And Now, We Argue Over Facts

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have at least one MAGA Facebook friend I keep around for various reasons, one of them being to keep tabs on what the current MAGA orthodoxy is. Well, it seems as though the narrative now when it comes to Charlie Kirk’s murderer is that he was a leftist and had a Trans partner.

While I’ve definitely heard those things suggested, I also know that a lot of evidence suggests that the murderer was a “groyper” (far Right) and that the “Trans” person involved not only could be just his roommate, there’s no definitive proof that he’s Trans at all.

But the MAGA Right has it’s “evidence” for what it wants to believe and so, lulz, here we are now, arguing over facts. And I really do fear that Trump is going to do something really weird and dumb because of what he *believes* is true, not what is actually going on.

As I keep saying — I have a vested interest in what happens with Trans people. They’re a firebreak for regular old kooks like me. Once ICE starts to round up Trans people and put them in camps…it doesn’t take much to see that kooks like me will soon join them.

And, as I keep saying, the MAGA Right is ascendant. They are growing in power while Blues continue to be rather blasé about the significance of this. And, again, if Trump was some sort of “great man of history” he would have already used the Kirk murder to send Enabling Acts to Congress to turn us into a full-on tyrannical state.

But Trump is such a lazy doofus that he just rides history and only rarely, like January 6th, actually directly influences it.

I Still Worry MAGA Is Going To Catch The Car When It Comes To Trans People

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a very serious vested interest when it comes to the macro safety of Trans people. I think of them as something of a political firebreak between myself and MAGA coming after, well, kooky people like me.

As it stands, MAGA seems to want to blame every fucking thing wrong with the entire world on Trans people. I am the first to admit that the center-Left has done itself no favors by being so touchy about “Trans rights.” But since Charlie Kirk’s murder, I have been feeling a whole lot more empathy for Trans people because of how fucked up MAGA is about them.

What is the goal of MAGA by demonizing Trans people? What’s the endgame? Is it just form follows function and fascists gotta have some group of people to have their 2 minutes of hate dedicated to? The absolute white hot hatred that MAGA has for the tiny sliver of America known as Trans people is just fucking bizarre, surreal.

But, here we are, with MAGA’s hatred for Trans people growing and growing and growing. At some point, ding-dong Trump is going to do something really dumb, which is thing, and THEN things grow dark. I could see him either declaring all Trans people terrorists or putting them in camps “for their own safety.”

Something dumb and ultimately ill-advised like that.

And THEN, gradually, all kooks — including me — will be rounded up by ICE and thrown into the campus with the Trans people and then they put us gas chambers or shoot us in the back of the head.

I really need to sell a novel so I can escape America. Sigh.

Fascism All The Way Down

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The tragic murder of Charlie Kirk may, in future history, be seen as a significant bolt popping off the side of the U.S.S. USA. There will be a before and after and the after could be us heading towards significant, lingering political violence.

At the moment, MAGA is kind of crazed. They have been radicalized by Kirk’s death and the question is, will this radicalization subside or is it the new normal? at the moment, I just don’t know.

One thing I’m really worried about is Trans people. I worry about them because I know once MAGA gets what it wants — to put the poor people in camps and murder them in cold blood — it won’t be too long before MAGA’s attention will turn to regular old kooks like me.

And therein lies something of a historical conundrum.

How far can MAGA push before Blues wake up and fight back? This, I honestly don’t know. Blue leadership is so wane and feckless that it could be that the populace itself has to rise up and take care of matters should Trump go full tyrant. (Not that I’m advocating such a thing.)

The great irony is that, for the time being, we’re being saved by what a fucking lazy doofus Trump is. If Trump really was a Hitler-like character, he definitely would have used Charlie Kirk’s death to strike in a direct way by this point. But, Trump as I keep saying isn’t a “Great Man of History,” but rather simply a symptom of some fucked up macro historical shit going on in the United States at the moment.

I mean, if you think back to 2016, the people who voted for Trump WANTED an autocrat. They wanted him to turn the United States into Russia. That was the whole point! But here we are, in Trump’s second term, and he continues to consolidate power in only dribs and drabs.

Not that Trump hasn’t pretty much ruined the United States for generations to come. He has. He’s like a macro-historical vandal. It will take a generation of things working out just right for us to recover from just these first few months of Trump’s second term.

By the time Trump’s term is over, the USA will probably be unrecognizable. And it’s only going to get worse. I suspect the plan is to turn ICE into the SS and the FBI into the Gestapo. I’m kind of waiting for mission creep to take over ICE and their powers grow significantly. Maybe that will be one of the last signposts before we go full Russia — that something will happen whereby ICE is given significantly more authority to crack skulls than it has now.

Anyway, we’re all fucked. Good luck. You’ll need it.

I Continue To Be Amazed That The Politically Ascendant MAGA Agitates For Civil War

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Of all the completely nonsensical political ideas floating around at the moment, the idea that there would be a civil war started by MAGA has got to be up there. I understand and validate their rage and anger at the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Ok, I get it, your mad and hurt.

But to work yourself up into such a lather that you want to fuck up your political ascendancy by turning to political violence in the form of a civil war makes no sense whatsoever. All MAGA has to do is just cool their heels for a few years and they will get everything they want through politics — and then some.

Talk about a political circle jerk! I can’t even fathom the logic of anyone on the MAGA Right who wants a civil war. What it really sounds like is MAGA doesn’t really want a civil war, they just want an excuse to murder people like me in cold blood and not risk any consequences.

The whole idea of a MAGA – induced civil war just makes no sense! None. Zip. Nada. It seems like in their pain and anger over what happened to Charlie Kirk, they grasp at the worse possible thing they can think of doing and that turns out to be a civil war. The whole thing seems ill conceived.

Meanwhile, the it’s the center-Left that we have to worry about long-term when it comes to a civil war or revolution. If, say, Trump really tries to fuck with the 2026 and or 2028 elections in a really ham-handed manner, in a way that just can’t be spun…then, we got ourselves a problem.

Add to this the astonishing income inequality found in the American socio-economic system and holy shit are we primed and ready for a traditional center-Left revolution.

I generally find MAGA to be crybaby wussies who are all talk, so I think once they calm down a little bit they may grumbled about murdering people like me but hopefully — hopefully — they won’t get around to doing it.

Stephen Colbert Should Probably Run For President, But He Probably Won’t

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The center-Left needs its Trump and I think Stephen Colbert would be perfect to be such a figure. I would prefer if he would, say, run for governor or Senator in an South Carolina election, but, lulz, he just wouldn’t win in a post-Charlie Kirk murder era.

Stephen Colbert

But I do find myself, occasionally daydreaming about Colbert being president. I can’t promise you he could get anything done, given how fucked up our politics are at the moment. Yet, it would be nice to have a president that the majority of the nation wasn’t embarrassed by.

Anyway, we’re all fucking doomed. MAGA — despite being politically ascendant — has civil war on the brain and they will do everything in their power to ensure that neither the 2026 nor 2028 election is free and fair. And it will be all down hill from there, I’m afraid.

You Just Can’t Please Anyone

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Usually, the two media bubbles rarely come into direct contact. MAGA has their safe space and Blues have theirs. But, occasionally, because of events like the Charlie Kirk murder, the two media bubbles do overlap some.

And that’s when we get to directly yell at each other, usually fighting over the facts or just talking past each other in general.

This happened to me recently when some MAGA cocksucker looked at my Twitter account and said nasty things about me simply retweeting a lot of photos of beautiful women. What can I say, I love women and the female form.

We all know that if it wasn’t that, it would have been something else. If I didn’t have retweeted photos of beautiful women, they probably would have accused me of being Trans or some shit.

But all of this does get me thinking about my social media presence as I work my way towards writing a novel that is query worthy. Maybe those MAGA cocksuckers have a point — maybe I should lay off on the beautiful women. I don’t want to alarm skittish the liberal white women that make up the majority of literary agents (at least in my imagination.)

We’ll see. I always talk like this, then something happens and I think to myself, “Wait, why am I not retweeting imagines of beautiful women again?” then do it again.

The Cancel Culture Is Coming From The MAGA Right…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Wouldn’t you know it, because history loves irony, the MAGA Right is doing exactly what it has so worried about happening to itself — it’s trying to “cancel” anyone who doesn’t follow the party orthodoxy about MAGA martyr Charlie Kirk.

Now, this is of note to me for several different reasons. One, I have direct people in my life who are MAGA in no small part to their personal fear of being “canceled” by the woke cancel culture mob. So…lulz?

Also, we all know how this is going to play out. The infrastructure built to go after people “celebrating” Charlie Kirk’s murder will inevitably drift into a way to come after well, people like me.

People that fucking hate MAGA and aren’t afraid to say so. So, yeah, now the site may be devoted to people with the ill advised decision to celebrate Charlie Kirk’s murder, but, soon enough, anyone that MAGA doesn’t like for any reason could find themselves on those rolls.

And then, well, form follows function, we find ourselves in a camp. Ta-da!

An Idle Comparison Between Hitler and Trump

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve gone back to reading about Hitler in an effort to get more context about the modern world of Trump and MAGA. From what I can tell, one key difference between Trump and Hitler is the latter had military experience and always saw himself in that context.

Also, I think, all things considered, Hitler was smarter and far more a “Great Man of History” than Trump. Ding-dong Trump, in other words, is just a symptom of what’s going on. He rides history, he doesn’t direct it.

Two things of note at this point.

One, I could totally see a situation where Trump creates an environment whereby some really horrible things happen. Think of how the King of Cambodia let the Khmer Rouge do some horrific things…just by doing nothing. (If I have my history correct.)

The same thing with Trump. I could see Trump simply letting the country collapse into revolution and / or civil war just by…doing nothing.

The second point is — we still don’t know who Trump’s successor will be. At the moment, my bet is it could be someone like Eric Trump, who is so loyal to his father that he could serve as his proxy. Daddy Trump would really be running the country and Eric would just sit around and let him.

But if it’s someone younger and more focused than Trump who takes power after ding-dong Trump, then…THEN things could lurch forward into something astonishingly bad.

Remember, the USA is about 335 million people. If we collapsed into civil war or revolution, holy shit would a lot of people die! So many people. There would probably be a race war in the South. And WMD would be used by both sides as it became clear neither side would get a quick and easy victory.

Any comparison of Trump and Hitler, of course, has to address the issue of the Jews. While, to his credit, Trump doesn’t hate Jews — his daughter is one — he sure does hate Transgendered people. So, form follows function and….some very dark things could happen.

And, don’t forget that Hitler pretty much wanted to take over the world, while Trump wants to “bring the boys home” and let China and Russia tend to things. So, as such, I could see….maybe some sort of Axis of Autocracy be formed by the USA, Russia, Hungary and Turkey? Maybe. It’s possible.

‘Endgame Enigma:’ Contemplating The United States’ Political Future

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We seem to be moving towards a dark future, but I can’t quite figure out what exactly that dark future is. If this was any other nation, I would say this is when Trump and MAGA begin to aggressively consolidate power and turn us into something akin to a Nazi state.

But there are a lot of complications.

The US is decentralized. It has a long tradition of democracy. And it’s really diverse both ethnically and politically.

So. I don’t know. It’s tough to figure out what the ultimate endgame of all of this bullshit is. Maybe this is just the beginning of a broader process of consolidation in the sense that more has to happen.

And, remember, MAGA could get everything it wanted — and more — if it just cooled its heels. The general macro trends in the United States are moving towards fascism and tyranny. So, if MAGA would just keep their heads about them, they could probably by around 2032 get the white, theocratic ethnostate that they seem to want so bad.

But. And this is a huge but, that’s not what seems to be going on. Trump is and always has been just a symptom of broader problems in the American political system so it could be that he will feel emboldened by the Charlie Kirk murder and really get aggressive with fucking with the 2026 and 2028 elections.

If he does so, he could be playing with fire. That’s when it could be that it will be Blues, not Reds who revolt in a big, meaningful way. It’s kind of comical — given the context of MAGA’s continued political ascent. MAGA has no reason to start a civil war when our politics are so fucked up that they can get their tyranny and autocratic state….through politics!

Anyway, I’m really worried. It just seems possible that there might be some sort of civil war or revolution and the United States will bomb itself into oblivion of its own volution. There will be a World War III, a few billion people will die from a few limited, strategic nuclear exchanges here and there and….if we’re lucky humanity will unite and work on big picture problems like global climate change.

Of course, lulz, if the technological Singularity happens around 2027, then, oh boy, all bets are off one way or another.

Charlie Kirk As MAGA’s Horst Wessel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really do think that MAGA is American Nazism, even if it is an ideology not of expansion but of retrenchment. For the time being, I still have a First Amendment right to make such a comparison.

Horst Wessel

And I’m definitely not joking about or celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. His job was to do professionally what I do on this blog — give my political opinion.

But I’m talking about the “same, same, but different” dynamics of MAGAism and Nazism. The two are, in some ways, very similar. Very similar. Yes, in some ways they’re different — MAGA doesn’t want to take over the world — but in some ways they’re very similar: they both are going after the weakest elements of society in the name of the Leader.

So, back in the day, this guy named Horst Wessel died and he became THE Nazi martyr. And it doesn’t take a genius to see that Charlie Kirk is going to become something similar to MAGA. The psychological and emotional needs for both groups to have a martyr — regardless of the truth of the person’s murder — is eerily similar.

Anyway, the point is — things are going to get a lot worse now. Kirk is going to become a touchstone for MAGA going forward that is used to justify some pretty horrible things. I could see them figuring out a way to round up Trans people and put them in camps “for their own good.”

And then, presto, MAGA will expand the dragnet to regular old kooks like me and the next thing you know an ICE agent is shooting me in the back of the head in the name of Charlie Kirk. It really could happen, folks.

It’s happened before.