Political Memes

Make no mistake, Trump and MAGA are objectively, definitionally evil.

They are a hateful death cult of bigotry, incompetence, and anti-intellectualism.

The cruelty is the point.

They are the unbound id of insecure idiots... they are, as Chaplin put it, 'but the passing of greed.'

But, they are also very powerful.

Acknowledging that real power is not contemtible, it is practical, it is effective, it is the first step toward dismantling it.

What Zorhan does, and did here, is basically what you just call extremely effective politicking, masterful public speaking, actual negotiating, which is much more a poker-like meta game than simply a direct comparing and contrasting of demands.

This is confusing to most people who don't study history, because in the last 50 years of the neoliberal era, almost all of what we've seen by almost all politicians has been neutered, milquetoast, appeal to 'this is normal and everyone can agree with me', two-faced hackery...

And the rest has largely been insane, uncompromising, highly rhetorical aggressive blustering, toward self-described extreme ends.

We barely even know how to recognize the ability to simultaneously be a silver tongued devil, while also never actually comprimising or shifting any of your actual stances.

Go listen to the whole presser.

Not once does Mamdani praise any specific Trump decision or policy, he never gives him credit for anything, beyond that he, in that very moment, appears to be willing to work with him.

Meanwhile, Trump is pretty much fawning over Mamdani, defending him from aggressive journo questions, even doing his polite version of telling journos their questions (toward Mamdani) are stupid. He literally answers some hostile questions directed at Mamdani, in Mamdani's defense.

He literally goes on a whole tangent explaining how something they both have in common is that the media hates them.

Which... broadly, Mamdani can and does agree with.

Because it is true, though obviously in different ways and for different reasons if you delve into any details beyond the most surface level... so what you do is just not delve into those details, and allow the adulation to flow, thus cementing the destruction of the MAGA movement.

Trump is a narcissistic egomanic who is too stupid to realize that if he makes it very obvious that he is such, his base will fracture.

It is entirely possible to impress a narcissistic egomaniac with your own resolve, unwillingness to budge on a single issue, yet also make a compelling case for your own policies, and dispell any mis/disinformation surrounding yourself or your policies.

So, do that.

Don't show weakness, don't comprimise on your core principles and policies, don't try to bullshit a bullshitter.

Now, the narcissist egomaniac sees/projects themselves in/onto you.

The best part is that you don't even have to reciprocate the ego fluffing, you just have to remain steadfast, determined, but also just not insult the narcissist, and they will love you, because you remind them of themself.

(For a historical parallel/example, what immediately comes to mind is how Stalin, another egomaniac narcissist, was genuienly duped by Hitler into a sham alliance.

This was an alliance that Hitler always had every intention of breaking, but Stalin was so successfully woo'd by Hitler that he genuienly did not believe it when Hitler actually launched Barbarossa.)

Zohran did not make any deals with Trump. He did not endorse any of his decisions, actions, or policies.

He simply explained to Trump that the media and Trump's sycophants have been lying about him and his intentions, and that while they do certainly disagree on the how of realizing some of those shared intentions, the they do actually agree on the what of some of those intentions.

Mamdani, you see, is actually the master of 'The Art of the Deal', and just gave us all a masterclass.

Give up nothing.

Achieve your goals to the greatest extent possible.

In doing what Mamdani has just done, he's shown MAGA that their cultic god believes in nothing other than his own ability to feel important, powerful, and productive...

... and he's shown every milquetoast toast, corpo Dem / liberal that simpering and grovelling and whining and supplicating is a guaranteed losing strategy against the core of the right wing voting base, whole, as embodied by their figurehead, simply value feeling respected, and not being bullshitted or obviously pandered to, more than almost anything else.