Welcome back to the Substack! This month, I focus on the upcoming presidential election - I know, no one is talking about it! Look, as much as I would love to give my thoughts on the most recent season of Love is Blind, I feel like this is what I should be writing about. So for this post, I’m diving into the current state of our divided electorate.
But first, trivia!
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TRIVIA
On November 5th, millions of Americans will head to the polls to cast ballots. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won every single state except for one. Which state did Walter Mondale win? (Answer is at the bottom of this post)
America: Land of the Free, Home of the Depraved
Idiocracy has come early! But why? And are we doomed?
Let me first say this: not all Americans are getting dumber. So, I apologize for the clickbaity headline, that was quite hyperbolic. But, maybe, for a moment, you were thinking “Yeah, I can see that.” Now, let me present you with a more enlightened take: the divide between smart and dumb Americans is increasing. And it’s accelerating at an alarming rate.
Let’s go back to 2016 for a moment. At this point, Donald Trump had secured the Republican nomination for president, beating out the GOP’s other offerings like everyone’s favorite Wolverine impersonator Ted Cruz, and Batboy lookalike Marco Rubio. Then-Ohio Governor John Kasich was the last one to fall… remember him? He at least didn’t sell his soul to Trump and would later endorse Joe Biden in the 2020 contest. I hope he’s doing well. Looking back, no one stood a chance that year as MAGA became a hurricane-like force that swept across the country.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) pleads with members of Congress to split a Cancun timeshare with him. He’s already booked the winter dates.
In October 2016, I had been texting about the impending election with my friend John, a self-proclaimed moderate but one who knew better than to vote for Trump. He sent a text that shocked me - he wrote, “Maybe it’s a good thing if Trump becomes president.” I’m sure I’m paraphrasing a bit here, it was eight years ago after all. I was confused so I asked him to clarify and he made a somewhat salient point - if Trump were to win and things were to go awry, then most Americans would come to their senses and realize that they could never re-elect someone like him again. The basic premise was that the pendulum needed to swing in the opposite direction for it to move in the direction we wanted it to (you know, towards the side of science, human decency, and the truth).
Neither of us could’ve predicted that the penedulum would swing so far in one direction and seemingly get stuck there, but here we are. It’s been eight long years, Trump has been out of office for four of them, and we’re less than three weeks away from finding out if he gets to weasel his way back behind the desk in the Oval Office. I have to give the old man some credit, he’s solidified himself as one of the biggest grifters in American history. He’s effectively conned tens of millions of people into buying his gold-plated bullshit (plus all the shoes, NFTs, coffee table books, watches, etc.).
Donald Trump says these Trump NFTs are going to be worth a fortune in a few years.
There have been plenty of grifters before Trump and he certainly won’t be the last. You’ve got your megachurch televangelists with multi-million dollar mansions and private jets (thank you Jesus!), your Ponzi-scheme artists who have stolen millions from the unsuspecting, and of course, your modern scam artists like Billy McFarland of Fyre Fest fame. But Trump is different. Trump is the guy who tells you he’ll solve all of your problems, not offer any plans on how he’ll do it, and instead go out and cheat his way through 18 holes at one of his golf courses. And his supporters will bend over backward to justify his actions.
His grift is well-documented and the evidence has piled up against him. Trump’s a certified liar (the Washington Post reported that he made 30,573 lies and misleading statements during his presidency), a certified loser (six corporate bankruptcies, one presidential election), and a certified cheater (see: Stormy Daniels). So knowing all this, how is this presidential race so close? These facts don’t seem to make a difference in the eyes of millions of Americans. Recent polls show Trump and Kamala Harris are tied nationally among American voters. In swing states, it’s anybody’s guess who will come out ahead.
Are we shocked, though? For many of us living in our liberal bubbles (raise your glasses you coastal elite), it’s outrageous. We’re constantly asking ourselves, “How can this be so close?” I have a simple hypothesis I think you’re going to love: we’re getting dumber. Not you and me, no no, we’re getting smarter - again, we’re the coastal elite with our college degrees and our many curiosities. So why are the others getting dumber?
Well, the average American spends more than 2 hours on social media every single day. And social media looks completely different now than it did during the early MySpace and Facebook days. Instead of selecting your top 8 and poking your crush, you’re quietly removing yourself from that bizarre voter fraud post your uncle tagged you in. “They’re throwing Republican ballots in the river and the Dominion machines are switching votes!” Sure, Jan. Why don’t you step away from the computer and just enjoy that house you bought in 1980 for $47,200? Why $47,200? Because that was the average home price in America back then… ah, home ownership, now that’s a neat idea! It’s not just the Boomers that are addicted to social media.
Tom, MySpace founder and #1 in my top 8.
Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha are the first generations that have grown up with smartphones. These are terminally online groups whose attention spans have been shortened due to the proliferation of on-demand digital content. They love their screens. So it’s no wonder that test scores in both math and reading are on the decline. Overall screen time is up - the average American teen spends more than 8 hours looking at a screen (a combination of phones, tablets, TVs, computers, and video games). I remember one of the rules in my house growing up was that you wouldn’t be able to watch TV until you had finished your homework. I didn’t have a smartphone to distract me either. I’m sure plenty of modern-day parents set similar guidelines for their kids, but I reckon it’s a bigger challenge to keep kids focused these days.
Along those lines, technology has removed the need to learn and retain information like we used to. Almost everything humans know is now available at our fingertips and we can access it at nearly any time. And with the help of AI, we don’t needto read full articles anymore - they can be summarized for us with a click of a button. I mean, who has the time to read anyway? The average American is reading fewer books than in years past - it’s now down to just 12 per year (women read closer to 15 and men closer to 9, which tracks). 17% of Americans don’t read a single book in a year. I know I’m not finishing books at the same rate. You can attribute this trend to an increase in daily screen time - there are more ways than ever to spend your free time than cracking open a page-turner. And it doesn’t help that our decreased attention spans make it nearly impossible to get through more than a handful of pages in one sitting.
Remember these? They’re called libraries. They have books.
When people are choosing to read, unfortunately, it’s often the misinformation and disinformation available online. And it’s plaguing the American electorate.
It used to be a challenge to stumble across a conspiracy theory - and they at least used to be good! You either had that one friend who wanted to show you “Loose Change” on YouTube after school or you were discovering believable conspiracies on your own by digitally spelunking the dark and twisted caves of Reddit. Now? It’s QAnon and Pizzagate. Or more recently, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's accusation that the Democrats created category 5 hurricanes to hit the red parts of swing states. Or the most dangerous of all these - the conspiracy that the 2020 election was rigged by the Democrats.
One of today’s worst offenders just happens to be the richest man in the world. Elon Musk’s conspiracy-ridden tweets are strategically placed at the top of the “For Your” feed on X.com fka Twitter. His reach is astounding - he now has more than 200M followers on the platform he controls. Sure, tens of millions of bots are mixed in there, but he’s still getting through to real, persuadable people. Real people who vote. Real people who think he’s the most brilliant person on Earth. Immense wealth is a sign of immense brilliance, right? X.com has become the ultimate campaign tool for Trump. There are reports that Musk and the Trump campaign have colluded to censor left-wing accounts on the platform. And they’re counting on their supporters to be dumb enough not to care - and they’re right! And somehow I’m still on there - refreshing the feed every few hours and for what? It’s impossible to avoid the cesspool of alt-right personalities pandering to the lowest common denominator.
An Elon Musk tweet following Bronny James (LeBron’s son) going into cardiac arrest during a basketball practice. Turns out, Bronny has a congenital heart condition - not a side effect of the Covid-19 vaccine.
It’s not just Trump’s cronies and deranged supporters who are concocting all the disinformation. Trump himself is by far the biggest peddler of bullshit. From the inherently racist false claims he’s made about migrants to prophesizing about the Democrats stealing the upcoming election (with the help of migrants, of course), the former president uses his hate rallies to rant and rave for hours on end to his horde of MAGA zombies. Soundbites from these rallies are clipped and spread across broadcast TV where they are “sane-washed” by the mainstream media. The media has been grading Trump on a curve since 2016. Sure, you can find nightly critiques of the former president, but for the most part, mainstream media has figured out ways to piece together the more coherent parts of Trump’s speeches to show their viewers. And on right-wing “news” stations like Newsmax and Daily Wire, Trump’s lunacy is celebrated. And MAGA is tuning in at record numbers to these alternative news sources.
Newsmax’s viewership is up 68% since last year. Trumpers are even moving away from GOP-favorite Fox News to these more extreme conservative outlets. It’s the perfect example of confirmation bias.
We’re just swimming in so much disinformation at this point that it’s impossible to adequately administer the antidote: the truth. And even if you do present facts to Trumpers, the denial is swift. It’s more convenient to believe the false information because it feels better to them. They have alternative facts that align with their political leaning, thank you very much. Sure, a rational person would take the time to reevaluate their beliefs based on factual information. But this is Trump’s America! And in Trump’s America, inconvenient information isn’t acceptable. Especially if it’s coming from the “fake news.” Can you imagine what it would feel like to be told that something you wholeheartedly believe in isn’t true? Not great, right? So in a sense, many people have actively eroded their critical thinking skills to a point where they no longer think critically at all. Because doing so would mean everything they believed about their dear leader was wrong.
It used to be that the disinformation crowd would be shunned back into their basements and never heard from again. But now? They’re hosting some of the most popular podcasts in America. They’re finding their way into local government positions. They’re being elected to Congress. And the most terrifying part of it all: they’re handling our elections in critical battleground states.
Here’s the thing, many Americans are intimidated by people they can’t understand. That might be someone who speaks a foreign language or it could be someone who has a more expansive vocabulary. Trump appeals to a wide swath of the population because he speaks at a 4th-grade level. Word salad aside, he’s an effective communicator - he preys on his supporters’ biggest fears and tells them he will take care of them without getting into all the boring details. They don’t need to worry about the plan, he has one, trust him. He’s going to fix it all. The immigration issue? He’s going to deport the bad ones. Higher gas and grocery prices? He’ll bring those down. Healthcare? He’s got a beautiful plan for you.
He’s dumbed everything down so that, to his supporters, he’s relatable. It reminds me of when John Kerry ran for president. Kerry alienated so many people across the country because he was too smart. Less intelligent people are scared that smarter people will take power and control them. The irony of all of this is that it’s Trump who has the classic makings of an authoritarian ruler. He’s very open about it, too. But alas, he talks the way his supporters talk, so they trust him. Most importantly, he hates the same people they hate (first it was the Clintons and now it’s migrants).
What does a post-Trump era look like? I’m worried MAGAism is here to stay. Think about it - many of these voters have shaped their entire identity around MAGA. Once Trump is gone, what are they going to do with all the merch? What are they going to talk about with their friends? How are they going to use their free time? I know these feel like jokes, but I’m being serious. So many Americans have upended their lives in support of Trump. Some have gone as far as cutting out the family members and friends who disagree with them. They’ve dedicated their wardrobes to their favorite president and they continue to consume Trump-related content 24/7. If Trump goes away, how many will be lost without him?
Exclusive BOGO sale on Trump flags if he loses.
I can’t think of any other political candidate in American history that has entranced so many people. And now there are so many Trump copycats - you’ve got real winners like Vivek Ramaswamy, JD Vance, and Ron DeSantis who are rising to power. Not to mention the numerous traditional Republicans who have caved to Trump’s base like Rubio and Cruz.
So will the pendulum swing back in the right direction after this election? Will it take another Trump presidency to finally open people’s eyes to his severe incompetency? I certainly hope that’s not the case. We can’t afford another four years of his dangerous leadership. There seems to be some hope - the younger generation is voting overwhelmingly Democrat - polls show Harris has a 31-point advantage with the youth. But compare that to President Obama in 2008 when he received 66% of their vote. Yikes, maybe not as hopeful as I thought. What gives? I thought the schools were indoctrinating kids with liberal values. I guess our education system is flawed.
Or wait, what if Trump is a genius and I’ve been the dumb one this entire time? Am I the one who has been staring at screens for too long? Come to think of it, I haven’t read a book in a while… and my uncle did raise some good points about the 2020 election… let’s be real, Mike Pence should’ve done the right thing on January 6th… and now that I’m thinking about it, I was better off during Trump’s presidency… Oh God, did the Covid-19 vaccine turn me into a beta? And do I love… Kid Rock?
No no, that’s all so fucking stupid.
Thanks for reading Curiosity Killed the Chat! This post is public so feel free to share it
I’m moving away from recording everything I’ve written here and instead, I’m adding a bonus piece of audio you can listen to below - it includes my thoughts on recent campaign events and undecided voters.
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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TRIVIA
ANSWER: Minnesota. And technically Mondale won the District of Columbia, too. But Reagan took home 525 electoral votes compared to Mondale’s 13.
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