Comparing MAGA to Tetris is an insult to Tetris, compare it to a puzzle game nobody gives a crap about, like Wildsnake or Welltris, both made with the approval of Alexey Pajitnov.
Stephen Miller has served as Trump's chief speechwriter since 2016, making him MAGA's propaganda minister. Miller articulates Trump's policies based on ideas imbibed from ideologues funneling sources and phrasing often found in white supremacist outlets such as VDARE.
The philosophy behind MAGA is fundamentally reactionary: while Obama sought to motivate through hope, Trump evokes and exploits fear. Fear of The Other--"animals" dehumanized by their ethnicity or other innate characteristics, targeted for hate and expulsion (if they're lucky).
Facts? MAGA feeds feelings, not reason. And it does so with lies. Lies, repeated endlessly and never fact-checked (because fact-checking is a joke in Trump world) supplant anything the rest of us might agree on as shared reality. It is all fear projected as hate, driven by lies.
The MAGA brain will be a subject of scientific curiosity for decades to come. Because a cure would be more valuable to the nation than a cure for cancer.
Stellar piece. The world and especially humans are complicated, emotional, and neither all good or all bad. We cannot embrace hate, even of people like Stephen Miller or Alex Jones who sow hatred, and that’s hard.
I live in a purple state with some red cities and some blue, and plenty of purple areas and mostly red rural ones. We live in a cute little town with a fantastic public school, one street light and almost zero crime. We are located in the middle of the state surrounded by lakes and larger towns. Our subdivision is middle class, built in the 90s and shows pride in ownership.
Our neighbors on both sides are Fox News conservatives. One is a retired woman in her 70’s who is gruff, opinionated and grumpy. The others are a retired couple in their late 60’s who watch Fox News but mostly keep their opinions to themselves. Mrs. did once tell me we needed more street lights in our neighborhood because of all the illegal immigrants pouring into the country. I simply replied that I’ve never seen anyone matching that description wandering around.
We don’t agree with or share their views, but we are cordial and on good terms with both. The retired couple have a small garden and they give us vegetables. We avoid any news or political talk, and they know we are liberal people. We keep the peace and focus on the mutual respect for privacy and shared boundary lines.
If we viewed either of them as evil or focused on their beliefs, we’d be miserable or at least uncomfortable living where we do. Fortunately there are plenty of progressive people in our neighborhood too. People smile, wave, host block parties, and coexist without succumbing to a divided war zone that politicians and pundits are insisting America has become.
There are always going to be some who are reachable. But it's never obvious which ones the are. And the same techniques don't work for all of them. There are probably as many techniques as there are people.
The right's strategy to brand every attack of violence against Democrats being perpetrated by Democrats is brilliant. It should finally wipe out political violence in our lifetimes.
These violent "patriots" need to understand that, if they take the actions their Republican leaders are suggesting they take, but never really saying it and insinuating it in the most oblique way possible, whether they live or die, that same Republican leadership will immediately brand them as radical left Marxists. And that's how they will remain known forever.
"He was the manager of a 7-Eleven, but quit that to start businesses, Praetorian Guard Security Services and Red Lion Group..."
Even the names of his companies are red flags for MAGA Trumpism. The Praetorian Guard was basically Imperial Rome's NKVD, ostensibly bodyguards but providing Imperial state intelligence and whatever heavy-handed police thuggery was desired at the time. It was eventually.disbanfed by Constantine, himself no liberal, as it had become a deeply corrupt threat to the state in its eagerness to act as kingmakers for the right price.
The Red Lion is the symbol of James I, the first of the Stuart dynasty, which was known for its determined and persistent efforts to sideline or destroy Parliament and build an absolute monarchy in Britain on the French model. The result was two revolutions, a civil war and a regicide revolutionary Protectorate in what was basically a trial run for the French Revolution a hundred and fifty years later. Liberals would cosplay as Guy Fawkes, not the guy Fawkes was trying to blow up.
Then there is the attack on Iran. How can anyone look at what has occurred since this past Friday and not go, huh? Trump just showed people that he was powerless to stop Israel executing an unprovoked attack on Iran. Trump is losing whatever he has left.
"...he was also looking for work in the food industry and working part-time delivering bodies to the morgue." I'd strongly advise that the melons and bodies be examined for spunk.
"If a majority of the American people believe that only one party shares their objectives, they’ll keep giving it a chance even when its leaders fail, or when they’re erratic or when they’re corrupt.
* * * *
. . . . the fact that millions of people believe that in his heart he shares their objectives and supports their cause is part of his very successful con."
This feels especially pertinent because I've been trying to gently poke my step-nephew, who keeps telling me it's 'okay to insurrection against the government' because he's so deep into all this. He posts the typical 'leftists hate this country' crap all over Facebook, and he's 28 yrs old now.
Should I give up even trying to get through to him? I feel if I do, there's not a single person left in his life who will try and give him gentle pushback against these weird ideas. Any thoughts?
As infuriating as the Mike Lee post is, he isn’t necessarily wrong, from a certain point of view. Had “Marixists” (his definition not the dictionary definition) gotten their way, we simply wouldn’t have gun violence at the terrifying and constantly escalating scale we’ve had to deal with in the past 30-ish years.
"MAGA is not just uninformed, many of them are downright enthusiastic about repeating obvious lies."
"Perfect brief description, must make note.
Comparing MAGA to Tetris is an insult to Tetris, compare it to a puzzle game nobody gives a crap about, like Wildsnake or Welltris, both made with the approval of Alexey Pajitnov.
Brian Klaas wrote a great post recently on cults of personality: https://substack.com/@brianklaas/p-165719778
The longer sick ideologies fester, the more extreme they become and the more difficult they are to stop.
Stephen Miller has served as Trump's chief speechwriter since 2016, making him MAGA's propaganda minister. Miller articulates Trump's policies based on ideas imbibed from ideologues funneling sources and phrasing often found in white supremacist outlets such as VDARE.
The philosophy behind MAGA is fundamentally reactionary: while Obama sought to motivate through hope, Trump evokes and exploits fear. Fear of The Other--"animals" dehumanized by their ethnicity or other innate characteristics, targeted for hate and expulsion (if they're lucky).
Facts? MAGA feeds feelings, not reason. And it does so with lies. Lies, repeated endlessly and never fact-checked (because fact-checking is a joke in Trump world) supplant anything the rest of us might agree on as shared reality. It is all fear projected as hate, driven by lies.
Miller scares the fuck out of me, his beliefs are encased in cement.
The MAGA brain will be a subject of scientific curiosity for decades to come. Because a cure would be more valuable to the nation than a cure for cancer.
Stellar piece. The world and especially humans are complicated, emotional, and neither all good or all bad. We cannot embrace hate, even of people like Stephen Miller or Alex Jones who sow hatred, and that’s hard.
I live in a purple state with some red cities and some blue, and plenty of purple areas and mostly red rural ones. We live in a cute little town with a fantastic public school, one street light and almost zero crime. We are located in the middle of the state surrounded by lakes and larger towns. Our subdivision is middle class, built in the 90s and shows pride in ownership.
Our neighbors on both sides are Fox News conservatives. One is a retired woman in her 70’s who is gruff, opinionated and grumpy. The others are a retired couple in their late 60’s who watch Fox News but mostly keep their opinions to themselves. Mrs. did once tell me we needed more street lights in our neighborhood because of all the illegal immigrants pouring into the country. I simply replied that I’ve never seen anyone matching that description wandering around.
We don’t agree with or share their views, but we are cordial and on good terms with both. The retired couple have a small garden and they give us vegetables. We avoid any news or political talk, and they know we are liberal people. We keep the peace and focus on the mutual respect for privacy and shared boundary lines.
If we viewed either of them as evil or focused on their beliefs, we’d be miserable or at least uncomfortable living where we do. Fortunately there are plenty of progressive people in our neighborhood too. People smile, wave, host block parties, and coexist without succumbing to a divided war zone that politicians and pundits are insisting America has become.
Ta, Marcie. Let us hope such terrorism never becomes the norm.
There are always going to be some who are reachable. But it's never obvious which ones the are. And the same techniques don't work for all of them. There are probably as many techniques as there are people.
The right's strategy to brand every attack of violence against Democrats being perpetrated by Democrats is brilliant. It should finally wipe out political violence in our lifetimes.
These violent "patriots" need to understand that, if they take the actions their Republican leaders are suggesting they take, but never really saying it and insinuating it in the most oblique way possible, whether they live or die, that same Republican leadership will immediately brand them as radical left Marxists. And that's how they will remain known forever.
Attacks will plummet.
"He was the manager of a 7-Eleven, but quit that to start businesses, Praetorian Guard Security Services and Red Lion Group..."
Even the names of his companies are red flags for MAGA Trumpism. The Praetorian Guard was basically Imperial Rome's NKVD, ostensibly bodyguards but providing Imperial state intelligence and whatever heavy-handed police thuggery was desired at the time. It was eventually.disbanfed by Constantine, himself no liberal, as it had become a deeply corrupt threat to the state in its eagerness to act as kingmakers for the right price.
The Red Lion is the symbol of James I, the first of the Stuart dynasty, which was known for its determined and persistent efforts to sideline or destroy Parliament and build an absolute monarchy in Britain on the French model. The result was two revolutions, a civil war and a regicide revolutionary Protectorate in what was basically a trial run for the French Revolution a hundred and fifty years later. Liberals would cosplay as Guy Fawkes, not the guy Fawkes was trying to blow up.
hmmmm.....maybe his wife and 5 kids should be rounded up and deported or put in jail with him....
Those kids are probably going to be a problem for society. No father in the house...
We've heard this story before.
Without THAT father, they're probably better off.
Then there is the attack on Iran. How can anyone look at what has occurred since this past Friday and not go, huh? Trump just showed people that he was powerless to stop Israel executing an unprovoked attack on Iran. Trump is losing whatever he has left.
Sir had nothing but a mouth and two thumbs. Never more than that.
"...he was also looking for work in the food industry and working part-time delivering bodies to the morgue." I'd strongly advise that the melons and bodies be examined for spunk.
NYT Opinion, David French:
"If a majority of the American people believe that only one party shares their objectives, they’ll keep giving it a chance even when its leaders fail, or when they’re erratic or when they’re corrupt.
* * * *
. . . . the fact that millions of people believe that in his heart he shares their objectives and supports their cause is part of his very successful con."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/opinion/trump-immigration-democrats.html
This feels especially pertinent because I've been trying to gently poke my step-nephew, who keeps telling me it's 'okay to insurrection against the government' because he's so deep into all this. He posts the typical 'leftists hate this country' crap all over Facebook, and he's 28 yrs old now.
Should I give up even trying to get through to him? I feel if I do, there's not a single person left in his life who will try and give him gentle pushback against these weird ideas. Any thoughts?
Deprogramming cultists is notoriously difficult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klYjLMJ4z3E
Forget it.
This calls to mind the idiot on Jan 6th who declared "We're only here to overthrow the government!" as if it were a lark.
Nothing will get through.
As infuriating as the Mike Lee post is, he isn’t necessarily wrong, from a certain point of view. Had “Marixists” (his definition not the dictionary definition) gotten their way, we simply wouldn’t have gun violence at the terrifying and constantly escalating scale we’ve had to deal with in the past 30-ish years.