Seen from afar; it seems that Trump is so close to absolute power that he can simply brush off what should be scandals with real consequences. How _everyone_ survived the Signal scandal blows my mind
It's shocking how prescient this quote is turning out to be. There's a significant chunk of the US voting population that is willing to forgive effectively anything Trump might do, no matter how distasteful, illegal or unconstitutional it gets.
Using the DoJ to go after his perceived enemies. Mob boss protection rackets against universities and law firms. Revoking visas for traffic violations...or nothing at all. Putting people into a foreign prison camp without a chance for due process, and refusing to do anything about the inevitable errors and rights violations that result. Eliminating oversight roles and agencies, enabling grift, theft, and fraud for himself and his friends. Selling cars on the White House lawn. Hiring incompetent people and not firing them when they inevitably do incompetent things (looking at you, Hegseth and RFK Jr). Refusal to admit failure or error regardless of how obvious it is. Constant lies about what he has accomplished. Destroying the US economy with erratic and unstable tariff policies. And so much more...
> There's a significant chunk of the US voting population that is willing to forgive effectively anything Trump might do, no matter how distasteful, illegal or unconstitutional it gets.
One of my friends posts almost daily impassioned screeds against Trump. One, yesterday, was about him "handing our country to DOGE on a silver platter, to privatize for the benefit of his friends".
Someone replied:
> Once the systems are torn to shreds, we will need to build new systems that serve ALL of us. We may not like or agree with what is happening, but it’s more effective to come together and work toward building what you want, than it is to fight against what you don’t want.
They completely misunderstand or are in denial or have been deceived (or some combination of the above) into thinking this is the tear down, and Trump will build back something for everyone.
They are completely ignorant to the fact that there is no WE in Trump's plans, just "ME".
I’ve been noodling this argument ever since November, and I am pretty confident now that America has a fragile, asymmetric information economy.
Most Americans on the right live in a protected information market. I am not talking about media bias — both sides have that. The issue is deeper: on the right, the marketplace of ideas has been captured. There's no free trade between ideas, only ‘subsidized’ narratives and ‘tariffs’ on dissent. That’s how Trump — or anyone like him — thrives. Realists, by contrast, get priced out.
This isn’t culture war stuff, this is structural failure. The traditional metaphor of American free speech — the Holmesian "marketplace of ideas" — breaks down when one side captures the market.
There is no competition of ideas when there is no fair fight.
If you’ve got a couple of million bucks to spend, my guess is start buying up and supporting local news channels in the rust belt, and then let them work on whatever they want to work, as long as they can show actual independence.
Or perhaps gift people subscriptions to things like groundnews or something. I don’t know if theres any science that shows it effectively diversifies information consumption of its users.
I don’t know what the napkin math is for a tipping point, but I suspect its not as expensive as litigating an entire administration.
Interesting theory. I'd venture that there is an element of selection happening though rather than just a structural flaw. i.e. The people aren't so much trapped in this captured market but rather actively opt in.
I believe you would be right. The structural case is made in Network Propaganda. One of the authors has another paper/article (1) that summarizes this and supports your point. I don’t see any sustainable future for America, or any other nation, unless this market is rebuilt.
To argue the case - while there is definitely an aspect of choice, opt-in matters less if your options are limited.
Yet he literally can't get existing laws to be policed and acted on by government officials. Hardly absolute power when judges brush off his work left right and center.
Yes judges still apply the law. But so what? Trump just ignores their verdicts. And its all fine and dandy, because he is a cult leader, and his followers are now everywhere.
Because the impeachment attempts failed, the legal cases against Trump mostly failed, the Supreme Court inoculated him from further prosecution, and he got reelected.
The checks and balances have all been used up and failed.
