Talking World War III Blues

"Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah."

- The President of the United States, speaking on social media, to the nation he started an unjustified and illegal war with, on Easter Sunday, 2026

I don't know if this gets talked about enough, but there's a certain nihilism that comes with living under a regime that thrives on so much chaos and a distinct lack of accountability. I've never voted for Trump; there was never a time when I thought he was remotely a promising candidate. But a small part of me *wanted* him to get elected the first time, because I thought people would see what a mistake it was and learn their lesson. That they'd find the proof when they bit into the pudding. In hindsight, that was naive. The idiots who voted for him learned nothing, and just doubled down.

I knew better the second time he got elected - I talked to people who were sure this country would never make that mistake twice. I voted against him, but I wasn't even a little bit surprised when he won again. (Even after supporting a failed insurrection against the Capitol, when he lost the people's vote in 2020). I also no longer harbored the hope that the country would see the error of its ways. We were too far gone. But that's changed in the last year, as I've become politically activated, and watched the resistance grow. Especially in the last few months, since the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (and the Department of Justice's subsequent egregious coverup), it feels like the wind has changed direction. The shootings in Minneapolis as recently as January seemed like an inflection point. And then the way this ill-conceived war with Iran is hitting citizens in their pocketbooks at the gas pumps (because that's what it takes to get most Americans to pay attention to politics). Even strands of the MAGA movement are beginning to turn against Trump.

That said, we've come so much further than we should have had to, and have suffered not just a corrupt, but an outright criminal regime, that is not only unburdened by a dedication to law and order, but disdainful of the Constitution our nation was founded on, for so much longer than makes any kind of rational sense, that it's impossible to wrap your mind around how it's been allowed to happen. And you can't help wondering, with every act of insanity perpetrated by this loose cannon of a Commander in Chief, will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back? And by that, I'm not even sure whether I mean breaking the back of the regime's support, or breaking the back of democracy in the United States.

But, to get to my point, there's a part of me buried deep down - a nihilistic impulse, perhaps fueled by Edgar Allan Poe's Imp of the Perverse - that takes a mad glee in the unhinged acts of a despotic President. And again, I'm torn between understanding it as the vindictive hope that all the people responsible (mainly every Republican voter in this country) will finally get what they deserve, and be destroyed by the troll they've maliciously granted unchecked power to, and understanding it as the vain wish that this will be the bridge too far, that wakes the masses up from their dangerous delusion. I WANT Trump to become more and more unhinged. I WANT the world to fall further apart due to his actions. I WANT our country to crash and burn. Because it will vindicate what we've all been saying all this time. And no Republican voter will ever be able to reason with a straight face - unless they are a straight up anarchic lunatic - that they made the right choice for themselves and for the country. (Of course, that falls prey to the fallacy that these people are capable of reason in the first place).

I don't REALLY want these things to happen. I want to wake up tomorrow with a dignified president, and find myself in a prosperous country where I can feel secure, and actually AFFORD to live in. But if the last 10 years or so are any indication (the Biden administration being a blip on the radar, that only proves that safety and security can never be more than a temporary distraction from reality), there's no realistic chance of that happening. Because anything other than total annihiliation will just leave the opposition free to maintain their collective delusion, and continue in their unceasing efforts to burn the world down. So let it burn already. Calling their bluff seems like the ONLY way to deflate their insane arguments. The only problem is that if Trump's dementia actually incites a new World War leading to nuclear apocalypse (an outcome whose possibility MAY be small, but is uncomfortably far from zero), there'll be nobody left to enjoy it. Or if there are, they will be in so much pain and suffering, that it will outweigh the joy in saying, "I told you so."