Wake Up, Worriers, You’re Being Played by Trump and the Media

Filed in National by on September 24, 2020

The media bombardment is neverending. Trump is going to steal the election. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Rachel Maddow intoned last night, “What will you do for your country when it needs you?” It’s time to defend American democracy, she said. She offered exactly zero ideas for what actual people should actually do.

A headline at Slate: “I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy.” And that worry translates into what action? None, really. Because the fate of American democracy — as if it still existed in the first place — does not lie in our hands.

You are being played, people. Left-leaning media is full of these stories because they are preying on your anxiety to rack up clicks.

Yes, Trump and the Republicans will try to steal the election. So what? There’s not much, if anything, you can do about it. Worrying about it accomplishes nothing beyond demoralizing you — which is precisely Trump’s goal.

Bullies don’t do their work by beating you up. They do it by making you fear getting beaten up. Trump’s blustering and bullshit are reaching a crescendo because, as I said somewhere in a comment, he can’t win a fair election, and he can’t win even an unfair election if Republicans only use their tried-and-true voter suppression tactics. What you hear are the flailing last words of a criminal — “You’ll never get me, coppers!”

If all this worrying affected only its sufferers, it would be bad enough. But by spreading their anxiety all over social media, liberals are basically doing Trump’s work for him.

If you’re worried about civil war, the only question is whether you intend to fight in it. If you do, make whatever preparations you deem necessary.

Otherwise, just knock it off. If you’re that anxious, buy yourself a binky, but stop demoralizing your own side with your premonitions of doom. It does no good, and it does actual harm.

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  1. Jim C says:

    Right on, Alby.

  2. ben says:

    Everyone deals with the collapse of their civilization differently.
    for you, clearly, living in the present is the way.
    For others, the thought that people arent taking the threat seriously is FAR more terrifying than the threat itself.
    In 2016, complacency was the enemy. At least dems and their progressive punching bags dont seem to be making that mistake.

    As Roger Waters asked “What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real?”
    You get a civil war and “patriotic re education camps”

    • Alby says:

      Who are these people that you believe aren’t taking the threat seriously?

      What is the difference in daily life between taking the threat seriously and not doing so?

      If you’re taking advice from notorious misanthropic asshole Roger Waters, you’re beyond my ability to help you.

      Scaring you is Trump’s goal. Don’t fall for it.

    • Bo Jiden says:

      Maybe we’ve never had a civilization and Trumpism is just a product of all that came before?

  3. Alby says:

    David Axelrod:

    “You do wonder if the POTUS would sooner have us talking about his outrageous comments on the election than the 202,000 dead of COVID-19 or the 870,000 additional Americans who filed for unemployment this week.”

    Four years on, the media — and a lot of Democrats — are still falling for it.

    You’ll notice that this has worked with the media, which is no longer putting his pandemic fuck-ups on the front pages.