To understand why so many Americans are drowning in conspiracy theories and lost in a toxic alternate reality, you have to understand that the story Americans have been taught about America is a myth and that Make America Great Again isn’t about action but belief.
MAGA was never about building actual walls. It was about erecting walls around beliefs that were crumbling based on empirical evidence.
It's a reaction to an America that is being forced to look at its inequalities, its privileges, its racism and sexism and problematic history.
It's a reaction to an America that is being forced to look at its inequalities, its privileges, its racism and sexism and problematic history.
Trump gives his followers permission to continue being lost in their own myths about themselves and their own myths about America. When he says Make America Great Again, it means believe it is great even though science and history and people's experience shows it isn't.
This is why Trumpism is a cult. It's mixed in with every other cultish belief wherein followers are fed provably false information by people obsessed with power and self-worship.
Trump is their messiah because he is saving them from the apocalypse of the self.
Trump is their messiah because he is saving them from the apocalypse of the self.
The Wall is a metaphor. Trump never intended to build it. It's like a preacher talking about the golden streets of Heaven, something people can imagine and have faith in.
None of this is about governance. It's about profit through control, like every other cult.
None of this is about governance. It's about profit through control, like every other cult.
While the rest of us see an America that is teetering on the edge and falling victim to generation's worth of corruption, inequality, and manipulation, Trump's message to his followers is to look again and continuing seeing the illusion that hid it for years and years.
When Trump says he's going to Make America Great Again, it's not about taking any action besides convincing his followers to believe America is great again by blocking out critics making actual, legitimate points and by subjugating minorities whose experience destroys the myth.
Trumpism is a state of mind, an active denial of the actual reality of America's past, present, and future. It's a philosophy of weaponized illusion.
It's fascism in theory, action, and form. The conquering of other peoples so a group concerned with power can maintain power.
It's fascism in theory, action, and form. The conquering of other peoples so a group concerned with power can maintain power.
