My social circle is mostly aware of what is happening. Social gatherings often include Trump trashing and Musk maligning, but generally get it under control because we don’t want each other to get too upset when we’re supposed to be enjoying each other’s company.
I call it the Pedophile Uncle Syndrome – when Trump is president, no one really wants to bring him up at a social gathering to the point where people will warn others not to bring up Trump as if he were a pedophile uncle that the family is ashamed of.
However, at the Town Square on Acid that is social media is quite different as far as awareness of the current crisis. Like anyone who is on social media, my social media circle is much larger than my friend-in-person circle. Beyond that, they have their own friends.
Within this particular universe, I would say this is true (to an extent):
Most Americans have no idea that anything unusual is happening. This is probably the weirdest I’ve ever felt as an observer of politics, aware that the whole world is locked into a new order and equally aware that I can’t talk to the average person about it.
— Nick (derogatory) ✨ (@slothropsmap.bsky.social) 2025-02-17T01:21:12.139Z
I also think this is a reason why:
The offline universe have no idea how utterly degraded and degenerate the online universe is. It’s why MSM keep striking out trying to understand what is happening in plain site. They don’t understand what a fucking baby musk actually is.
The monsters driving all this horribleness – Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, David Sacks, etc. are all very online dudes. Trump and Musk can go on hours-long posting binges, and they’ve discussed their horrifying intentions to turn America into a technocratic dictatorship over the last few years. The people I was referring to earlier, the ones on Facebook, are not what most people refer to as an “online universe” – they tend to not be as hardcore online as the people on X and Bluesky.
There are pluses and minuses to being so online. People can fall into misinformation traps and end up following nonsense like QAnon, but also such people can be much more aware of what is happening. People scoffing at their online friends for their “crazy” worries about what is happening need to rethink that and view such friends as their early warning system, that they ignore at their peril.
Many mainstream media outlets are not treating this with the urgency they need to, and neither are some Democrats. This is part of the reason why the people who are not in tune with the moment and just take casual glances at headlines are not getting what is happening.
Part of my career has been constructing messaging, as a communications professional. I think the most effective Dem political messengers are those who are doing both – ringing alarm bells about fascism AND so-called kitchen table issues.
It’s not hard…just watch:
Donald Trump and his unelected Silicon Valley billionaires are destroying our democracy, ruining hard working people’s lives by eliminating thousands of jobs, ignoring the rule of law, and NONE OF THIS is doing a thing to lower grocery prices, which he said would be his focus on Day 1. Tell us, King Donald, why are you suddenly so dismissive of lowering prices and so focused on destroying everything that makes America good and causing so much pain for so many Americans? It is going to get much worse except for a handful of billionaires who are literally looting our country.
Again, not hard. And do it in an extremely urgent tone, because this is not the time to be Mr. Cool and dismissive of their constituents’ fears (real fears, not the ones your so-called consultants are telling you to focus on). Politicians who do that are yelling at people for running in the halls during an active shooter situation. And also, go at media people who question you about this stuff, tell them that they are not telling the American people about what is happening with near enough urgency.
I will close this post with a quick note about what King Donald posted on his social media over the weekend. You may have heard he quoted Napoleon about ignoring laws being cool if you are “saving the country” but it’s actually deeper, and worse, than that:
It’s a slight mistranslation, he’s using it from Stormfront, a neo-Nazi website. Also shared by Anders Breivik, Norway terrorist. bsky.app/profile/seth…
— Marsha Pierce (@marshapiercephd.bsky.social) 2025-02-16T15:58:03.630Z
Elon replied to this at 14 minutes after 2:00 p.m., with 14 American flags. What does that mean? Not anything good:
Fourteen Words(neo-Nazism and white supremacy) A white supremacist slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."To anyone who thinks he didn't mean to give a Nazi salute–He did this on Purpose👇 100%14 flags👇 Posted at 14 minutes after 2
Now, I said in the past that Elon Musk is a troll, and this is a great example. The troll’s game is to do something so outrageous that some people might doubt its sincerity. But in this case, after he literally did a Nazi salute (TWICE) at the inauguration, you might want to consider that he really means it.
And oh by the way, as Adrastos pointed out this morning, the vice president of the United States told Germany to go easy on the Nazis.
These are very dangerous times. Might be good to start paying attention to your always-online friends, the ones who are fearful for the future of our country. We can get out of this but we need all the non-right-wing Americans to understand the danger.
The last word goes to Donna the Buffalo.