Tagarchief: Social Media

Het verdienmodel achter manosfeer uitgelegd

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

In zijn nieuwste documentaire Inside the Manosphere op Netflix doet Louis Theroux wat hij het beste doet: : mensen uit dubieuze gemeenschappen aan het woord laten, zodat ze zichzelf onthullen.

In dit geval duikt hij in de manosfeer, een groep influencers die jonge, onzekere mannen via social media beïnvloedt met anti-feminisme, toxische mannelijkheid, en andere giftige denkbeelden. Deze influencers hebben miljoenen volgers en hun invloed reikt ver.

Maar al bij de eerste manosfeer-vlogger die hij interviewt, de Britse fitness freak Harrison Sullivan (alias HStikkytokky, of HS), wordt duidelijk waar hun ideologie écht om draait: puur en alleen geld verdienen.

In dit social media tijdperk (door Sullivan aangeduid als de attention economy) draait het allemaal om aandacht. Hoe controversiëler de content, hoe meer de algoritmes het promoten. Dus waar kunnen influencers mee scoren? Vooral met boodschappen die veel emoties oproepen. En dus hebben de eerste manosfeer-influencers een ‘filosofie’ bedacht die ze gebruiken om volgers te winnen.

De centrale bewering van de manosfeer is dat de moderne samenleving ‘gynocentrisch’ is (gedomineerd door vrouwelijke belangen) en inherent in het nadeel van mannen is, wat resulteert in de onderdrukking, marginalisering en ‘slachtofferrol’ van mannen. De ideologie van de manosfeer stelt dat feminisme en de strijd voor gendergelijkheid geen rechtvaardigheid hebben gecreëerd, maar mannen juist actief hebben benadeeld, hen hun rechtmatige status hebben ontnomen en een ‘misandristische’ (vooroordelen tegen mannen) cultuur hebben gecreëerd. Deze bewering staven ze met nep-onderzoeken en desinformatie.

Het is niet moeilijk te begrijpen waarom dit standpunt onzekere mannen aanspreekt. De manosfeer stelt dat mannen zonder ‘waarde’ geboren worden – en met waarde bedoelen ze: economische waarde. Vrouwen zouden die wel hebben, in de vorm van hun uiterlijk. Volgens hen kunnen vrouwen hun uiterlijk economisch uitbuiten, terwijl mannen hun ‘dominante rol’ in de samenleving moeten heroveren.

Veel van deze influencers hebben een grote bek over dat ze hun vrouw de afwas laten doen en dat ze een eenzijdig polygamische relatie hebben (zij mogen seks met andere vrouwen, maar hun partner mag geen andere mannen), maar als Louis Theroux ze met hun partner spreekt, blijkt het allemaal gelul te zijn voor de camera.

Want het verspreiden van deze ideologie levert ze bakken met geld op. Wat verkopen ze aan hun volgers? Succestips, datingadvies, crypto- en aandelencursussen, en fitnessprogramma’s. Naast advertentie-inkomsten (bijvoorbeeld via YouTube) betalen volgers ook voor ‘exclusieve’ content, bijvoorbeeld over hoe je geld kunt dienen met trading. Theroux zoekt uit dat de ‘trading’ clubs die ze aanprijzen verschrikkelijk zijn. De negatieve gevolgen zijn groot: uit recent onderzoek blijkt dat de druk van social media twee op de drie Gen Z’ers in de schulden jaagt.

Een ander kenmerk: manosfeer-influencers doen alsof ze staan voor traditionele waarden, maar omringen zich wel voortdurend met schaars geklede vrouwen omdat het kliks oplevert. “I know it’s not good, but I only care about the money”, geeft Harrison toe.

Kortom, manosfeer-influencers zijn ordinaire oplichters die een lucratieve scam hebben ontdekt, perfect afgestemd op dit social media-tijdperk. Geen wonder dat ze fan zijn van de Trumps, een andere oplichtersfamilie die fortuin maakt met toxische online retoriek. Deze documentaire bevestigt een verontrustende waarheid: de verdienmodellen van social media zijn een van de grootste problemen van onze tijd – en het wordt tijd dat daar iets aan gedaan wordt.

Is America’s Existential Crisis Unsolvable?

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

The Trump regime has been in power for 15 months now, and its actions are becoming increasingly damaging for the country and the world. The start of the Iran war by rogue states US and Israel, in which a girls’ school has already been bombed (170 children dead) and U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on oil depots caused ‘acid rain’ poisoning the population, is only the latest in a long list of scandalous crimes and human tragedies.

There is certainly a loud call for Trump to be impeached, but despite a lot of talk of a rupture in the MAGA movement, he still has full support of MAGA and the Republican Party. That is despite all the campaign promises he has broken and crimes he has committed, including his name being mentioned in the Epstein files a million times.

What does that tell us about the state of the country? In short: America is cooked. A recent post by a MAGA canal really drove it home for me:

The post refers to a recent scandal in which it became known that Secretary of War Crimes Bourbon Pete Hegseth went on a mad spending spree at the Pentagon blowing millions on lobster and steak.

The way this message is framed is that if you are opposed to over-spending at the Pentagon, you are against American troops getting decent food. Even worse, if you’re against American soldiers getting fed lobster and steak, you are obviously in favor of spending huge amounts of money on insurance premiums for illegals.

The debate over public spending on undocumented immigrants is completely unrelated to Pentagon spending, but the division in the USA paints everything in a toxic black and white picture. Trump has amplified these tensions through persistent misinformation, inflammatory rhetoric, and the promotion of unfounded conspiracy theories.

A recent poll indicates how deep this distrust in American society goes:


A whopping 53 percent of Americans see their fellow citizens as immoral, and this is obvious from how they are portraying each other in the media. MAGA is condemned for supporting an obviously criminal and completely immoral president who is destroying democracy, while democrats are seen as evil people who want to overflow the country with illegal criminals and rapists. This has become such a widespread belief among a large part of the country that it will be hard to get them back from this – even if Trump would be gone.

And that’s the heart of the problem: Americans are now living in entirely separate realities, each shaped by fundamentally different value systems. Democrats generally believe America should strive to be a force for good – flawed as it may be – working to improve lives and promote democracy around the world, even if the execution isn’t always perfect. In contrast, the ‘America First’ ideology pushes for a vision rooted in white, Christian, male dominance, where the U.S. operates as an unapologetic superpower, taking what it can with little or no regard for others. Under this worldview, immigrants are not just excluded but actively demonized, treated as threats to be expelled or erased.

How do you convince the MAGA crowd that Trump and his party are only in it for personal gain, and their actions are severely damaging to the country in the short and especially the long term?

The media are a big part of the problem. Mainstream channels have chosen for Trump (like FOX ‘News’) or a middle of the road approach, which really doesn’t work in this environment. A newspaper headline, like ‘Trump wants to acquire Greenland’ really doesn’t reflect what is really going on: ‘Dictator Trump wants to aggressively annex Greenland with military force’.

So the media is not doing its job, and even worse, many Trump supporters now own all major media, especially after the recent acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery by Trumper Larry Ellison.

And this is one of the reasons I am so pessimistic about America’s future prospects. The media is extremely important to turn the tide, but the legacy media are not doing their job and social media (owned by Trump’s billionaire cronies) that monetize conflict are making things much much worse.

But it is far from the only problem. These are other major issues that make a turnaround in the short term very unlikely:

● The Republican party are the only ones who could really stop Trump, but they are not doing it. The old party – yes, they were assholes, but at least they had some independent thinking going on that would definitely be opposed to much of what Trump is doing – is dead. Trump has destroyed it, and they are now in it for 100 percent. No matter how insane their leader is, they won’t stop him.

● The democrats – while they have some good people – are far from united and they are not speaking with one voice. Take the Iran war, where is their reunited condemnation of this illegal war?

● The corporate political donor system is still very much in place. That means that not the American people, but the big corporations decide which policies will be implemented. At the same time, the concentration of wealth and a non-level playing field for the middle and working classes are turning American democracy into an oligarchy.

● The current U.S. Supreme Court is widely seen as both a reflection and an amplifier of the country’s deep political polarization. The Court now has six conservative justices and three liberal justices. This ideological split is the most pronounced in decades, and the Court’s rulings increasingly break along these lines. In recent terms, the number of cases decided by a purely partisan vote has tripled, while unanimous decisions have declined sharply. The Court’s rulings on issues like abortion (Dobbs), campaign finance, voting rights, and executive power have not only reflected, but also deepened political divisions. The Court’s growing alignment with partisan politics has led many Americans to view it less as an impartial legal institution and more as a political actor. This shift is evident in public opinion polls, where favorable views of the Court are near historic lows, especially among Democrats and younger Americans

What America needs is a huge turnaround, a systematic change in government and how it functions. I currently see no evidence of this happening. The focus is now – understandably – on winning the Mid Terms by democrats and then winning the 2028 election in order to stop Trump. And it will certainly be a relief to see Trump removed. If they can, and this is a huge if.

However, the problems mentioned above will still be there. Which democratic leader will really solve this mess? Bernie Sanders was that leader, but the dems thought nominating him was too risky. A new leader of that calibre has not yet emerged.

We have been here before. When Biden won the election in 2020 we were relieved. But 74 million people still voted Trump in 2020 even after his disastrous first term. Just as worrying: about 89 million eligible Americans did not vote in 2024, while the country was under threat by a fascist takeover by MAGA. That means the trust in politics to solve problems has sunk to rock bottom in the US.

Optimists note that the U.S. has navigated previous existential threats – including the Revolutionary and Civil Wars – suggesting a capacity to overcome deep crises.

That may well be, but I currently see no way out of the polarization, so my current analysis is that the American crisis is terminal. We, as Europeans, have to steadily derisk from the USA and realign ourselves with reliable partners, such as Canada.

Let’s hope that in the long term, the crisis is an opportunity for the US to address long-standing flaws (such as economic inequality or political dysfunction) and create a ‘new Renaissance’ or a more inclusive society.

But for now, this is unfortunately the status of the country:

😅

Revenge of the Sith is 20 Years Old. It Is a Prophetic Vision of America Today

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

TRUMP WARS

Episode III

REVENGE OF THE MAGA

War! The republic is crumbling under ruthless attacks by Maga Lord Elon Musk.
There are assholes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the fiendish president Donald J. Trump, has wiped out trillions in stock market value with an insanely stupid and useless trade war.

As the separatist MAGA-republicans attempt to siege the Capitol with their law enforcement hostages, Bernie Sanders is on his way to kick some Republican ass…

The Dark Side Calling
Exactly twenty years ago, Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith hit Dutch theaters as the dark turning point in the Star Wars saga. I remember the Darth Vader posters hanging all around the city where I worked. It was a monumental cinema experience, but it was also a dark movie that depicted the fall of a Republic, the rise of an Empire, and the death of democracy at the hands of a terrible authoritarian. Not to mention the tragic fate of all the characters we had grown to love.

Today, it feels less like science fiction and more like prophecy, as the United States of America – once the leading democracy in the world – is now rapidly becoming an authoritarian dictatorship.

The opening shot of Revenge of the Sith is a real triumph. Anakin and Obi-Wan fly through the besieged airspace above Coruscant, and it’s all filmed in one terrific and dizzying shot. Technically, this might be the best of the Star Wars movies.

When Anakin and Obi-Wan board the ship where Palpatine is held hostage by Count Dooku and General Grievous, we notice that Anakin is wearing black clothes. This is already a symbol of where he is heading. But he is still a good guy here, unwilling to leave his friend behind in a time of trouble.

Obi-Wan looks a bit like J.D. Vance, the vice president in Trump’s regime. But make no mistake – he is nothing like him in character. He is a great Jedi Knight, just as Qui-Gon Jinn predicted he would become. Vance also looks like Count Dooku (the great Christopher Lee), and he is closer to this Dark Lord in character, though nowhere near as smart.

Then – in the showdown with Count Dooku – we get the first warning sign of Anakin’s approaching downfall. “My powers have doubled since we last met, Count.” Overconfidence, pride, anger… these are all hallmarks of a character vulnerable to Dark Side manipulation. Add fear to that, and Palpatine will have an easy mark.

Count Dooku provokes Anakin, leading him to tap into the Dark Side. He uses his anger and aggression to defeat Dooku by cutting off both his hands. Then Palpatine urges him to kill Dooku, and he does. It turns out Anakin had told Palpatine about his mother and the slaughter of the Sand People. Palpatine is using that information to turn Anakin.

So he already has his hooks in the young Jedi. But Anakin is still a good person at this point. He refuses to abandon a wounded Obi-Wan and ensures the entire team escapes from the cruel cyborg General Grievous.

Then Anakin pulls off an amazing emergency landing with a spacecraft. Visually, this parallels the Trump era, where burning planes and helicopters seem to fall from the sky regularly due to Elon Musk’s firing of air traffic controllers.

Fear is the Mind Killer
The Senate gives the Chancellor permission to continue the war against the Separatists. Dictators always use emergency powers to dismantle democracy – and Palpatine and Trump are no exceptions. Trump’s emergency powers are invoked for bogus reasons. The USA is supposedly at war with Venezuelan gang members. That is ridiculous, but in Trump-land, that doesn’t matter.

The reason for these powers in Revenge of the Sith is that General Grievous is still alive. But we see that Grievous secretly works for Palpatine. The General is worried about Count Dooku’s death, but Palpatine assures him, “Soon, I will have a new apprentice. One far younger and more powerful.” He is clearly preparing for his masterstroke.

Revenge of the Sith has a terrific cast. Ian McDiarmid is especially powerful, delivering his lines as though in a Shakespearean play.

Meanwhile, Anakin learns from Padmé that she is pregnant. This is the happiest moment of his life, he tells her. Of course, their love is extremely dangerous in a time of Dark Side seduction. And then it happens: the nightmare. Anakin sees Padmé, his great love, dying, and it terrifies him.

A coaching session with Yoda seems to bring some enlightenment: “Be mindful. Fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side.” If only Anakin had truly understood what those words meant.

Missed Warning Signs
Anakin and Obi-Wan meet, and Obi-Wan is worried about Palpatine, who is about to receive even more executive powers from the Senate. This parallels America today, where Trump has already made Congress powerless and is actively ignoring the courts.

Anakin meets with Palpatine, who flatters him by proposing he become the Chancellor’s representative on the Jedi Council. There are beautiful shots here of Anakin and Palpatine – clearly staged to resemble Darth Vader and the Emperor walking together. “I need you to be the eyes, ears, and voice of the Republic.”

He gives Anakin a special task – just as Trump did with Musk, sending him into government agencies to extract data and build a massive surveillance system, yet another weapon for his dictatorship ambitions.

Anakin is brought before the Jedi Council. They accept him, but do not grant him the rank of Master. His angry response should have been a clear warning sign. There were plenty of warning signs during Trump’s campaign too – like mimicking Hitler and other fascist leaders in his speeches.

“It’s unfair”, says Anakin. That’s practically a direct copy of Trump. Narcissists like Trump are always playing the victim. “No country has ever been treated as unfairly as the United States”, Trump often complains. And he constantly claims to be the victim of a political witch hunt.

Standing With the Underdog
In that fateful Council meeting, Yoda utters one of the greatest lines of the film when learning that the Wookiees are under attack from the Separatists: “Go I will. Good relations with the Wookiees I have.”

The battle on the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk recalls Ukraine – a country with limited arms being attacked by a massive mechanized army (Russia). Yet they are stronger, because they are defending their freedom.

In the Ukraine war, Trump has sided with Russia, because he doesn’t care about Ukraine. It is just a pawn in a much greater battle for global control. Russia could be seen as standing in for the Separatists, though they see themselves as an empire.

The Ultimate Gaslighter
Things in Revenge of the Sith turn ugly very quickly. This is another hallmark of establishing a dictatorship. Events accelerate so fast that the good guys – in this case, the Jedi – can’t keep up.

They ask Anakin to spy on Palpatine, because “our allegiance is to the Senate, not its leader.” Most Republicans in the USA seem to have forgotten this pledge. They are 100% loyal to Trump, which is the heart of Project 2025.

Anakin argues with Padmé, who suggests that maybe the democracy they were trying to protect no longer exists. The parallel to the USA is stark: the political system is heavily influenced by money, and democracy is no longer functioning.

Palpatine’s final move is to portray the Jedi as attempting to illegally seize control of the Republic. Trump similarly convinced Americans that “evil” Biden was doing the same through the so-called deep state. By encouraging conspiracy theories, anti-science views, and mistrust in institutions, Trump sowed the seeds for victory.

“All who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi”, Palpatine tells Anakin at a beautifully staged space opera. Also: “Good is a point of view, Anakin.” Indeed, we now have two competing truths: the Trump-Fox News truth and the Biden-CNN truth. On social media, we live in separate bubbles.

“The MAGA rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward – only about themselves.” “And the Jedi don’t?” This is classic MAGA: twisting narratives to vilify their opponents.

Palpatine tells Anakin the Sith legend of Darth Plagueis and the secret to immortality. This is the film’s Faustian moment. Many in the Trump administration made a similar bargain: loyalty in exchange for power.

ORDER 66 – PROJECT 2025
Before Palpatine’s rise in the Star Wars prequels, the Sith had been extinct for a millennium. Trump was also in a deep hole after losing the 2020 election. But he made a comeback – first by taking over the Republican Party, then by preparing for a return to power through Project 2025.

Trump is like Palpatine in many ways, particularly in his hunger for absolute power. Even physically, his grotesque expression mirrors Palpatine’s post-transformation face. And make no mistake – Trump is a manipulator, exploiting anyone in his way. While he lacks subtlety or strategy, he remains extremely dangerous. His bulldozer tactics may hinder him, but America’s fate remains undecided.

When the Jedi try to arrest Palpatine, the fate of the Republic is sealed. “I am the Senate!”, he screams. That’s typical Trump, who also believes his executive power should be limitless.

He kills three Jedi and convinces Anakin to kill Mace Windu. “He is a traitor”, Palpatine gaslights Anakin. Windu makes one last attempt to persuade him: “He has control of the Senate and the courts. He’s too dangerous to be left alive.” If there is one line in the film that best reflects the current Trump predicament, it is that one.

But Anakin – afraid of losing Padmé if Palpatine dies – makes a fateful choice and cuts off Windu’s hands. Windu is then killed by the now monstrous-looking Palpatine. “UNLIMITED POWER!!!” Anakin’s descent to the Dark Side is complete. Then he carries out Order 66. “Once more, the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we shall have peace.”

Trump seeks to rule the galaxy like Palpatine. He wants control over universities, the media, and the courts. He wants to own Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama, and Gaza. And he wants world leaders to bow before him in the Oval Office.

A pressing question remains: will Trump have his own Order 66? Will he use the military to suppress his own people and further his autocratic goals? The first steps already seem underway.

Final Transformation
Palpatine quickly consolidates his power. He sends Darth Vader to kill the Jedi younglings and Separatist leaders, then holds an emergency Senate session to declare the Republic reorganized into the first Galactic Empire.

Padmé utters the now-famous line: “This is how liberty dies – with thunderous applause.”

Exactly. This recalls Trump’s victory, cheered by many – including business elites. His sycophants continue to praise him no matter what terrible things he says or does.

The finale of Revenge of the Sith is painful and heartbreaking – as it should be. Yoda and Obi-Wan discover the murdered younglings. Obi-Wan tells Padmé what Anakin has done. Then, after their brutal duel on Mustafar, Anakin is burned alive. It’s dark, powerful stuff.

In their final confrontation, Anakin tells Obi-Wan he now sees the Jedi as evil. Just like Trump and Musk view Democrats and the values they once stood for – like climate protection, freedom, and diversity – as evil.

“I sense Elon is in danger. His Tesla stock is burning.”
Elon Musk has similarities to Anakin. A smart, energetic kid with a passion for technology, he once did good – like supporting Ukraine with Starlink satellites. But he crossed a line. He’s transformed into a Dark MAGA figure and caused massive harm.

Like Anakin kills the Jedi younglings, Elon Musk is responsible for the deaths of thousands of children by slashing USAID funds. He has sunk to a level of evil that few would ever imagine to be possible. The only solution to the Trump-Musk regime is now complete destruction.

That shot where the Vader mask closes over Anakin’s burned face is powerful. His transformation is complete.

Final Thoughts
After the death of Padmé and the birth of Luke and Leia, Yoda and Obi-Wan go into exile – like Harris, Biden, and Waltz, after failing to stop the Trumpian menace.

After all that darkness, the film ends on a hopeful note. Leia is delivered to her adoptive parents. Obi-Wan brings Luke to his aunt and uncle on Tatooine as they look out at the twin sunset.

The message: there is always hope.

This is the Significant Moment When Everything Went to Hell for America

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

America is turning into an autocracy very fast. Every week there are new lows – like last week the arrest of a judge and the week before that Trump (He/him) regime’s refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison camp – despite the supreme court ordering them to do so.

Of the 71 million Americans who voted him in office, some might be wondering; how did we get here? I’ll argue that one significant moment played a key role in creating this disaster.

On the eve of the election day, on October 26, 2024, the extremely popular podcaster Joe Rogan interviewed Trump. I couldn’t bear to listen to his horse crap, but I recently watched one minute of the three hour interview on YouTube. In the fragment, Trump asked Rogan: “Come on, you’re not a Harris guy”.

And you see Rogan thinking: ‘shit, this guy is right. I am not a Harris guy’. Joe Rogan is manipulated at the spot. He lets himself be fooled by this con man. After that, he lets Trump get away with blatant lies about the 2020 election, which looks very bad for his interview ethos. I stopped viewing right after that.

What I took away from this short moment is that Trump – terrible person that he is – has at least one ‘quality’ that enabled him to become the 47th president of the USA: he knows just what to say to people to make them vote for him.

Of course this won’t work with everybody, but then again, he didn’t need everybody. He needed 71 million voters. He already had his loyal fan base secured, so he had to convince millions of others to vote for him. He and his campaign team put in all their efforts to convince right leaning people like Rogan to go for the Orange Turd. They were successful.

After the show, Rogan did something he had previously said he wouldn’t do: he endorsed Trump. With his immense reach amongst people for whom Rogan is their single source of news – tragic as this may be – he may have decided the fate of the United States.

How will he feel now, three months after Trump took office, and the country is sliding fastly into an authoritarian regime?

What we are watching right now might be the End of the American Empire.

The country is ruled by a mad king. Trump’s cabinet meetings are excruciatingly horrifying to watch. Every cabinet member that speaks, including Musk, first praises Trump for the absolutely brilliant leader that he is. And what an incredible honor it is to serve in his cabinet.

Then they proceed to tell absurd bullshit to cover up for their criminal actions. In the last cabinet meeting, Musk – in full Dr. Evil mode – bullshits about how he found 150 billion dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. He says that ‘people are receiving social security that aren’t even born yet.’

This is just too much bullshit to handle.

Everybody knows how he is going to get this 150 billion. He will do it by slashing social security, medicaid, and other programmes for the poor – and recklessly fire tens of thousands of essential government employees. And Trump is gonna let him do it. The money saved will be given to billionaires like them as a tax cut.

Some still consider Trump a brilliant businessman, but he’s terrible in business – and that’s a fact. I mean, he bankrupted a casino once. Now, he’s going to bankrupt the country. He’s a fuck-up and a major fraudster.

The financial markets – who foolishly believed Trump would be good for business before – have now realised the terrible truth. Trump is so totally unstable and deranged that the risk for the world economy (countries, companies, currencies, and debt) is great. They finally realised, just like some voters did, that having a psychopathic gangster in charge of the largest economy in the world, might be bad for business.

It would have been exactly the same if they would have handed the reigns of the American government to Vladimir Putin or Kim Jung Un. That’s what the American’s did who voted this nut job into the White House.

Thank you, Joe Rogan.

Now maybe I am thinking too much of his endorsement. On the other hand, Trump thanked Rogan especially at his inauguration. Imagine that; that you would be responsible by having a cruel psycho elected who would then go on to create terrible suffering for millions of people. Who would send innocent people to an El Salvadorian prison camp to be tortured.

I have no idea how he feels about it, but this is a wound that he will have to live with. The same goes for all Americans, whether they voted for Trump or not. This is a national trauma and it will take decades to recover from it.

But first, they will have to remove Trump from office. Can it be done?

It will be very hard, that’s for sure. And even if they succeed, they will have a massive challenge waiting for them.

Let’s say they’ll have a revolution and remove Trump from office, will the two sides – the MAGA and the WOKE – reconcile and together restore the damage the Trump regime has caused? Will they think: ‘let’s go look at the root causes of this whole thing? Where did we go wrong? What laws are we going to introduce together to make sure something like this never happens again?’

The probability that this will happen is very small. Trump is a very severe symptom of a lethal disease: a mind virus that once it spreads through society – enhanced by anti-social media and AI – makes the country divided and ungovernable.

To stop this mind virus, we – the world – must regulate social media and AI. With AI becoming more powerful every day, we need to move fast to prevent every other democracy from sliding off the rails in the coming years and decades.

This will not be an easy feat – and America is in terrible shape. Still, the possibility also exists that the right leaders arise out of this sink hole and put the country on the right course again. A crisis can do that sometimes.

Right now, the crisis is not yet big enough. There are still many people, inside and outside of the USA, deluded by Trump and think it might not be so bad. But if enough people conclude: ‘this is not what we want’ and start fighting back in every way they can, it might bring about a new era of hopeful change.

Is this the end for the USA of merely the passage into a new prosperous era? Only time will tell.