Mental Anatomy of the MAGA Hat Powder Keg
How an inner script of victimization is used to justify political violence.
In the cycle of abuse, the victimizer commonly apologizes after an assault, using gifts and kind gestures to usher in a honeymoon phase of relative peace which becomes increasingly uneasy as tensions build towards the next inevitable incident. As stormclouds gather, those in the abuser’s circle walk on eggshells, anticipating the next outburst with dread, trying hard not to trigger it, fearful of escalation.
That’s how much of America feels post Trump. Tens of millions of citizens can no longer feel safe with the hostile aggression of their neighbours not only on full display, but clearly ratcheting upwards. It’s how the rest of the world primarily looks at America, watching its descent into violent fascism with fascinated horror. The country’s a ticking time bomb.
The violence only ever seems to abate momentarily, temporary peace ever more fragile and transient. Tensions never settle. The victimizer never apologizes any more. Instead they celebrate every trauma by upping the volume of death threats and violence incitement by public officials on Twitter to magnify it. January 6th was clearly just prelude. Puerto Rican separatists who invaded the capitol in 1954 faced 50–75 year sentences, but the…
