Exposing Trump and Defeating the Authoritarian Loop

Written by Ben Meiselas

I’ve coined the term “authoritarian loop” to refer to how people will support authoritarians against their own self-interest because they (1) are conditioned by the authoritarian to feel worthless and expendable, and (2) are told that the suffering they feel, which is caused by the authoritarian, is actually caused by “the enemy” or the “other.” Let me describe this in more detail and then tell you how we combat it with Trump.

Take a look at this map from the 2024 election.

This may as well be the chasm between North Korea and South Korea. Oklahoma is the only state where every district voted for Trump, and Massachusetts is the only state where every district voted for Harris. Yet, Massachusetts leads the country in quality of life and in almost every category of wealth, health, and education, while Oklahoma, on the other hand, is last or almost last in those same categories.

So why do people in states like Oklahoma consistently vote against their own interests and keep electing people who are causing their suffering? Why do people in places like Texas elect those who can’t even keep the electricity on and who vacation during mass casualty events?

It’s the authoritarian loop.

The people in these states have been conditioned to believe that their pain and suffering are caused by an “enemy within” and not their actual subjugator: their corrupt MAGA leadership.

In red states, “governance” is actually shorthand for trolling or “owning the libs.” It’s not focused on improving lives.

The same way people in North Korea have been conditioned to be in a perpetual war against their neighbors in the South—who they are told live in subhuman conditions—the language used by Trump and MAGA about liberals, Democrats, and Democratic states is virtually identical.

Democrats are not just another political party. To the modern-day MAGA GOP, Democrats are actually “the enemy within.” They are “scum.” They are “vermin.” This audacious dehumanization is repeated on a loop—an authoritarian loop—every single day on Fox, on right-wing media, and now on X (formerly Twitter).

Dehumanizing the “other” while the dictator and oligarchy reap the riches from exploiting the uneducated is the toolbox of the authoritarian. Make people feel they are worthy of only breadcrumbs, and if by the grace of God you throw them half a loaf of bread, they will rejoice in you as their savior. Saddam Hussein built himself palaces while his people lived in slums. Trump has Mar-a-Lago, while Trump-appointed judges strike down overtime pay for millions of workers. It’s sad, but this is the paradigm through which we must view things now.

My friend David Pepper was prescient when, several years ago, he wrote about how red states were becoming laboratories of autocracy. He was exactly right. They were cooking up and stewing the formula for the “authoritarian loop” to be used on a national level. The final ingredient was billionaires fully embracing their role as authoritarian-style oligarchs.

So what do we do about it? How do we stop it? Is it too late?

First, as of the writing of this post, it is not too late. Yes, we’ve crossed the Rubicon, and America has elected an overtly authoritarian regime that has announced its main goal is inflicting hardship and retribution. But we are not so far past the Rubicon that these devastating, self-inflicted wounds cannot be healed and fixed. I fear that if we give up now and our resistance is non-existent or weak, then things may become unfixable. The good news is there is still time.

Until Trump shuts down the media—or tries to shut down us, which he will attempt—everything Trump and his oligarchs do must be reported on and amplified by citizen journalists every minute of every day.

Every promise Trump breaks must be amplified by citizen journalists. Relentlessly.

For example, I did a video today showing that the stock market was down because of Trump, and now economists say there is a 75% chance of a recession under Trump. Make this a major story.

Trump said he would stop wars as soon as he was elected, even before he stepped foot in office. He has failed to do so. Report it.

Every factory layoff, every anti-worker labor decision, and every time the deficit balloons—report on it. Trump will become defensive, erratic, and spiral. Stop over-intellectualizing things. Use basic, clear language, and repeat it over and over: Trump hates workers. Trump hates workers. Trump hates workers.

Trump’s entire life has been about scamming people. Now he’s captured America in perhaps the biggest scam in world history. For Trump’s other scams (albeit on a smaller scale), his victims eventually woke up and recognized they were played.

If we can be relentless advocates of truth and if we do not submit, there is an opportunity in two years and in four years to take America out of the authoritarian loop. That’s the crossroads we find ourselves at. We will either be forever defined as a Trump idiocracy, or we will be defined as a nation that persevered and reclaimed its soul and democracy.

It’s not too late.

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