By Conlan Salgado

Written by Conlan Salgado

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Exposition

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are breaking up. That two men would break up so publicly is perhaps appropriate in June, though it’s disheartening to learn that a man of Elon’s stature and power is as immature as a Dr. Strangelove cartoon. His wise points about pork and deficit spending notwithstanding, why did he suggest that Donald Trump is somehow his political ward–“Without me, Trump would have lost the election. . . such ingratitude”–or accuse Mr. T of being an Epstein client?

Beyond merely sounding like a dejected Oligarch, which is always a repulsive tone to take in a democratic Republic, it is additionally repulsive to accuse someone of being a rapist and pedophile over a policy dispute, especially when the available evidence is contrary. I appreciate DOGE deeply, but I think Elon has proved definitively he should not hold any significant amount of political power.

Why suggest that Trump would have lost without he, Musk? The idea is certainly doubtful, given the hatred people had for the Biden-Harris administration. Counterfactuals are also a bigger bitch than a tech billionaire who doesn’t get his way; but more importantly, such a suggestion smells rotten, smells of something such as: “I, Elon Musk, am owed political fealty. The Trump administration is an asset which I purchased.” It is certainly not a savory position for someone who believes in representative government.

The Argument

Given the indulgence of the past three paragraphs, it may surprise people to learn that this article was written to advocate for a complete boycotting of the scandal, which may just be two egos attempting to out-inflate each other, but which certainly does not deserve attention in a world where Islam is taking over Europe, two wars threaten to consume ever more lives and resources endlessly, and the American people are still under constant threat of piece-meal authoritarianism from a disreputable but enskonced coalition of institutions–Courts, Universities, Bureaucracies.

In such a world as this, neither Elon Musk’s feelings, nor his ego, have a value over 1 (out of 100).

Yet, there is a stronger and–dare I say–more moral reason to pay this internet idiocy no mind. Moral, you say????

Indeed, this love affair gone sour oddly allows us deep insight into the nature of the psychological manipulation perpetrated on the American people since 2015–the year of Donald Trump’s political unveiling. It is nothing original, though always important, to remind the people what a string of lies, hoaxes, and designer falsehoods pertaining to 45-47 were foisted on the voting public:

• Russian Collusion
• The Very Fine People Hoax
• Mocking the Disabled Reporter Hoax
• Veterans are Suckers and Losers Hoax
• Trump Advised People to Inject Themselves with Bleach
• Trump Banned Muslims Hoax

These are merely the most widely known, though they by no means exhaust the index.

The narrative frame I place on this may be surprising, but ultimately persuasive: namely, these hoaxes can only be understood in light of Covid-19.

It is no secret that Donald Trump was not merely disliked, or opposed, but in a spiritual sense genuinely hated. People began to re-arrange their lives–ostracizing friends or even family members–along Trumpian fault lines. He caused his critics increasingly to resort to, support, or at least privately consider wide-spread political violence as a legitimate form of resistance. It is a strange fact that hatred–the act of hating–is the most immediate and intimate method of resisting a person, thing, or belief.

The Bible tells us that God hates evil because his nature is totally opposed to evil, just as the Bible forbids us from hating even our enemies, since the existence of a human being ultimately points beyond itself and back to the act of God which gave rise to a unique soul; thus, a human being is never an acceptable reality to oppose. Human behavior is often something to be opposed, but the discrete fact of a person’s existence is always an inherent good.

In any case, to return to topic, millions of Americans had a persuasive reason to believe these fake stories prima facie, precisely due to the fact that they made Donald Trump–well, a HATABLE figure.

On a related note, recall that Covid-19 authoritarianism was only possible because a sufficient portion of the public was able to be duped, able to be convinced that their freedom needed to be totally surrendered in exchange for dubious protection against the virus; moreover, their participation in the coercion of their friends, neighbors and family members was crucial to suppressing the spread of the disease.

Of course, people have connected the Trump hoaxes and the Covid hoaxes in varying ways, most simply by noticing how they were peddled by the same institutions, experts, and media elites. My claim, however, is stronger, given the basic knowledge that the best way to addict someone to a particular behavior is to associate it with the release of dopamine.

My claim is the following: whether it was on purpose or (as I suspect) opportunistic predation, these Trump-related media fibs gave his haters–numbering in the tens of millions–a visceral and overwhelming emotional dopamine hit when they believed a fabricated or false story propagated by an institutionally sanctioned source. Believing officially sanctioned lies became pleasurable for countless citizens!

Or, rephrased: by late 2019-early 2020, there were tens of millions of Americans who were addicted to believing perjuries peddled them by institutionally sanctioned sources. AND THAT ISN’T ALL!

As one’s Trump hatred became more and more “justified” by these media revelations, as hating Trump felt better and batter, part of the emotional dopamine experience was acting on that hatred, expressing it behaviorally. In other words, shunning friends, rejecting lovers, ostracizing family members constituted a meaningful part of the emotional indulgence, the self-flattery regarding the supposed necessity to despise Trump and everything he represented.

The Recapitulation

I wish to claim that Covid-19, which might aptly be characterized as governance by hoax-making, was largely possible (though not solely possible) because half of this country was primed to ENJOY believing false and ridiculous claims and then acting viciously towards their loved ones in acts of grand emotional gratification.

Importantly, this ENJOYMENT was not the ENJOYMENT of base satisfaction, such as one might derive from eating or having sex. Rather, this is the pleasure the spirit feels in being right, in acting righteously. This pleasure is deeply vital to the well-being of the spirit, but like any of the sensual pleasures, can be easily disordered.

Believing that vaccination was life-saving or even culture-saving, believing that masking was an act of selfless protection, believing that social distancing was a terrific witness to science, a shouldering of scientific responsibility, gave the spirit the pleasure it feels when it loves righteousness, pursues what is good, and conversely hates what is evil.

Hating the mask-rebels, the unvaccinated, the socially intimate was equally delightful.

The Boycott

Tell us about Elon and Trump, you scream!

Yes. We should boycott this story because it is a hoax. Not literally in the sense of conjured falsehood, but certainly in how it is meant to affect us. This story is meant to be emotional dopamine for Trump haters and Trump lovers alike. The tweets, aren’t they hilarious! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Think about how many memes and pride month jokes (mea culpa) this event promises to provide!

Think about the uncontrollable urges to argue, to name-call, to rhetorically vanquish my social media foes! Elon should be deported! Trump should be impeached! We finally have an explanation for the withholding of the Epstein list! This fight is solving everything!!!!!

Or nothing.

It is never a good thing to see two friends turn on each other. The only thing worse is for two friends to turn on each other publicly, inviting the rest of the world to think badly about one another.

Our society is ill. It is ill because social media has trained the mind and the spirit to pleasure itself through emotional masturbation and disordered wallowing. It is ill because people are constantly on the look-out for emotional excitement, buildup, release.

Do not take pleasure in this fallout. Do not allow yourself to become angry at strangers (twitter), or debate crossly with friends and family over this affair.

Instead, let this be the last and best reason to delete your social media avatar.

Do not help construct a digital colosseum around these internet-nominated gladiators. Do not watch with a smile as two friends draw swords and attempt to stab each other through the heart.

*****

Image credit: Grok Image Generator

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