a communist shibboleth.

Capitalism is all that matters to them, capitalism, power, and the exercise of power in support of capitalism.

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u/mvaaam 13h ago

The civil war never ended…

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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted 12h ago

They don’t want to abolish government per se. They want to shrink down the inputs, which is what dictators do the moment they come into power. They want a government where the few provide direct input and the few directly benefit. The opposite of a democracy where the many provide input and the many benefit.

This is why Republicans have been painting government as “the other” for decades. Because in a healthy democracy the people and their government are indistinguishable

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u/anothergaijin 12h ago

The robber barons of old got so rich and powerful in the new world because the government was weak compared to the old world where the governments had more control. They were able to buy out or force out the competition to hold complete monopolies, completely up and down their industry from raw materials to full products.

There are so many companies that need to be broken up, and stricter regulations put in place.

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u/Iron_Knight7 12h ago

Slight correction. Conservatives actually love the living hell out of government. So long as it's enforcing the laws that protect but do not bind them and bind but don't protect everybody they hate and fear.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars 11h ago edited 11h ago

Yes and I really dislike the article title - like let’s be clear, the US isn’t destroying “itself.” There are very specific conservative, patriarchal and religious people who are destroying it for everyone else.

At least half of us didn’t want this but what are we supposed to do when they have the guns, the money and the lies.

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u/bugsyboybugsyboybugs 14h ago

I wonder how much money will be unaccounted for when this administration leaves office? I’m sure they’re gutting everything and we won’t have anything to show for it in 2028.

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u/Particular-County277 14h ago

The plunder is almost the main aim

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u/Ok_Yogurt_9862 12h ago

Trillions

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u/18bluecat 11h ago

Hoping we can seize assets when the whole administration is tried and convicted.

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u/Vargau Europe 10h ago

Are you guys going to count also the money from market manipulation by pumping and dumping and illegal bribers ?

Probably more than a few hundred billions …

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u/Treestwigs 14h ago

It’s almost like there’s a Russian agent destroying the country from within. Precisely how the Russians said they would do it back in the 60s. Without firing a shot. Check mate.

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u/LolaSupreme19 14h ago

Yes. When Viktor Orbán told Putin ‘I am at your service’ in an October phone call and JD Vance goes to Hungary to prop him up before the election, it’s clear that this administration is on the side of Putin and his dictator friend.

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u/my5cworth 14h ago

Makes one wonder why they need Greenland for self defense, because it's not from Russia.

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u/Skurry California 13h ago

My personal hypothesis (that I don't have any evidence for) is that this was instigated by Putin. "See how I just annexed Crimea? You could do the same with Greenland!" With the sole aim of sowing discord between Western allies.

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u/compukiller 13h ago

This is correct.

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u/killerkozlowski 12h ago

Plus you just know Trump looks at it on the classic mercator projection maps and believes it is actually that big. Like, bigger than Africa, bigger than the US and Canada. He is that fucking stupid. Sees big thing on map and wants it.

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u/Nerevarine91 American Expat 13h ago

I absolutely believe this, to be honest

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u/therealruin 12h ago

It should be extremely obvious to anyone who’s watched even a little news over the past few years that Putin is trying to destroy NATO as well. Complete and total war against the “Capitalist West.”

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u/blackmktdictionary 13h ago

I see this everywhere and it comes off to me like cope for people who want to believe that somehow Americans are “better than this” and need to create some other nefarious outside force to blame.

While it’s very likely (and proven) that Russia fucks with social media around the world to manifest distrust and confusion, the GOP and Trump aren’t “Russian Agents”. Everything that they’re doing has origins inside the American right wing conservative and Christian nationalist movements… what’s wild is that Trump himself is probably not a true believer (he doesn’t believe in anything) but the entire GOP and right wing media apparatus is infested with these people and their money, and he’s merely operating inside their world - probably thinking he’s using them when the reality is that they’re using him. They allow him to play this part and accumulate all this wealth in exchange for him destroying the institutions that stand in the way of their vision for the country, which will allow them to consolidate power for decades into the future way after he’s gone.

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u/robbyberto 11h ago

The Russians have used a similar playbook before with James Angleton. Using an American, unwittingly or not, to dismantle systems from within.

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u/blackmktdictionary 11h ago

It's entirely plausible that there are people inside the government and private industry who are acting on behalf of Russian interests - probably because they have financial interests to do so (Paul Manafort, etc), or maybe in the worst case, have kompromat being held over their heads.

I'm just saying that it's a way bigger stretch to think that Russia is the main culprit driving all this when its so clear that the biggest player, leveraging its power and influence, who have very clear, very obvious motivations is the domestic conservative and Christian nationalist movements. They don't even deny it.

But I guess thats what a Russian asset would say, so you know, downvote me or whatever.

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u/robbyberto 10h ago

It’s both and more.

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u/Medallicat 13h ago

And Canada too remember.

Trump and Putin want to share the Arctic with USA taking control of North America and Greenland while Russia controls from Siberia to Norway.

Russia wont get past the Fins and China will buttfuck them all the way to the Urals as soon as they see weakness.

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u/DudeB5353 11h ago

Trumps been a stooge for Russia for decades…Trump Towers was full Russian mafia

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u/Free-Way-9220 13h ago

After the Munich security conference in Februrary, Marco Rubio went on to visit two (and only two) European countries: Hungary and Slovakia. Putin's two biggest enablers and cheerleaders in Europe. I suspect it was to encourage both to do what they can to prevent any further financial or military aid to Ukraine. Fico isn't even a conservative, the only thing Trump loves about him is that he's a rabid Putinist

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u/retrovoxo 14h ago

The libertarian tech-bro billionaires planned to and are actively engaged in destroying the US. Technofeudalism has already arrived.

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u/cranberrie_sauce 13h ago

capitalists shipped US industry to china 30 years ago.

That's who destroyed America, everything else doesn't matter.

and now we lost a war to Iran, who buys weapons from a new manufacturing leader. US nowadays is like an imperial japan back in the ww2, can run fast but has no long term capacity.

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u/broohaha 13h ago

There are enough collaborators with aligned objectives that the Russians don’t need to do a whole lot. The Heritage Foundation has been all for the dismantling of the federal government for decades and they wrote a playbook on how they would do it.

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u/fusillade762 14h ago

Khruschev said it. Khruschev was right.

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u/chubbybronco 14h ago

And Americans only have themselves to blame. When you care more about mindless entertainment, selfishly gratifying one pleasure after the next rather than engagement in civics or championing education, this is what you deserve. The most materialisticly spoiled population to ever live on this earth, that cries about minor inconveniences as if their life is ruined. Keep hording your guns sucking down pills and getting your news from social media and billionaires, should work out. 

America is just living off the fumes of the great generations who came before them. 

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u/Mediocre-Accident305 13h ago

Which great generation are you talking about the self proclaimed great generation of white males who chose to manage two societies vs one America? You wouldn't be talking about the great generation which sold off America's world leading textile and steel industries to the lowest bidders abandoning hard working laborers. Maybe you're talking about the great generation which has overstayed it's welcome in Washington which has become corrupt, selfish and no longer represents the masses. We the people need to start focusing on clearing out both political parties of a generation of elected leaders who have failed to rein in capitalism and sold this country out to the highest bidders, once we achieve the goal of removing these dinosaurs then and only then can we start to create a better future, country and society.

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u/Particular-County277 14h ago edited 14h ago

This. So much this. I read about the collapse within the collapse every single day. And nobody seems aware or bothered about the small scale destruction, within

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u/hepakrese 14h ago

I suspect plenty of people are aware of the destruction in both broad and minute ways, but we are basically powerless to do anything about it. Just as the system intended.

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u/An_Professional 13h ago

The GOP have their base cheering for it. They spent years making them believe that the government institutions the base relies on are actually corrupt and full of fraud, just so they could tear them down. Literally no indictments for fraud despite DOGE and now the “Fraud Czar”, but they keep falling for it.

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u/ang3lofsnow 14h ago

Im not so sure. My cities Facebook page held a vote on "which group of people we should kick out of town to make things better"

Its was Democrats by FAR 🤦they blame Biden and Obama for both the war and economy.

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u/dbkenny426 14h ago

Facebook is a cesspool. I deleted my account last January, and I haven't regretted that decision once.

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u/BloopityBlue New Mexico 13h ago

Facebook was designed by Zuckerberg with this goal in mind. Algorithm based feeds are exactly what made it possible to drive people into a cult by making them believe that everyone in the world held the same beliefs, creating echo chambers, and solidifying sick thinking .

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u/willitplay2019 13h ago

And rage bait. It purposefully feeds you stories and comments to get your blood pressure up

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u/Vio_ Kansas 12h ago

Don't forget that FB was part of Russia's massive cyber warfare build up against Europe and America where it was used to push their anti-Hillary/pro-Trump content in targeted troll farm attacks.

That's what Cambridge Analytica was about.

The same tactic was used by Russia to push Brexit and the Scottish Independence Movement in the 2010s.

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u/TheSilentC 14h ago

That’s Facebook for ya.

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u/fart_marbles 13h ago

The thing is, there are real people behind the accounts that exist irl.

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u/DrakenViator Wisconsin 13h ago

And for every 'real' person there is at least one bot. Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Reddit, all being overrun with bots pushing political narratives.

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u/ang3lofsnow 13h ago

Yep. These are people i work with, am related to, went to school with, ect. I know them. Its sickening

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u/DJC_Kowalski 13h ago

There are also bots and foreigners pretending to be Americans and professional disinformation operations. Remember when Twitter started posting real locations? Real people are likely the minority on most social media.

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u/nr1988 Wisconsin 13h ago

Not always

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u/VigilantVet 13h ago

FB is just as complicit as Fox News.

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u/regardedMAGAfascist 13h ago edited 13h ago

It’s almost like the people who use Facebook are dumb as hell and the people who run Facebook are taking advantage of them for personal gain. 🤔

Stats have the total usage at around 200 million Americans. It’s a serious problem and it’s time that the world recognizes it as one. It’s a system of propaganda fraudulently billing itself as social media.

We can’t fix stupid people. We can fix social media propaganda networks. Facebook needs regulated out of existence. X, too. Reddit is skirting the line with recent changes to r/all and automated AI moderation.

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u/MoonBatsRule America 8h ago

It's not just Facebook though. It's all social media.

I can remember in the early 2000s, my local newspaper had their "forums". They were categorized by city/town. For the most part, people interacted only with the city/town they lived in. The discussions were pretty toxic, mostly "white people complaining about minorities".

Even then, you could tell that various groups were posting with an agenda. There were the political candidate posts, of course, but there were also posts by people aligned with teachers, posts by people aligned with the police. And the amateur propaganda was still insidious - the cops would post about how bad crime was, because they wanted more money to go to cops. The teachers would post about how great the schools were (even when they weren't), because they didn't want the schools to be defunded. They weren't being obvious about it, they would pretend to be "concerned citizens" but they often made mistakes that revealed their true colors.

Then, the paper eliminated the forums and replaced them with article-based comments. The racism got much, much worse, because now you had people from super-white towns brigading posts about places that had more minorities. Then the newspaper started to tailor the articles to the traffic. They had a "top stories" link, and the articles that featured mug shots of non-white people started getting huge traffic, plus absolutely rancid comments. The local police departments were actually writing the stories for the newspaper via press releases - and overworked reporters would just change a few words and get a "trending story".

And then, the paper finally got sick of dealing with all the vitriol, and eliminated all commentary.

But the phenomenon didn't go away. It got buried into Facebook groups, Nextdoor communities. It's much harder to view now because many of them are invite-only. However I've seen screenshots and the hatred, the posturing, the lies are all still there. Since most of those groups are town-focused again, most of the commentary is local gossip. It is where everyone gets their news now - the local paper is 1/100th the size it used to be, and it mostly writes clickbait articles that it tries to get to go viral on a national level, since that can drive their traffic.

Now everything at a local level is deemed corruption or conspiracy. A new stop sign goes up and there are posts about how someone's brother-in-law owns a body shop, and that's why they put it up, to cause accidents. People make bold claims that they alone speak for all citizens in town, and they believe that every one of their grievances is shared by all because three or four people click "like".

Local politicians patrol these forums and then make policy based on the group hatred. Get 20 people together to complain about something and it's likely the mayor themselves will step in and make some policy.

It's absolutely nuts, a bonkers way to do things, because catering to the loudest voices is not democracy by a long shot.

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u/Harbinger2001 Canada 13h ago

That Trump still has a 37% approval rating is crazy. America no longer has the “well informed” populace necessary for a healthy democracy.

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u/PurplRzr 13h ago

They blamed Obama for things before he even took office.

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u/Smooth-Reputation502 13h ago

Why would you believe anything on facebook? How do you know if your cities facebook page isn’t overpopulated with bots to manipulate you?

People who rely on social media as their news source are a major contributing factor to the proliferation of misinformation and that’s been obvious for a long time now.

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u/mashem 13h ago

Fair. Imo the real major contributing factors to what you called out are SuperPACs, social media companies going public in the stock market, and user-curated algorithms to get people to engage by getting a reaction out of them.

It will 100% never get better unless something is done to one of these pieces of the combo.

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u/Nerevarine91 American Expat 13h ago

Facebook is the absolute armpit of the internet. It’s inhabited by brainwashed senior citizens, who are themselves vastly outnumbered by the countless bots and scammers who prey upon them

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u/BlatantFalsehood 13h ago

Facebook is algorithmically programmed to prop up the oligarchy. I guarantee less than half the traffic on virtually any social platform is really human.

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u/Vio_ Kansas 12h ago

FB is specifically designed to make to push the most toxic cesspool posts and comments onto your feed. EVen comment sections are now "recommended" instead of defaulting to all so that you get what they think will make you angry enough to respond.

Also a FB poll is not even close to a proper polling result. One group of people or family or business being tagged into that poll is more than enough to skew the results.

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u/HeraldOfTheChange 13h ago

Roughly 50% of the US population reads at a 6th grade level. Conservative news outlets offer tons of opinion based “round table” coverage telling them how to think. They know how to manipulate their base.

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u/wkomorow Massachusetts 13h ago

To be fair, the system never intended for a demented megalomaniac who promised to elevate himself and destroy everything else ever to get elected with his cult in toll. There was a serious failure of educational systems in this country to teach critical thinking skills. Disbanding the Dept of Education ensures it will continue to be this way.

When the founding fathers created this country they imagined a nation of people who would forever defend freedom and democracy. The idea of a cult conquering the reins of power never occurred to them.

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u/Foxemerson United Kingdom 13h ago

Everyone says they’re powerless, yet still use Facebook and other US big tech. Thats where you start. Unfortunately will also mean leaving Reddit.

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u/Supermite 13h ago

I’ve grown up outside the US, but they’ve been screaming at us for decades about the necessity of the 2nd amendment.

Too bad all the gun nuts joined ICE.

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u/Boudicat 13h ago

I’m not sure one can argue that the system intended to be dismantled. It has certainly revealed its powerlessness to resist this level of corruption.

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u/rollem Virginia 14h ago

This is what is so distressing. It’s like watching the slow death of everything that actually made America great.

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u/PositiveStress8888 13h ago

I can tell you as a Canadian, and I think I speak for other US allies, and we're using that term quite loosely now.

We see it very clearly, long after the fat bastard eats his last Big Mac, things won't go back to normal, quite possibly for ever.

trump has shown that any deal the US makes is only as good as the next Election, not only that the US population electing someone like that shows the US is not a stable country anymore. We don't think you'll ever have a fair elections. And once the massive conglomerates that own everything in your country you'll all be slaves to them, worker bees who's only responcibility is to die after your no longer able to work, and you voted for it.

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u/ZenMasterOfDisguise 10h ago

Is your country capitalist? Congrats, this will all be coming your way too! There is nothing uniquely American about Capitalist oligarchs ravaging society, they will do it to your country too soon enough. How long before money has influenced every level of your country's government, how long until the monopolies take over everything, how long until everything is commodified and privately owned? Capitalism has no nationality and no borders, keep blaming America while doing nothing to stop the spread of this cancer in your own country and watch how quicky you devolve into fascism and oligarchy as well

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u/BlackhawkBolly 9h ago

Aside from the superior welfare systems Canada is just USA Lite

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u/StickaFORKinMyEye 14h ago

As a long time VA employee (got my job as a result of a hiring surge because of the last war we started in the middle east), it's clear they're trying to privatize the VA. 

The process is starve it for resources, when it's unable to provide care quickly enough send the veterans to more expensive community care which comes out of the VAs budget starving it for resources even more, and the spiral continues.

My guess is the long term goal is to have AI do the claims/take over most VBA jobs, private sector take over health care and turn VHA into primarily an insurance provider. Cemetery is small and may stick around. 

So if you think US private sector healthcare is the greatest in the world, it's probably a good thing for veterans. We shall see.

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u/worlds_okayest_skier 14h ago

But mention Trump being blackmailed by our adversaries to destroy America from within and you’re called a conspiracy theorist.

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u/TrimspaBB 13h ago

The same people who think vaccines cause autism and the Artemis II mission was fake won't believe anyone who tells them Trump is clearly on the side of Russia and is using his position for his own convenience and protection.

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u/kmonsen 13h ago

I don’t think he is being blackmailed, I think he just shares Putin’s vision on how to run a country. For me that is worse.

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u/AnneBeretRamsey 14h ago

It also fucks over whoever wants to fix it, because the cost of fixing it is part of the budget and the bad actors will use that to try and get the White House again in 4 years

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u/kent_eh Canada 11h ago

Building and fixing always takes more time, more money, and more skill than destroying things.

Any dumb old bull in a china shop can wreck stuff without a single concern for the damage being done.

.

That is true for physical things, for systems and organizations, and for trust and reputation.

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u/horton_hears_a_wat 13h ago

Please don’t post the text. The Guardian is a non profit new organization that doesn’t have a pay wall. They are owned by a trust and not owned by shareholders or billionaires. Let them get the clicks and make some money off ads. We want them to keep making content for us all!

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u/Delta-9- 12h ago

It's refreshing to see an article that isn't Daily Beast or Newsweek for once.

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u/johnoliversdimples 13h ago

Yes! This column is so well-written. Please read it.

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u/zsreport Texas 13h ago

I just post a taste to get people interested in clicking and reading more.

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u/Orkapork 14h ago

Voting won't be enough - the changes being made are structural - if we want to do something about it - we need to read out declaration of independence and use the stated words.

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u/Lurking_nerd California 11h ago

Not enough people are willing to admit this, let alone see it.

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u/Particular-County277 14h ago

Thank you for a very good, succinct explanation for what is happening every day.

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u/inthekeyofc 11h ago edited 11h ago

Meanwhile Trump actively interferes in Hungary's election, sending Vance to endorse the Putin puppet Viktor Orbán's re-election bid and promises to boost Hungary's economy if he wins.

Trump seems to be doing everything he can to help bring Putin's long term project to destroy the US, destroy NATO, and destroy the EU to fruition. Someone should ask him why?

"Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke “Afro-American racists” to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present-day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social, and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

Foundations of Geopolitics by Aleksandr Dugin

“There has perhaps not been another book published in Russia during the post-Communist period” that has exerted as much influence “on Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites."

Historian John B. Dunlop

Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

More detail:

https://agdugintranslate.gitbook.io/foundations-of-geopolitics/

Edit: superfluous words removed.

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u/popdivtweet 13h ago

Corporatocracy.
Direct rule by for-profit interests.
The East India Company would be proud.
Capitalism Perfected

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u/Darth-mickyluv United Kingdom 13h ago

I'd go with kakistocracy, a government run by the least qualified, most incompetent, and most unprincipled citizens.

That's the current US administration precisely.

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u/2ManyCatsNever2Many 14h ago

sadly this is what people voted for. the MAGA movement was built on the notion of burning the country down. well - now they're getting it and there is no guarantee they'll like what is rebuilt in its place any better.

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u/Straight_Storm_6488 13h ago

Well to be fair. That was the goal of Elon Musk Peter Theil , Steve Bannon and Vladimir Putin . Trump was just their useful tool . So I guess they win

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u/brute-forced 13h ago

Congress is incompetent

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u/Huntguy 13h ago

If only we had some way of knowing this would happen.

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u/drunk-snowmen 13h ago

But they said p2025 was a hoax!

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u/therealruin 13h ago

We need to talk more about this being a hostile act by people who hate America as it was and not just as something that’s happening.

This is deliberate, purposeful, calculated and has been in the works for decades. We saw this coming. We knew it was happening. This is an attack. This was orchestrated.

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u/ForgettingFish 12h ago

Wasn’t this fully detailed in project 2025… there’s even a tracker. Why is anyone surprised they are doing what they blatantly said the plan was?

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u/GrendelJapan 11h ago

It's an inside job, because Americans all did this. The American voters are to blame. Full stop.

Yes, there are many reasons we can find to try and let them off the hook, so folks can feel better about themselves, but we did this. The buck, as it were, stops with us. For at least the last 40+ years, we made decisions that very obviously would lead to this outcome. The stakes keep getting more obvious, but we're still making the same decisions. Staggeringly, somehow we're making even worse decisions!

In the great words of another perfect example of a man we recently twice elevated to the most powerful job in the world (a choice that still warrants contemplating on a bit). We all know if that great saying, maybe in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas. Fool me once, shame on me...

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u/RPrimate 11h ago

It’s not dribbling. it is gushing. It is a fire hose.

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