I Order You to Be Happy
There is More Than One "Establishment" Now.
Victory has never tasted so sour.
Many of those who two weeks were “all-in” on “vote Trump or it the end of the world” have as the saying goes, “black-pilled”, or gone gloomy, defeatist, and downright downbeat upon his victory.
“How could he have won?” they ask. “Of course because they wanted him to win. Because he sold out to the defense department, to the Israel lobby, to the Deep State. Trump has been a psy-op all along. He and Musk are Masonic agents subverting conservatism and the pro-life agenda. He’s here to trick us into flag-waving march into World War III against China and Iran.”
And so on.
They do have a point. Trump’s 2024 victory was a little surprising, and I have harbored some fears that things are just a little too good to be true out there right now.
But are we being too pessimistic? Can we ever allow ourselves a victory without immediately being suspicious of it? Caution is great, and I believe some of the most sanguine Trumpsters could use a little more of it.
But holding the opposite view, having continuous despair and suspicion will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Trump and his allies are starved of positive support, of the trust of their own supporters, it will be that much harder for him to fulfill his agenda, thereby seemingly proving the pessimistic point that Trump was a plant, an op, a farce, or anything of that nature.
Such knee-jerk pessimism, I believe, while deadly to success, is mostly unconsciously chosen, spread mimetically from the in-grown attitude of many popular conservative/libertarian figures who don’t know how to be anything else than persecuted dissidents and opposition. Trump on the ascent doesn’t fit with their worldview or personal identity, so rather than adjusting their assumptions, the facts of the world are adjusted subconsciously to fit the root assumptions.
Some of these figures are hilarious, like James Lindsay’s concerns that Trump posting a picture of St. Michael the Archangel was really a secret message encouraging a gnostic Rosecrucian cult. Others, like many here on Substack, bring up many points that do illustrate valid concerns about Trump’s cabinet picks, for example, but illustrate little happiness or ability to accept the overall picture, that Trump’s victory, at the very least, as Mark Bisone of The Cat Was Never Found recently argued, at least gives us a Pascal’s Wager-esque chance, whereas we sure know where we’d be headed under Kamala:
And yes, I again do believe those who fear that Trump at the very least has too many establishment connections have a point.
It’s very clear that Trump had more support from the rich, powerful, and well-connected this year as opposed to four, or eight years ago.
It’s clear that Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, David Sacks, Peter Thiel, and the like had a big impact in helping Trump get elected, and are currently heavily influencing his cabinet picks, and will influence his policies and administration. And I don’t think this influence is entirely good. I’m not particularly enthused by IVF, I’m not sold on Neuralink, cool as it sounds, and I sure would prefer that we don’t keep spending all our money to blow up the Middle East, all things supported by some of these big-name Trump supporters (and now advisors).
But when we speak of “Trump is part of the establishment”, I think we should at least be clear on what we mean by “establishment.”
There may have been a singular block-like establishment in 2016, and we sure felt its sting in 2020, so it was likely pretty united back then too. But there’s no reason to assume that it’s the same way in 2024.
Yes, Musk, Ackman, Thiel, and Sacks as much as Trump himself in the past have been part of “the establishment”, have had ties to the World Economic Forum, the Defense Department “deep state”, the UN, Davos, etc., etc. And perhaps they still do have ties to these acronymed organizations of evil.
But flawed, even perhaps to some degree evil as these men may be, they are not necessarily part of this supposed omnipotent and omnimalevolent “establishment.” In fact, over time, any gang, mob, corrupt syndicate, etc. that is founded on anything under virtue is bound to form rival factions, is bound to see dissidents, is bound to see opportunists, all of which, breaking off from the supposed all-powerful unity of evil, go off in their own directions and pursue their own ends. And with factions amongst evil, sometimes they’re willing to adjust a little, and even support you if it takes down their new enemies, or that is, their old friends. Let’s now worship the establishment as some sort of evil god or demiurge that is all-powerful. No human institution, no matter how massive and evil is all-powerful, and will last forever.
The first step to breaking the spell of fear that suggests that we must reverence such evil with infinite fear is denying it in our minds, not allowing ourselves to be paralyzed to inaction by excessive fear, worries that our supporting alternatives to the evil establishment is a bad thing, or anything of that sort. Believe that they can be defeated and leave everything else as reasoned realistic responses to the exigencies of each moment, not to our theories about an imaginary all-powerful and malevolent “dark divine providence” of the forces of evil.
I believe that Trump is flawed, that his major backers are flawed, and that this sort of break up in a previously monolithically marching toward Agenda 2030 and Blackrock-sponsored authoritarian “globalhomo” anarcho-communist-corporatist globalist agenda is exactly what we have been seeing with the Trump movement. One part of the gang has realized that they might make more by forking off from the old bosses’ plans and working out some new deal with the locals. Not optimal. You’d prefer a philosopher king or a saint to rule you, but we really really rarely get those. So it is better to negotiate, as Christians at the fall of Rome with the Barbarians and take your chances working with them. You might just convert them.
There is not one establishment. There are now at least two. Both are not the City of God. Neither is particularly moral. But at least one, the Trump-Musk-Thiel-etc. one is a bit more aligned with our interests right now, and merits our qualified support, as by doing so, we can best affect and influence the outcome. A new conservative right with real power and influence that is itself influenced more by Christianity than by Nietzsche would be a positive thing. Having rulers that allow, and even promote Christianity to a degree, even if only as a tool for their own ends, is (mostly) better than ones that don’t. Having an opportunity is better than being locked into 15-minute WEF cities forever. And, again, humanity not dying out on Earth but expanding out into space and occupying Mars is just cool.
I’ve been convinced that the entire Trump movement and fracturing of the old establishment/regime is in some way accidental. Trump did not intend or think he would win in 2016. But somehow, he did. And over the eight years since, through all the attacks against him, he, and the new allies he’s picked up to aid him, he has changed. What he might have cynically said in 2016 for applause he now says, while still somewhat narcissistically perhaps (we all are narcissists), but also because he means it.
We have an opportunity, if we can allow ourselves to admit it, and learn how to be ok with being in power, being “cool”, and admitting, that sometimes, good things do happen, to aid good things in happening.
I wrestled with all these kinds of concerns myself when voting two weeks ago. My personal conclusion at the time was that I would vote for Trump but not give him or the campaign any other type of support.
But now, now that Trump has won, now that the real battle seems to be considering people who have long claimed to be his supporters that it’s ok to be hopeful, to dream big again, to not wave their arms constantly in cynicism, I decided almost ten years into the Trump era that it was finally time to buy a Trump hat. We’ll see what happens. I still have many concerns. But concerns should merely temper victory, not destroy it.
But I’m convinced that we need to be proud winners, proud, that, even if it is not perfect, we are now the establishment, our candidate is backed by the establishment, and we should rejoice, qualifiedly, in the establishment winning.
Because it’s not the same establishment.
Let’s use our confidence, our power, and our new allies to destroy that other one. There are more of us than them. Make them feel that way.