I wish that made no sense. But instead we get dark synergy…
Cruelty is the point.
Chaos is the point.
Stupidity is the point.
Lies are the point.
Racism/anti-“different” (including different ideas) is the point.
Impunity is the point.
Destruction is the point.
What they have in common are in-our-face demonstrations of centralizing power, designed to encourage their base vicariously while stealing their lunch.
And discourage, silence, excommunicate, dis-home and dis-connect any competent detractors in any branch of government or appropriately hard news.
They know the value of cutting the cost of everything, with no concept of the loss of value sans anything.
Consistently hiring personally-loyal non-competent people with sketchy, crime-adjacent backgrounds, with histories of highly flexible loony tune views, isn’t an accident.
It isn’t at all difficult to recognize. It shouldn’t be hard to understand either. It is a very effective way to centralize power by replacing institutions with pawns.
Nor is the chaos being inflicted on those same institutions by targeted and random decrees. That many are vague and unbalancing is intentional. The aim isn’t to improve them, right-size them, or accomplish any national mission, etc. That would be a disaster if that was his goal. It is to kill any resistance to Trump in a way the constitution really has no effective response for.
As his power centralizes he will use his increased power to go after the next level of “threats” to his unmitigated power.
Where this stops, isn’t predictable. But given the chance, he won’t stop.
Regardless of your politics, it is an interesting historical moment, and worth seeing clearly. Trump is largely competently centralizing power to a degree we have not seen since Washington was given the greenfield mandate in which to oversee the raising up of our Constitutional institutions. An ironic difference from now.
If you want to understand the challenges and means of accruing power (with non-partisan, non-current-event nuance, and as it applies in any form of government), I recommend:
The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics [0]
It says “Dictator’s” but the book covers every type of government and the principles and resulting plays apply to all.
"Sources? Or are you just knowingly spreaing false and defamatory claims because you feel emotional or want to signal your political affiliation?" -You, nullc aka Greg Maxwell <gmaxwell@gmail.com>, before being flagged for hysterically and partisanly carrying Musk's water, and then ninja-editing your comment so as not to appear to be hypocritical for feeling emotional or signaling your political affiliation.
>"not a girl", "dead, killed by the woke mind virus" -Elon Musk
>[Musk's own estranged daughter] Wilson, 20, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, responded to comments Musk made Monday about her and her transgender identity. On social media and in an interview posted online, Musk said she was “not a girl” and was figuratively “dead,” and he alleged that he had been “tricked” into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16.
>“I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars — I don’t remember which one — and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high,” she said. “It was cruel.”
>“I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” she said in the court filing.
>“I lost my son, essentially,” Musk said. He used Wilson’s birth name, also known as a deadname for transgender people, and said she was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”
>And in a post on X, Musk said Monday that Wilson was “born gay and slightly autistic” and that, at age 4, she fit certain gay stereotypes, such as loving musicals and using the exclamation “fabulous!” to describe certain clothing. Wilson told NBC News that the anecdotes aren’t true, though she said she did act stereotypically feminine in other ways as a child.
>“He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there,” she wrote. “And in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness.”
>“I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype,” she continued. “I think that says alot about how he views queer people and children in general.”
