Should Americans surrender to Putin and Trump? Putin is making a killing in Ukraine. Putin's armed forces are killing hundreds of Ukrainians every day. Putin's regime is making billions selling oil at record high prices. Americans are getting desperate about inflation and the rising cost of living. Some believe that surrendering to Putin and Trump will solve all the problems and that all white people will live happily ever after. What do you think?
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Putin and Trump are power addicts.
There is nothing more addictive than power. Putin and Trump are trump addicts. Putin and Trump will never quit. They will keep getting high in power and wanting to get higher and higher. They will say and do whatever to keep their vice strong.
The more power you give Putin and Trump, the more power they will want. Putin is already a totalitarian dictator. Trump is a totalitarian dictator wannabe. Trump even tried a coup to stay in power after losing the 2020 elections.
Autocracy vs Democracy
Whether you prefer totalitarian regimes over democratic governments is up to you. Many Russians and many Americans support Putin and Trump. No matter how many "reasons" are given against them, many followers continue in their respective cults of Putin and Trump. That is understandable. We are very advanced primates, but primates nonetheless.
All humans are genetically wired to follow alpha males. For millennia, most primates survived following alpha males. That follower instinct survived in you. Many people follow the image of a male god for the very same reasons. The "man" upstairs is the greatest alpha male of all in the imagination of believers.
Self-interest
Supporters of Putin and Trump follow them because they feel safer under them. They feel that these men will protect them and help them survive. They feel that their lives will better if the remain faithful and loyal to Putin and Trump.
As all other animals, everything we humans do is about pain and pleasure. All animals survive by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. Humans are not an exception. All of your ancestors survived that way. Therefore, the pain / pleasure mechanism survived in you.
Pain and pleasure
Your pain / pleasure mental associations control and dictate everything that you think, do, and say. Every chapter of human history can be easily explained by the pain / pleasure algorithm of life. The only tricky part about humans is that we can learn to associate physical pain with pleasure, and vice versa. Also, what is painful for a human may be pleasurable for another, and vice versa. Therefore, human behavior is not fully predictable unless others know our exact pain / pleasure trigger points, thresholds, and mental associations.
Supporters of Putin and Trump believe that their lives will be better (more pleasurable and less painful) if these white supremacists are in charge. Putin and Trump supporters fear and avoid the pain of opposing them, and desire and seek the benefits of following them.Opponents of Putin and Trump believe that their lives will worse off under these white supremacists, and better off under diverse and democratic institutions that can hold more collective and equitable power than individual dictators.
In the end, emotions carry the day. We humans are emotional creatures first and rational beings later. Emotions comes first. Reasons follow as mere rationalizations for our emotions. The two basic emotions controlling humans are are fear and greed. Fear relates to pain. Greed relates to pleasure. We fear pain, and desire pleasure.
Making Russia and America Great Again
Putin promises to save Russia and make it great again. He is delivering on his promises by waging war in Ukraine to expand Russian territory, and by growing Russia's fossil fuel economy selling fossil fuels (oil and gas) at record high prices. It's debatable if Putin's strategy is going to work well in the long run. So far it has brought a sense of unity and urgency within European and NATO allies that was never seen before. The West seems hell bent on sending Putin to hell.
Trump promises to save America and make it great again. Trump is not delivering on his promises because he lost the 2020 elections. As a sore loser, he tried to orchestrate a coup, and also failed at that. He is now promising save America if he is re-elected in 2024. It is impossible to predict how Trump will do in the 2024 because it is too far into the future politically with too many variables to compute.
Will Americans re-elect Trump?
If the elections were today Trump would have at least a 50% chance of winning because most Americans are upset with economic inflation. Out of fear and greed, many Americans would risk our democracy for lower prices at the pump and at the grocery stores. Driving everywhere and over eating are sacred American rural and suburban traditions.
Fear and greed control us. We are all afraid of economic pain and greedy of economic pleasure. Many Americans believe that Trump can improve our economy. Like an incarnate version of a devil, Trump makes everything sound easy and achievable provided that we sell our souls to him. It would be very easy indeed for Trump to bring solve inflation.
Trump can solve inflation in ways that democrats can't
For prices to go down, demand must go down, supply must increase, or a combination of both. There are almost unlimited ways in which Trump could solve inflation in ways that democrats will not.
-Drill baby, drill. Burn, baby burn. One way is forgetting about environmental and climate change concerns. This is the old Drill, Baby Drill of decades ago. For sure, the United States is as loaded with oil reserves as every single one of the biggest oil producers in the world. The moral hazard and economic obstacle is that a fossil fuel economy may destroy our environment and keep burning the planet, which could bankrupt us in the future.
-Deal with the devil. Another way to increase supply of gasoline and other commodities is to negotiate crazy deals with autocratic governments such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. The moral hazard is that dealing with devils will undermine our democratic values and democratic institutions.
-From corruption to slavery. A third way to increase supply and partially reduce demand, which would ease inflation, is to artificially reduce production costs for a few select oligarchs that can pay kickbacks to keep Trump in power. Measures could range from reducing taxes on the oligarchs, granting them subsidies, and forcing low wages with forced or quasi forced labor. From convict labor to immigrant worker camps, hell is the limit for an autocratic government that wants to reduce production costs to benefit a few oligarchs connected to the regime.
You decide
Ultimately, it is for Americans to decide whether the future of our Nation. Do we want to be like Venezuela where gas sells for 75 cents a gallon? Do we want to be like Russia playing game of thrones in the 2020s? Do we really want to sell our soul to Putin and Trump so that some of us can drive more and consume more? Are we not lazy fat enough?
Food for thought. What do you think?
Alex Slap for TakeSlap.com
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