Election Aftermath

Well... F-bomb.

This election really did not pan out the way I hoped. Not only did Kamala Harris lose in the Electoral College, but she also lost the Popular Vote. It looks like we're going to have a peaceful transfer of power, but that's not much of a consolation.

For the record: I actually shelved the original version of my previous post because it focused too much on the underlying causes rather than the outcomes. So, with that in mind, here's what the main sections of the previous post originally stated:

What Happens if Trump Wins?

Basically: this country is completely fucked if Trump wins.

Trump completely wrecked our government the last time he was president. His attempted insurrection nearly succeeded, but fortunately it was thwarted by a handful of Republicans who refused to join his coup. Those Republicans are gone now, and there is nobody left in the party with the spine to stand up against an authoritarian.

That's bad enough already, but unfortunately the situation is far more dire than that.

I'm not going to sugar-coat this: the MAGA movement has induced schizophrenia in a large portion of the population. These people have been gaslit continually for nearly a decade now, and they have completely dissociated from reality. They believe that immigrants are eating dogs, and FEMA is stealing homes from hurricane victims, and all taxes are theft, and schools are performing sex-change operations on students, and hospitals are conducting post-birth abortions, and much much more.

These are not "political views". You cannot have "political discourse" with somebody who believes that windmills cause cancer, or that millions of illegal immigrants are somehow casting fraudulent ballots in every election. Political discourse needs to be grounded in reality.

Beliefs such as these are absolutely delusional, and they will devastate the sound judgment of anyone who holds them. Far-right conspiracies convinced Edgar Maddison Welch that Hillary Clinton was running a sex-trafficking ring from the basement of Comet Pizza; so, he decided to investigate the matter with the help of his AR-15. Does that seem like "sound judgement" to you?

If we want to have legitimate political discourse, then we need to help these people navigate out of their thicket of delusions. Instead, Trump is doing exactly the opposite. He continues to take advantage of the afflicted by feeding them more lies and more delusions.

Trump is the Pied Piper of Schizophrenia.

The more he fucks up the government, the more he'll rant and rave about the "Deep State" and "The Enemy Within". It's all a HOAX! It's all a conspiracy to make HIM and the MAGA MOVEMENT look bad! He'll demand that everyone and everything that stands in his way be destroyed, and his schizophrenic mob will gleefully dance with their torches as they set everything ablaze.

The madness won't stop until everything has burnt to the ground.

Even then, the madness won't truly be gone. Just like in the aftermath of January 6th, Trump's supporters will gaslight themselves into believing that they are blameless. They were just traditional Republicans, and not part of that crazed MAGA movement! Or, maybe it was all somehow ANTIFA's fault. The specific details of their contrivances don't matter, as long as they can find some way to comfortably dissociate from their guilt.

It's a lot easier to live in a delusion than to accept responsibility for your actions.

What Happens if Harris Wins?

Harris's victory is not going to cause Trump's afflicted supporters to snap back to reality. In fact, their affliction will get significantly worse before it gets better.

If Trump loses the presidential race, then he will almost certainly face several prison sentences. As a last-ditch effort to avoid accountability for his crimes, Trump will drastically intensify his psychological abuse towards his followers, thus inciting them to violence.

This violence will not be coordinated like the January 6th Insurrection. Instead, it will be frantic and disperse. The schizophrenic mob will assault election workers. They'll attack criminal justice officials. They'll lash out at anyone and everyone who Trump condemns as "The Enemy Within".

Thankfully, our government won't be headed by the Mad King this time. As such, the insurgencies will be subdued quickly and with minimal loss of life.

But, what will happen after that?

Unfortunately, things are not going to get better until we acknowledge the reality of the situation. MAGA was never a political movement. MAGA was a malady that arose because the Republican party chose to weaponize psychological abuse against its own constituents. It fed them lies and delusions until they dissociated from reality and began battling fictitious monsters such as "post-birth abortions". The party could then manipulate them by manufacturing new delusions to redirect their mania at any target. In fact, the party didn't even need to manufacture these delusions on its own. It could simply draw attention to delusional posts that were already floating around on social media.

• Is Biden winning the election? PEOPLE ARE SAYING THAT THE MACHINES ARE CHANGING THE VOTES!
• Is Biden's rollout of the COVID vaccine going too smoothly? PEOPLE ARE SAYING THAT THE VACCINE HAS A HIGHER DEATH RATE THAN COVID ITSELF!
• Did the FDIC prevent collateral damage after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank? PEOPLE ARE SAYING THAT THE FDIC IS LYING, AND ALL OF THE BANKS ARE COLLAPSING, AND YOU NEED TO WITHDRAW ALL OF YOUR ASSETS IMMEDIATELY OR YOU'LL LOSE EVERYTHING!

People are saying... People are saying... People are saying...

With these words, the Republican Party spreads delusional content without taking any responsibility for it. They watch as the afflicted share the content with their friends and family. The delusions spread like wildfire, and the afflicted frantically lash out at the party's desired targets. The chaos instills more confusion, which then becomes the fuel for new delusions. It is the perfect manipulative engine.

Trump rose to prominence because he was especially talented at concocting, curating, and broadcasting delusions. Sadly, sending Trump to prison will not cure the afflicted. Another tormentor will step forward, and the psychological abuse will continue.

We can only end this nightmare by helping MAGA's victims navigate out of their continually-shifting thicket of delusions. This, of course, is much easier said than done. The victims currently believe that their tormentors are actually "saviors" who are guiding them out of the (manufactured) chaos. Consequently, they trust nobody except their tormentors, and their tormentors happily continue misleading them.

This gives us a couple of objectives:

1. Help the victims realize that their "saviors" are actually tormentors who are deceiving them.
2. Help the victims understand that the majority of the "chaos" is just horrific and manipulative delusions that their tormentors concocted.

That's right. No hospitals are conducting post-birth abortions. No schools are forcing sex-change operations on your child. These are just cruel and harmful lies that Trump fabricated to manipulate you. His delusions overwhelmed you, and you were needlessly lashing out at innocuous targets.

Now that you've calmed down, let's have a civil and political discussion about how to improve internet availability in rural areas. Would it be better to build fiber-optic networks or 5G towers? No, Donald! The 5G towers are not causing people to get COVID! Stop amplifying those delusions! We know that you're just trying to benefit your own investment portfolio!