If one correctly understands the large role that spectacle and distraction play in the Age of Trump, then its full horror and ugliness are easily demystified and revealed. Unfortunately, too many Americans, especially those in the mainstream news media and the responsible political class, refuse to do so. Why? It is very frightening to wake up one day and realize that you are a stranger in your own country.

Billionaires Donald Trump and Elon Musk recently engaged in a major and highly publicized dispute. Its origins have been well-documented: ego, ambition, money and power.

The news media were predictably obsessed with this fight, labeling it a “divorce” and using other such dramatic language.

Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will take the harmful policies that have been inflicted on Americans who live in Republican-controlled parts of the country and make them national.

Applying the logic of professional wrestling and carny culture, I do not know (nor do I care) if the fight between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is a “work” (a pretend fight or some other scripted part of the business) or “a shoot” (a real fight) or something in between (“a work” that becomes “a shoot” and the audience is not exactly sure what is happening). We may never know the whole truth. 

What really matters is that this fight, be it real or not, is a distraction from Trump’s “big beautiful bill” and how it further guts the social safety net and gives trillions of more dollars to the richest individuals and corporations. It is critically important to emphasize how Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans’ gutting of the social safety net, and further immiseration of the middle class and working poor to give even more money to the kleptocrats and plutocrats, is not separate and apart from the country’s rapid collapse into authoritarianism. These destructive forces gut and weaken democratic life. Moreover, such forces may bring a people closer to the authoritarian leader in an attempt to win favor as a protected group. Learned helplessness........

© Salon