As I wake up to yet another grey, damp day, I took my usual browse through the depressing detritus of random posts from around the world. At one time, these channels were full of humour, casual observations of our daily lives, ordinary peoples take on the life they lead, and events that pass them by. Those innocent days have now long gone, with the continued weaponization of social media by those who know how to manipulate thoughts and emotions and build ‘movements’ that have no other purpose but the acquisition of power and the elimination of those who oppose the growth of fascist dictatorship.
I have long argued against the continual lowering of intellectual standards, the dumbing down of a population by degrading education, and pushing against individuality. The removal of social interaction by pushing a lifestyle that revolves around people becoming prisoners in their homes, encouraged by TV programming that turns the thought process to mush, and causing the closure of the melting pot of humanity that public houses used to be. Those in power are very happy when they can isolate us in our little boxes, pushing out their propaganda vis TV or the internet. People who you do meet usually start a conversation by referring to a ‘popular’ TV program surrounding the worst aspects of human behaviour ( you know which ones) rather than the really important matters of the day such as the continued murder of people in the Middle East or the rise of Fascism on a global scale.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the USA, once a flagship of what could be achieved with freedom of thought and actions, and a well constructed democratic, modern state. However, this was just a veneer covering a populace that, once you got beneath the surface, was still rooted in a barbarism engendered in a fight for survival where instinct triumphed over logical thought. All it took was the dubious election of Donald Trump to allow that regression to more savage times to quickly reappear, driven by the epitome of all that is bad in modern life, appealing to those who think the world owes them for being failures, either intellectually, emotionally or career wise, in life. The following refers to the US situation but is also applicable to any European states where Fascism is rising.
There’s a comforting myth circulating in USA politics that what we’re witnessing is a patriotic uprising gone awry. That a once-noble movement was somehow corrupted. The truth is far less romantic — and far more damning.
America didn’t get hijacked by patriots. It got hijacked by failure — and by very smart, very cynical people who learned just how easy failure is to manipulate.
For decades, USA has quietly produced a large population of adults who never did the reading, never did the learning, never developed real skills, never matured emotionally, and never took responsibility for a single outcome in their lives. They drifted along the easiest paths available, avoided growth, avoided accountability, and then arrived at adulthood angry that the world refused to reorganize itself around their poor decisions.
They didn’t stumble once. They opted out — of effort, of curiosity, of self-reflection. And when life didn’t reward that choice, they decided the problem wasn’t them.
That’s where the grift began.
At some point, political strategists looked out across the landscape and saw something remarkable: a massive pool of angry, insecure underachievers desperate for absolution. People who would believe almost anything — as long as it told them they were blameless.
The pitch was simple:
*You’re not failing — you’re being wronged.*
*You’re not unprepared — you’re oppressed.*
*You’re not behind — you’re superior, and everyone else is cheating.*
Tell the failures they’re the “real Americans.”
Tell the losers that educated people secretly envy them.
Tell the ones who never succeeded that someone else stole their success.
Tell the people who never grew up that maturity itself is a scam — call it “woke.”
And just like that, a movement was born.
Not because these people were strong. But because someone figured out how to weaponize their weakness.
What emerged wasn’t an army of thinkers, builders, or leaders. It was an army of emotionally fragile adults — people addicted to comforting lies because the truth felt too threatening. An audience that didn’t want answers, only reassurance. Not progress, but validation. Not responsibility, but stories that made failure feel noble.
And the people at the top of this movement?
They don’t respect their followers.
They don’t admire them.
They don’t even like them.
They use them.
They understand the transaction perfectly. The followers don’t want solutions — solutions require effort. They want soothing. They want someone to say, “You’re perfect exactly as you are. None of this is your fault.”
So the grifters step in and offer villains instead: immigrants, teachers, books, scientists, cities, gay people, trans people — anyone but the person in the mirror.
And the lie goes down easy. It feels good. It’s simple. It asks nothing. For the first time, these people belong to a movement where doing the least, learning nothing, and resenting everyone is not only acceptable — it’s celebrated.
This movement isn’t powered by excellence. It’s powered by fragility. By grievance. By resentment. By people who spent their lives at the bottom of the class finally being handed a bedtime story where they’re the heroes instead of the ones who fell behind.
Behind closed doors, the architects of this chaos know exactly who they’re dealing with. They know that if you give failures an enemy to hate and a fantasy to cling to, they’ll hand you the keys to the country — and thank you for taking it.
America doesn’t have a patriot problem. America has a failure problem — and a ruling class that figured out how to turn that failure into a political ATM.
It would be tragic if it weren’t so predictable. (paraphrased from a post by Joan Blake)
And what is happening in the USA is being mirrored in the UK. You only have to look at what Reform and Farage are pumping out, and before them, UKIP and even the Tories to see how this cancer on our society has taken root and grown. We’re a few steps behind, but Farage is really the mini-Trump ready to step in to the obvious gap that strong leadership would prevent.
Don’t be fooled by their rhetoric. The references to pre-war Germany are real, we are on the same route again, and this time the losers will be ALL of humanity, if any of us actually survive.