Charred Trumpism: repudiation denied

With an administration responsible for a record of ineptitude that includes more than 240,000 dead Americans, Democrats had reason to believe that the day of repudiation was nye. Though some state policies ran in his favor, the House numbers fell and an overwhelming swing toward a unified Democratic government clearly did not happen. Why? Because Trumpism is now charred.

Political pundits explained that some House districts have returned to their dark-red origins, that state offices have made great Democratic progress, and that voters are wary of giving all three branches of government to one party, so they often split their votes. I call “Hockey Horse”!

In 2016, the Republican information sphere was called a bubble, but Trumpism has now charred it into a shield against logic and fact, creating its own deadly worldview as virulent as the Covid-19 virus itself. How do we know this?

The fact that 50% of all voters in the Midwest know someone who died or helped fill their rural hospitals to the brim SHOULD have led to a clear repudiation. The horrific and preventable mortality of Covid-19, mishandled by Trump and his enablers, SHOULD have easily pushed the electorate toward the Democrats up and down the ballot. Period. So how did Trump get more, not fewer, votes than he did in 2016? The cabonization.

The explanation did not come from psychology doctors, public pundits, or pen-pocketed forecasters. It came from my financial advisor. He explained how this cocoon of ignorance has hardened and swelled enough to potentially accuse our most trusted and dedicated professionals, the heroic and tired doctors and nurses of this country, of fraud.

Our frontline medical workers are weary and frustrated by this impenetrable shield of ignorance. Longtime epidemiologists, some working on the vaccine, have grimly called this winter’s projected Covid-19 casualties “a massacre.” Just like in New York, we are seeing freezer trucks arriving at hospitals in the Midwest.

All Americans deserve better, but 40% are “under the influence.” If this was an armed conflict, they would have been declared deserters. They have left their place in our democracy.

This is how he explained charring. Five companies on the Nasdaq/QQQ stock market now dominate global investment and customer loyalty by a wide margin over all others. Can you name them? Hint: the oil multinationals are gone. The younger you are, the more likely you are to name all five. Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple dominate safe investment and global popularity, by a wide margin, over all other companies. This is not a healthy financial environment.

More importantly, with the exception of China, the first two control most of the absorbed political information in the world. Unfortunately, that information is dedicated to creating fear in others, which can only be satisfied with more clicks and more reads, leading to more ad dollars per eye minute.

The results of the 2016 US elections granted and simplified the strategy for these Facebook and Google adware. Intelligence sources say these ad dollars, with the help of Trump loyalists, were finely tuned to vulnerable counties in the industrial belt. Under the protection of free speech, the allure of political innuendo and fear became a mainstay of online profits, much of that content controlled by Russian troll farms or GRU agents.

The algorithms responsible for selling regular products proved enormously profitable when they became the political arena and required no fact-checking, despite frequent warnings from intelligence agencies. It is now abundantly clear that this charred Trumpism, through internet sales of disinformation, served Republican interests in the 2020 general election. An election that should have been an avalanche of repudiation if that part of the electorate had been paying attention. . But they were busy in another way.

Clicks that begin with harmless curiosity lead the user further down a rabbit hole into unfounded political accusations, hate speech, and fear-driven paranoia. Soon, each session brings more temptations to explore unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that are contrary to our constitutional beliefs and detrimental to our collective mental AND physical health as a nation.

This cocktail of fear-based political fantasy helped elect the first outspoken Q-Anon member to Congress this cycle. Yes, misinformation users also show signs of dependency, such as damage to their responsibilities, career and lifestyle. Is there a simple intervention?

Like a slot machine player “gluing” himself to the chair of his favorite slot machine, political ad threads and links to hate groups and widely debunked stories become addictive and believed as fact over time. One victim of this deepening misinformation led a follower to visit a suspected child slavery ring in the basement of a popular family-owned pizzeria in Washington, DC, with an assault rifle. It’s not a coupon for a deep dish.

We now know that 40% of the voting electorate is being held hostage to these subtle, sinister and mathematically precise inculcations. We now know that 40% of the voting population has been lost to them with little hope of ever returning, no matter what the circumstances surrounding them.

Neither a dying relative nor a trusted GP can break the stranglehold of these political algorithms, these dirty formulas. Only those in the depths of opioid addiction compare worst to this “charred Trumpism.”

Is there an antidote? Fortunately, yes! Independent, real-time, third-party fact checkers can monitor all political content on air and online with posted warnings. Just as the first cigarette warning labels gave the new user a fighting chance against the suave Marlboro Man on TV, it’s time to monitor these seductive and dangerously addictive new browser profit centers. Real-time debunking is not difficult to execute.

Reversing this cultural addiction will require the political will of the people and public outcry. Google and Facebook should be held accountable for violating the robust nature of healthy, traditional American skepticism, for their own benefit. A new, modern warning for free speech protections should be forged to stand next to yelling “Fire” in a crowded building when there are none. Dangerous disinformation threatens our health as a nation and requires guardrails to stop the “carbonization of Trumpism.” Hans Solo came out. We can too!