How did we get here?

Dear Palmer Report readers: it's Bill Palmer. I'm as sick of Trump as you are. I'm expanding Palmer Report's operations so we can lead the fight against Trump. Click here to donate $25 or $50.

It is so preposterous no one would have believed it possible ten years ago. No one even contemplated the possibility. The United States of America has become a place where Republicans embrace Russia, turn their backs on traditional allies, revile or ignore the Constitution, openly support violent insurrectionists who attack police officers and vandalize the Capitol. They are publicly prepared to dismantle the 250 year old American democracy for the sake of one man.

How in the world did we get here? Is this who we are fundamentally or did we change? If we changed, what changed us? Why are many citizens of other countries careering toward the precipice of fascism like a runaway express train?

Many fancy theories have been advanced to explain what was unique about the people of Nazi Germany to bring them to the point where they willingly embraced Hitler. Those theories need to be scrapped, or at least revised. The willingness to embrace a fascist strongman isnโ€™t unique to Germany of the 1930s, it appears to be ubiquitous.

I also believe we are seized by a confluence of powerful forces that are unique to the times and are changing many of us. One such powerful force is social media. Apparently legitimate news sources that look sophisticated, thanks to editing software thatโ€™s cheap and easy to use, have a decisive effect. Memes are too often immediately believed without fact-checking. Conspiracy theories that are advanced without a scrap of evidence are given instant credibility they donโ€™t deserve.

Moreover, many Americans (and other citizens of the world) are becoming dopamine addicts without even knowing what dopamine is. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter released in the body when we scroll social media. Itโ€™s sometimes called the “feel-good” hormone because it can cause feelings of pleasure and motivation. Here in England itโ€™s rare to see a young woman pushing a pram with one hand without her phone in the other, transfixed like a glassy-eyed dopamine junkie.

Also, we seem to be unwittingly corralling ourselves into a tunnel of terrifying uniformity. When I was a child I could look at a car and instantly tell you what year it was built. Today I canโ€™t tell you what decade itโ€™s from. Architecture, art, clothing styles, music, cars, everything is almost indistinguishable from everything else. I can no longer look at a post-80s photograph and easily tell you when it was taken.

Society feels as though itโ€™s in decline. In the movie โ€œMy Dinner with Andre,โ€ Andre Gregory says he thinks the 1960s were โ€œthe last burst of the human being before he was extinguished.โ€ I think he got that right, it just took an extra twenty years.

I donโ€™t think the Trump phenomenon would have been possible thirty years ago, in the pre-social media days. I think enough of us had to lose our souls first. And some of us have. Like Dr Strangelove, the impulse to shout โ€œSieg heilโ€ and give the Nazi salute is almost a neurological imperative for some. Just ask Elon Musk. A certain kind of person loves the idea of a punishing, strongman dictator, and Trump fills that role for many.

As Trump becomes more powerful, comparisons between Trump and Hitler will become more and more common and acceptable. Itโ€™s not so much because they are inherently similar. Trump and Hitler had wildly different backgrounds and influences. Itโ€™s because the fascist playbook is always the same. Hypnotise, vilify, consolidate power. Trump has somehow hypnotised millions of Americans into believing in him, he directed their hatred toward minorities and immigrants and he is pressuring Congress to cede him more power. Other dictators employed this method. Hitler is just the most well known. Will Americans one day be compelled to greet each other and answer the phone with โ€œHail Trumpโ€?

History is full of laments that we could have stopped Hitler but didnโ€™t. As is true today, back then cowardice was more common than courage. Much of the legacy media, Democrats in Congress and other prominent people are responding tepidly to the MAGA toad-god. Itโ€™s because they fear him. We must not be like them. Never forget that we donโ€™t want history to look back on us and condemn us as appeasers of this tyrant.

Dear Palmer Report readers: it's Bill Palmer. I'm as sick of Trump as you are. I'm expanding Palmer Report's operations so we can lead the fight against Trump. Click here to donate $25 or $50.