Trumpism as MLM

Trumpism is basically like a multilevel marketing scheme (MLM) where the core product is propaganda targeted at angry white boomers.

Joining involves a “...buy the dream...” sort of gullible acceptance of a twisted prosperity gospel.

Ascending to higher levels in the scheme involves trading more and more gullibility for greed. The increasing greed motivates movement up the pyramid for those who buy in, as their gullibility allows them to buy deeper into the dream that they can profit from accepting the alternate reality.

The highest levels of the pyramid include Fox News anchors, Republican Senators, and White House staff. They know the narrative is bullshit, but it looks and feels like regular old salesmanship. Always be closing.

 

They believe they will win when all the other chumps lose, so they flick their shrunken and neglected angel off one shoulder and read the scripts, sing the songs, dance the dances, play the games, stay on message, certain in their belief that it will get them rich quicker. This belief is the last vestige of gullibility they haven't traded for greed, and their attachment to it blinds them to the fact that #unpopularTrump wouldn't hesitate for a moment to throw them under the bus to save his own ass.

This is no 8Kun “conspiracy theory“; it’s based on common human failings and what is happening in plain sight. No cloak-and-dagger alien lizards required for this explanation.

The real problem is not simply that all these people have been so misled, but that that all these people have allowed themselves to be so misled.

This will happen again and again if we don't develop skepticism and critical thinking as cultural values.