Sowers: How alternate reality works
Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
Exactly 312 of the total 538 electoral votes went to Donald Trump (226 to Vice President Kamala Harris), which will put him into the White House in January 2025. While this will make him and his voters feel a lot of “warm and fuzzy,” the actual popular vote was closer: 49.9% to Trump and 48.2% to Harris (source: recent Axios newsletter). So, in reality, his lead was really very small.
The most puzzling aspect of Trump’s presence in our politics is how his fans did not, and still do not, identify his many bad qualities, business failures, corrupt practices and cheap schemes, like Bibles printed in China for $3 each and sold here for $60 each. There’s also his bad legal track record and — above all — the attempted overthrow of an election, as well as his bad economic plans for his second term as president.
In a recent Daily State News letter, I gave four examples from factual economic history to show that Trump’s future plans for our economy are bad (“Will we get ‘economic collapse’ or ‘golden age’?” ). A fifth example is “in progress” right now in Argentina. It is headed by a Trump-like president (Javier Milei), who is driven by Trump-like right-wing dogma. Recent problems in the U.S. economy are nothing compared to those in Argentina. But, to correct this, Milei shut down (according to one article) over half the government and imposed immediate massive cuts in government spending, which, predictably, pushed the country into recession, growing unemployment, poverty and destitution. Critics estimate that he will only be partly successful. And there will be lasting damage (see cato.org/blog/economist-gets-it-wrong-dollarization-argentina). Trump is expected to soon start a cycle that Argentina is well into. So, to see how much damage Milei’s plans have achieved up to now, you can visit the English-language, open-access Buenos Aires Times website and read for yourself (batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/extreme-poverty-soars-to-affect-six-million-in-argentina-study-shows.phtml).
For an unusually good, present-day analysis of how Milei bamboozled the people in Argentina into stupidly voting for him, please visit this very well-written and free-access article: batimes.com.ar/news/opinion-and-analysis/javier-mileis-obsession-with-sub-aquatic-flatulence.phtml. However, if you want to cut to the chase and bring the context back from Argentina to the parallel situation here in the USA, just look at the two following letters in the State News. George Roof wrote a masterful fairy tale story about how Trump was really not convicted of a felony in a recent court case (“Diplomatic voting process isn’t shameful”). Instead, Roof’s story was a lot of hocus-pocus weaseling around and squirming around about what words and sentences mean. Or maybe he was playing amateur lawyer, with fairy tale legal theories that allow him (just like in Trump’s classified-documents case) to “just think it” into truth. But all this did not fool Steve Caporiccio (“According to definition, Trump is indeed ‘convicted’”). Steve’s letter masterfully tore Roof to shreds. Of course, the jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts, and the judge pounded his gavel. Guilty verdict accepted by the judge. Therefore: felon.
This is the “secret” of Trump: It is all about being theatrical. It has nothing to do with reality or truth or competence. It is about pounding on the table if you cannot pound on the facts. And he just pounds on the table, anyway, because that needs less work than doing any homework or real thinking. Trump just uses lightning and thunder. He mixes that with being “the biggest noise on the block.” It always gets an earthquake and that gets more attention. It is seen as the “strength and forcefulness” that some people think are the only qualities you need for leadership. Just don’t ask what that “strength and forcefulness” will be used for. But you have to think more deeply and more critically, and detect reality as being real and separate from fairy tales that are fantasy. So, Trump is like a movie with a happy ending or a boxing match where the last guy standing wins. The object of the movie is not whether it is true; rather, it is the “show” and the happy ending. Is a Taylor Swift concert true or false? It is an irrelevant question because the proper question is: Did you enjoy it or not? Was there anything in the boxing match that was “true” or “false”? No, the question would be: Who was going to win in the end? No deep thought processes are needed to watch two guys repeatedly punch each other till one drops. You don’t need to read anything. You don’t need to know any history. You watch and are entertained. And Trump’s “boxing” is really lying as usual, name calling, grifting, insinuating, insulting, etc. So, he has just “lifted” his “show” out of the real world — where truth and falsehood, cause and effect, knowledge and wisdom are important for getting something done — and put it into the fantasy world — where all you do is count the total number of punches and call it entertainment, “angertainment” or retribution. These actions give you happy endings that leave you with warm, fuzzy feelings that might last for a short time but are, in the end, ineffective. See? Alternate reality is just something you make up out of thin air.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
