The Thing To Be: MAGA Sweeps Traumatized Nation Like Wildfire; Lifelong Democrats Weeping, Mark Zuckerberg Calling Trump "Badass," Radical Script Changes, Nothing Is As It Was 7 Days Ago

When American "Culture" Changes, It Changes Fast And Cataclysmic; Nobody Knows Who Is Controlling It Or If It Has A Life Of Its Own, But MAGA Is Like Beatle-Mania Right Now

“We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”

― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds

He Is The One—AI captures new Trump mythos. Time to admit we want to live a cartoon, not “reality.”

Some basic thoughts of the last few days, but only a beginning:

The Thing To Be

As of this past week, MAGA is the new thing to be; Not anti-Trump, not “too bad the shooter missed.”

What a wild week it has been.

As soon as word broke of the Trump shooting on July 13, the bullets may as well have been aimed at Trump Derangement Syndrome’s four cultural and socio-economic tires, for they all went flat immediately. Boom, boom, boom boom, and it was over. As good as gone. It (TDS) had been tearing Americans apart like a Jurassic Park dragon since a hard to define moment around 2016. We don’t need to revisit this demonic infection; I was always extremely opposed to it. It made people stupid, ugly, and myopic. It also made them mimetic, copycats, brainless hordes, and my least favorite thing of all: Snobs.

I listened to Trump’s entire RNC speech; One of the best moments is the simple moment when he mocks somebody saying they will tear down MAGA. What is there to attack? he says. MAGA means “Make America Great Again.” The slogan works like a kind of wand. Whosoever could be against that…would have to be a “bad guy.”

Who he is never interested me much, the movement did, the people of the movement, as Trump says, they are the story. It’s an epic battle between snobs and proles, ultimately, with some heavy grifters at the nets.

People have no real idea, in America, what a “dictator” is, let’s face it. I believe Anthony Fauci was our first, but he flew under most people’s radar for 40 years.

I did not engage in one moment of anti-Trump snobbery, but it was not until after a flight from Spain back to the US in 2024 that I came up with my perfect line of defense. On the flight, I sat next to a Finnish woman who was a Yale Professor, as was her husband. After we chatted about this and that, she lit into Trump, hitting all the usual notes required by her social class. I grew weary, and tried to change the subject. The next day I realized what I wished I had said:

”I’m not rich enough to hate Trump.”

Because that’s all it is, really, TDS—class contempt pretending to be fear of “fascism.”

On the morning of July 14, a sea change had swept out this massive, epoch defining craze, and in its place was a kind of demure concession to human decency. Nobody, save for a few ragged fringe characters, wanted to be stuck in the “too bad they missed” camp. But the real reason TDS died and died so fast, was that it always had a symbolic ideation, which was for Trump to die a violent death before the nation’s eyes. That was its desire, its fever, and its climax, and Trump haters said so so many times, so many ways—from pundits to Democratic politicians to WEF types and beyond. This fantasy was, of course, that Trump would die but “democracy” would be saved.

The shooting, whether staged, botched, or both, served the purpose of releasing the masses from their desire to see Trump killed. Because it almost happened, because it was a quarter of an inch, according to lore, because there was blood on his face, part of his ear blown off, because of all these things, the haters got to experience their fantasy, they just didn’t get an actual corpse. After this symbolic assassination, Trump loathing had nowhere to go, as an energy form, so it dissipated.

The ancient Greeks plays were similarly experienced as real events, and they went to them not for entertainment but for catharsis, pathos, reversal and recognition, and so forth.

Owen Shroyer played a clip the other day of a black woman who had been Democrat her entire life, over 30 or 40 years, and was expressing being very confused that she was watching the RNC convention and listening to President Trump, and crying. (I tried to find it but was unable to.)

You’ve all seen the Zuckerberg clip which seems like they arranged it to showcase him saying Trump’s fist pump was “the most badass thing” he’d ever seen.

We’re not in Act 4 anymore, we are in Act 5.

“What is catharsis in ancient Greek theatre?

“Aristotle argued that tragedy cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'.

Catharsis is essential in tragedy because it allows audiences to purge their negative emotions and feel relief as a result. Aristotle was the first to expound on the virtues of catharsis.”

In this clip, Owen Benjamin makes a seemingly risky prediction that Trump will lose the election to somebody like Gavin Newsom (nah) and that MAGA people are acting “retarded,” and need to get a grip. He says Trump is a “lovable” mobster archetype who lies all the time, and his fans refuse to see him as he is.

He makes some valid points. “Watch out for becoming retarded,” he counsels MAGA/Trump loyalists. But he doesn’t seem to realize that love is like that. Love is blind. They love Trump. End of story. Maybe people should ask them why. The answers would be the threads that weave the fabric of America back together, and remove focus from Trump, who is just a catalyst, really. And a mystery.

I just think Trump wants America not to be a disaster, to be “great again,” and that’s good enough for me. I don’t need a nice guy as President, I don’t need somebody who never says dreadful things about women, I just want him to do even a fraction of what he promises in the speech above. Stop the things that are clearly killing us. Do the things that will bring relief to the American people, and push back all things woke. I listened to his talk above, and I found it very interesting, simple, clear and hopeful. Mostly.

“I could stop a war with a phone call.”

—Donald Trump

Do I care that it’s insanely boastful or “narcissistic?”

Not really.

I care that he hates war. And I think Owen Benjamin is too dismissive of Americans who have damned good reasons to love Trump.

My position on the shooting is that it matters less whether it was real or staged—matters more what kinds of catharsis, mythos, and mass conviction it unleashed, as well as what hatreds it put to rest.

For now.

A friend on the left told me she didn’t want to see what her friends were saying on Social media. She was afraid they would say it was too bad the bullet missed.

I think her heart is the story.