Trump isn’t smart enough to build a system, but the system is smart enough to use him.
On
- Conspiracy theories
The deeper you dive and the more layers you peel back, the more you start to feel like conspiracies are everywhere. But that raises the real question: what is a conspiracy?
Conspiracy theories
Definition: The belief that an event or situation is the result of a secret, often harmful, plot by a powerful group.
Characteristics: These theories tend to rely on a simple good-versus-evil worldview and can fuel division, discrimination, and sometimes violence.
Examples: Some involve real events, like corporate cover-ups. Others are pure fantasy with no evidence behind them.
But definitions only get you so far. Any plan—especially a large one—needs more defining. Intent matters. A plan doesn’t have to be “malevolent” to be dangerous, at least not to the people creating it. From their point of view, the goal might look noble: ending world hunger, curing disease, improving stability. But achieving that goal can take very different paths.
Grow more food? Or reduce the number of people who need it? One solution feeds the hungry. The other eliminates them. A dead person isn’t hungry, and the survivors enjoy more resources. The logic is horrifying, but it’s still a kind of logic.
What brought me to this point today was an article on American Fascism:
https://illwill.com/fascistic-capitalism
After reading it and trying to digest its argument, one major flaw stood out: the author gives Donald Trump far too much credit. He isn’t a strategic thinker. If anything, the scary part is how little foresight he has.
But that doesn’t mean the entire theory collapses. It just shifts the question:
If Trump isn’t smart enough to architect this movement, who is?
Does that make it a conspiracy—or simply someone else’s longer, larger plan?
Because the real danger isn’t Trump himself. It’s the network that rises around him:
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politicians who discovered fear works better than policy
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donors who realized chaos is profitable
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media outlets that thrive on outrage
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voters who feel abandoned and want to burn it all down
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institutions too slow or too weak to push back
