Summary
Historian Nicole Hemmer discussed Donald Trump’s strategy of exploiting tragedies for political gain, labeling it part of a broader right-wing effort to sow division.
Hemmer noted Trump’s pattern of politicizing disasters, from Hurricane Maria to the California wildfires, to attack political opponents and promote conspiracy theories.
This tactic is linked to a media environment that thrives on outrage and a conservative ecosystem that weaponizes anger for electoral gains.
This approach degrades public life, fosters animosity, and amplifies societal despair.
I do not know which is worse, the societal damage that trump is doing directly, or the societal damage that his supporters are doing. On the one hand, trump himself has the keys to project violence on you and me and every other person alive, but at least he will eventually die. On the other hand, the swelling tide of stupid that millions of Americans are flopping around in will be here forever. Sure they are a minority, but that’s only a comfort if one lives in a rules-based democracy. America isn’t that. I will always hate trump, and I hope to literally piss on his grave some day. I will probably outlive the asshole, and that is comforting. Unfortunately, the increasingly emboldened mob of drooling, bigoted and fear-driven morons that make up a lot of my fellow citizens aren’t going anywhere as a collective.
I will say this again. I cannot be more full of contempt for the United States, or its awful awful people. Fuck this government, fuck our “leaders”, fuck this hostile economy, fuck the worthless Democrats, fuck the fascist Republicans, fuck the oligarchs, fuck the corporations.
Fuck the religious nutjobs.