The cruelty, chaos, stupidity, and horror are not without purpose. The goal is to destroy the United States. It is clear, at least to me, that trump works for Putin. Think, that explains everything.
It’s not a perfect parallel—but the echoes are getting harder to ignore.
The SS in Nazi Germany wasn’t just about enforcing laws. It was about terror, loyalty to a leader over country, and the use of state power to dehumanize targeted groups. ICE, as it has evolved under modern right-wing politics, shows unsettling similarities: raids without warrants, families torn apart, detention centers where children are caged, and agents shielded from public accountability.
Both function as instruments of political will rather than justice. Both rely on fear as a tool. And both were—at least in part—enabled by citizens who convinced themselves it wasn’t their problem.
No, ICE hasn’t become the SS. But when a democratic nation empowers an agency to hunt people in plain clothes, traumatize communities, and operate with impunity, it’s fair to ask: how far are we from repeating the mistakes we swore never to repeat?
The cruelty, the chaos, the ignorance—it’s not accidental. It’s the strategy. The goal isn’t to govern but to destabilize, to turn Americans against one another and dismantle the very idea of a functioning democracy. Whether by allegiance or manipulation, it seems increasingly clear—at least to me—that Donald Trump is serving Vladimir Putin’s interests, not America’s.
They want to ruin peoples trust in one another, by traumatizing them into behaving like male hierarchical violent chimps. (Clans, like crime gangs, Russia, Renaissance Princes, warlords etc. Strong man culture.)
Traumatized people do not dare to hope or improve stuff.
Stephen Miller says it himself - he wants the ambitious civil servants traumatized.
Untraumatized, we are far more like friendly cooperative bonobos. And far more intelligent. At least togerher. So we CANNOT let them traumarize us one by one! We must learn to (self)-organize, everyone! <3
I have become convinced that the Black Lives Matter freaked the ruling class out more than
anyone has recognized. They are terrified of a serious uprising and the response is to exclude minorities from public life by resegregating society while keeping the middle class sick, hungry, and dependent on not opposing the government to maintain any shred of a viable life.
Criminalizing black judges and elected officials is one aspect of this. Forcing lockdowns, or squeezing the public sphere, by denying vaccines may be another. The goal would be to prevent the emergence of a leadership class while preventing mass movements.
This may sound like the plot of a dystopian novel, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. We are confronting people who have studied the conditions for successful social change and gamed out ways to make it impossible.
Before Trump again entered our Oval Office, he announced the "shock and awe" approach his mis-administration would employ as their overall approach. This is quite an apt description of what has been happening, and cruelty is just one critical part of the whole. Cruelty in addition to "move fast and break things" speed, disregard for "law and order" and "due process," constant lies and obfuscation, delay tactics in court, and a flood of other disrespectful behaviors.
It is all directed towards facilitating their primary goals of re-configuring our government, economic system and society in ways that enable them to accumulate more material wealth and power.
They are using all of their shock and awe techniques to limit the ability of "others" to get in their way. They want to knock possible opposition off center, render them destabilized and ungrounded, make people feel intimidated, overwhelmed, confused and powerless, foment frustration and apathy.
And they can do all of this because they are totally lacking in heart-quality. They have no empathy, no compassion, no care or kindness, no respect, no morals, no inherent values, no Love. They don't even love themselves, let alone each other or anyone else. They are all opportunists working together to take advantage of others and even each other. They are like a den of thieves where no one can be trusted, yet each is tolerated and appreciated for their contributions to the overall effort, but only for so long as they serve their purpose without stepping out of line.
Lacking heart-quality, they are limited to only being able to play mind-games. And a mind can choose to believe in anything that it finds attractive and decides is valuable. A mind can then also choose to do anything it needs to in order to protect itself and get more of what it is attracted to, like wealth and power.
All of their values are arbitrary and artificial, as are the values of material things and of power that depends upon such things. They value themselves only in such terms. This means they have a desperate and endless need to acquire more wealth and power to establish and maintain their own sense of self-worth, to establish themselves as "winners" in a zero-sum rat race. They never attain "enough" of anything because there is always more they feel they could attain in order to get ahead in their unrealistic game of dominance over all and everything.
Meanwhile, people with some inherent sense of heart-quality – people with empathy, compassion, care, kindness, respect, morals, Love – see everything the heartless ones are doing as being cruel. And our heart-quality makes it difficult to see any justification for the cruelty that is being perpetrated on everyone because it is so foreign, so contrary to our world view, our sense of values.
I agree with everything you wrote but am becoming very frustrated that those who chronicle this adminisration's atrocities never have any recommendations for how to stop them or even slow the pace. I believe we need to unite working-class Americans around the idea that our enemy here Isn't Trump. He is only a TOTR (Tool Of The Rich). Our is the uber-rich who sponsored Project 2025, who put Trump in office and who now stand to reap a windfall in the billions at our expense. Is anyone assembling such a resistance movement? If so, how can I join? If not, how can we start one? I have a long list of things that should be done immediately and would love to put contribute to any group to make it happen.
There is a subset of American culture more prevalent in the South and the Appalachians that still adheres to old-world "honor culture." In that cultural context, any slight or dishonor must be met with violence to expunge the stain. If the slighted individual does not do this, they lose all standing among their peers and can expect further and increasing disrespect. Strength is the only virtue, and weakness is to be despised.
Compassion, sentiment, and even honesty are perceived as weakness and are also to be despised. Donald Trump's cruelty is thus equated with strength among this subculture. "Owning the libs" is part of it too.
A REAL NAZI!!!
She’s so UGLY
The cruelty, chaos, stupidity, and horror are not without purpose. The goal is to destroy the United States. It is clear, at least to me, that trump works for Putin. Think, that explains everything.
you may like my stack: JosephZeigler.substack.com
It’s not a perfect parallel—but the echoes are getting harder to ignore.
The SS in Nazi Germany wasn’t just about enforcing laws. It was about terror, loyalty to a leader over country, and the use of state power to dehumanize targeted groups. ICE, as it has evolved under modern right-wing politics, shows unsettling similarities: raids without warrants, families torn apart, detention centers where children are caged, and agents shielded from public accountability.
Both function as instruments of political will rather than justice. Both rely on fear as a tool. And both were—at least in part—enabled by citizens who convinced themselves it wasn’t their problem.
No, ICE hasn’t become the SS. But when a democratic nation empowers an agency to hunt people in plain clothes, traumatize communities, and operate with impunity, it’s fair to ask: how far are we from repeating the mistakes we swore never to repeat?
You may like my stack: JosephZeigler.substack.com
The cruelty, the chaos, the ignorance—it’s not accidental. It’s the strategy. The goal isn’t to govern but to destabilize, to turn Americans against one another and dismantle the very idea of a functioning democracy. Whether by allegiance or manipulation, it seems increasingly clear—at least to me—that Donald Trump is serving Vladimir Putin’s interests, not America’s.
You may like my stack: JosephZeigler.substack.com
Trauma.
They want to ruin peoples trust in one another, by traumatizing them into behaving like male hierarchical violent chimps. (Clans, like crime gangs, Russia, Renaissance Princes, warlords etc. Strong man culture.)
Traumatized people do not dare to hope or improve stuff.
Stephen Miller says it himself - he wants the ambitious civil servants traumatized.
Untraumatized, we are far more like friendly cooperative bonobos. And far more intelligent. At least togerher. So we CANNOT let them traumarize us one by one! We must learn to (self)-organize, everyone! <3
Destruction, Bannon told us years ago.
I have become convinced that the Black Lives Matter freaked the ruling class out more than
anyone has recognized. They are terrified of a serious uprising and the response is to exclude minorities from public life by resegregating society while keeping the middle class sick, hungry, and dependent on not opposing the government to maintain any shred of a viable life.
Criminalizing black judges and elected officials is one aspect of this. Forcing lockdowns, or squeezing the public sphere, by denying vaccines may be another. The goal would be to prevent the emergence of a leadership class while preventing mass movements.
This may sound like the plot of a dystopian novel, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. We are confronting people who have studied the conditions for successful social change and gamed out ways to make it impossible.
Welcome to 1930s Germany.
Before Trump again entered our Oval Office, he announced the "shock and awe" approach his mis-administration would employ as their overall approach. This is quite an apt description of what has been happening, and cruelty is just one critical part of the whole. Cruelty in addition to "move fast and break things" speed, disregard for "law and order" and "due process," constant lies and obfuscation, delay tactics in court, and a flood of other disrespectful behaviors.
It is all directed towards facilitating their primary goals of re-configuring our government, economic system and society in ways that enable them to accumulate more material wealth and power.
They are using all of their shock and awe techniques to limit the ability of "others" to get in their way. They want to knock possible opposition off center, render them destabilized and ungrounded, make people feel intimidated, overwhelmed, confused and powerless, foment frustration and apathy.
And they can do all of this because they are totally lacking in heart-quality. They have no empathy, no compassion, no care or kindness, no respect, no morals, no inherent values, no Love. They don't even love themselves, let alone each other or anyone else. They are all opportunists working together to take advantage of others and even each other. They are like a den of thieves where no one can be trusted, yet each is tolerated and appreciated for their contributions to the overall effort, but only for so long as they serve their purpose without stepping out of line.
Lacking heart-quality, they are limited to only being able to play mind-games. And a mind can choose to believe in anything that it finds attractive and decides is valuable. A mind can then also choose to do anything it needs to in order to protect itself and get more of what it is attracted to, like wealth and power.
All of their values are arbitrary and artificial, as are the values of material things and of power that depends upon such things. They value themselves only in such terms. This means they have a desperate and endless need to acquire more wealth and power to establish and maintain their own sense of self-worth, to establish themselves as "winners" in a zero-sum rat race. They never attain "enough" of anything because there is always more they feel they could attain in order to get ahead in their unrealistic game of dominance over all and everything.
Meanwhile, people with some inherent sense of heart-quality – people with empathy, compassion, care, kindness, respect, morals, Love – see everything the heartless ones are doing as being cruel. And our heart-quality makes it difficult to see any justification for the cruelty that is being perpetrated on everyone because it is so foreign, so contrary to our world view, our sense of values.
Send them all HOME, come in the right way , No hearing.
On the way in no hearing on the way out
I agree with everything you wrote but am becoming very frustrated that those who chronicle this adminisration's atrocities never have any recommendations for how to stop them or even slow the pace. I believe we need to unite working-class Americans around the idea that our enemy here Isn't Trump. He is only a TOTR (Tool Of The Rich). Our is the uber-rich who sponsored Project 2025, who put Trump in office and who now stand to reap a windfall in the billions at our expense. Is anyone assembling such a resistance movement? If so, how can I join? If not, how can we start one? I have a long list of things that should be done immediately and would love to put contribute to any group to make it happen.
That’s exactly their playbook. We must not lose focus, nor allow ourselves to be drained by this constant f-ery.
There is a subset of American culture more prevalent in the South and the Appalachians that still adheres to old-world "honor culture." In that cultural context, any slight or dishonor must be met with violence to expunge the stain. If the slighted individual does not do this, they lose all standing among their peers and can expect further and increasing disrespect. Strength is the only virtue, and weakness is to be despised.
Compassion, sentiment, and even honesty are perceived as weakness and are also to be despised. Donald Trump's cruelty is thus equated with strength among this subculture. "Owning the libs" is part of it too.
Thank you for making this article public. Your analysis is helpful in understanding what is happening in our country.
I'm planning with my friends to be at the Colorado State Capital in Denver on June 14th for the No Kings rally. 8647!!!