Paranoia, The Destroyer

Trump wants to talk about manufactured crises that do not affect you

I have never known anyone who has aborted a baby after birth. Have you?

I don’t know anyone who was assaulted in the ladies room by a man posing as a woman. Do you?

I don’t know anyone who has surreptitiously worked to bring nonwhite immigrants across the border to “replace” white voters in order to steal an election. Do you?

I don’t know a boy who went to school one morning and returned home a girl; any Jewish people who own space lasers; any Democratic leaders who run pedophile rings; and any Haitians who steal pets in order to eat them.

Why? Because every single one of these theories is bonkers and has been debunked. There is reality and there is delusion and we should treat one as fact and the other as a condition to be battled.

And yet, some Democratic leaders have still not learned. The lesson they took from the election debacle this November is to indulge MAGA paranoia by acknowledging that these conspiracy theories worked and to move to the right in order to accommodate them. Why? Because it’s lazy, reflexive and easier than working to change hearts and minds.

Meanwhile, here is just one reality check on the issue of the trans community, which the GOP exploited to such effect this cycle. According to Mother Jones, which described the findings of researches studying trans children, “Just 0.017 percent of youth were coded as trans and received puberty blockers. And just 0.037 percent were trans and accessed hormone therapy.”

Does this sound like a crisis to you that merits much discussion?

The truth is that voters did not think that Democrats were dedicating all their energy to giving children hormone therapy. What they believed is that Democrats were more concerned with defending hormone therapy for trans children than they were with the economy.

Here is what Democrats should have said before the election and what they should be saying now:

“Donald Trump wants to talk about manufactured crises that do not affect you. We want to talk about how to make your life more affordable.”

That’s it.

When Trump says something crazy, like, “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child,” you respond with, “Donald Trump wants to talk about manufactured crises that do not affect you. We want to talk about how to make your life more affordable.”

When Trump says something crazy, like, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” you respond with, “Donald Trump wants to talk about manufactured crises that do not affect you. We want to talk about how to make your life more affordable.”

When Trump says something crazy, like, “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” you respond with, “Donald Trump wants to talk about manufactured crises that do not affect you. We want to talk about how to make your life more affordable.”

What you don’t do is argue the point on his terms and go down the delusion rabbit hole. You stay laser focused. Donald Trump wants to talk about manufactured crises that do not affect you. We want to talk about how to make your life more affordable.

Don’t forget, Trump promised to bring the price of eggs, bacon and apples “way down” as soon as he became president. Demonizing one-one hundredth of one percent of America’s children won’t do that. Neither will talking about pet-eating Haitians who don’t exist. Neither will slapping a new name on an international body of water as though it were an apartment buildings Trump slaps his name on for a fee.

Because the truth is, Trump would rather focus on anything other than bringing the cost of living down for Americans — including loony-toons conspiracy theories that no actual voter has actually experienced firsthand.

Odds and Ends:

Enjoy “Destroyer” by the Kinks, who foretold the mass delusion gripping so many of our fellow Americans now (and who wrote about a trans woman named Lola long before the GOP decided to make her into public enemy number one).