We are not going to willingly address climate change or stem the creeping rot of authoritarianism with the current make up of the conservative American personality.
We need a psychic overhaul concerning the mindset of much of our population.
Habitual over-consumption and the lifestyle that goes along with it needs a rebranding.
Consumerism and the aesthetics of the semi-rural and ex-urban American male have been Hemi-charged to the extent they blissfully participate in their own gas-fueled destruction.
There’s a reason that at the same time it became evident that gasoline powered automobiles along with coal burning power plants became leading causes of over heating our planet, the vehicles being sold in the United States became larger and more militarized in their aesthetic.
Some MAGA types even customized their vehicles to allow ‘coal rolling’ where they spew acrid black exhaust as they drive down the road, as a giant middle finger to the environmental movement and anyone they view as liberal.
Their inherent toxicity, not just in reality but in iconography, became the chief selling point to the fragile conservative ego.
Red State America doesn’t need more entertainment or media products.
They need an education.
They need a discourse designed to deflate the dogma and myths they have been handed down for generations.
Toxic iconography that has been packaged and plasticized and distilled into screaming eagle tattoos, skull t-shirts; guns and ammo have been a balm in what, to many, seems a cruel and confusing world.
The antidote for the poison they have consumed is not available at Walmart.
There is an enormous industry that has cropped up to insure that those seduced by Trump and reductivism brought forth by the GOP never change.
Donald Trump exists because America is the kind of place where millions of people admire a man who would use a 757 as his personal plane.
Not only that, they will line up to help him pay for it if only to bask in the wasteful obscenity of a life they will never have.
The USA has experienced a rapid demoralization over the past seven years. When you hit such a bottom, the first thing you need to recover from it is a willingness to change.
Many MAGA folks are addicted to their own self-importance and narcissism.
They get a hit of dopamine when they ‘speak out for Trump’ on their Facebook pages and tik tok accounts.
January 6th was their Woodstock ’99.
It’s why even once reluctant whistleblowers from the Trump administration and campaign suddenly bloom into podcast hosts pushing their latest books and TV appearances on their social media pages.
That first hit of attention is intoxicating and quite lucrative if you can tap into people’s sense of outrage and parlay that into donations and paid subscriptions to help them ‘fight back’.
Real revolutions don’t come with merchandise.
It’s akin to wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt under your prep school uniform.
It might feel punk rock but it damn sure isn’t the real thing.
The ‘real thing’ - especially when it comes to speaking the truth instead of playing along and making a buck like everyone else - is somewhat anathema to our current media environment.
It is designed to make us all into heels in the Wrestlemania politics of the GOP.
It only works if the rest of the media plays along.
In a reality show scenario you need a villain to make it click with viewers.
It doesn't matter who ‘Puck’ is a long as he exists.
Our politics and our discourse is degraded by the ‘MTV’s Real World’ elements of the current climate, especially when it comes to social media.
We are being manipulated and bombarded beyond our ability to recognize that is is even happening.
We get swept up in the fate and emotions an algorithm has steered us into, based on our own predilections and patterns.
This a snare that prey seldom escapes from; when the hunter returns for his rabbits the trap is usually full.
The world is not an intrinsically bad place, in fact it is quite the opposite. A wondrous place full of illuminating joy and beauty, compassion and harmony.
We can chose to align ourselves with the rhythms that we have far too often dulled ourselves into being unable to recognize.
The constant cries of ‘how did we get here?’ in response to the cruel outrage du jour manufactured by the GOP can be met with awareness and sharp rebuke.
Any rational, sane American is understandably offended on a daily basis by the vitriol and rhetoric being churned out by an increasingly desperate Republican party.
From Ron DeSantis and his promise to ‘start slitting throats’ in reference to federal employees (this coming after using a Nazi symbol in a campaign ad) to Greg Abbott torturing migrants - innocent people seeking asylum - with razor wire and drowning devices in the Rio Grande River.
They flaunt their sadism in a race to be the most despicable man in the GOP and will still never get out from under the shadow of Donald Trump, who is not only easily the worst man in the GOP but perhaps the worst criminal this country has ever produced.
We have always been here as a country in many ways, it just hadn’t been turned into a national brand until MAGA.
The sort of hatred and evil we see on display daily from the GOP politicians was at one time mostly a regional phenomena.
It existed in pockets, albeit large ones, but folks in coastal cities and the more progressive urban areas had to leave their homes to witness it.
Unless of course they were Black Americans and had to deal with law enforcement in matters as routine as traffic stops.
Then ugliness and racism was always in play and a reality of life, from Oakland to the South Bronx; usually in plain view but many of us chose not to look.
Now we cannot look away from the horrific character defects of racism and depravity, the GOP has it on full display every day.
They are an ‘Insane Clown Posse’ of politicians without the grace and class of the Jugaloos who at the very least care for each other and welcome outcasts into the fold.
The GOP hates anyone who isn’t a white, venal, craven, attention-seeking, spineless ‘Christian’.
They elect representatives with no other qualifications than being chaos agents and pledging loyalty to Donald Trump.
They are being backed by those who profit from the destruction of our system of government because the dysfunction generates a fortune.
MAGA ideology is being consumed by millions of people with no signs of abatement.
Certain polls show Trump’s popularity has risen since 2020 which is a staggering indictment of the moral character of millions of our fellow countrymen and women.
There’s a dullness to the average Trump voter - and I’m not just talking about the lack of smarts it takes to repeatedly get taken in by a conman.
I mean there’s a lack of sophistication and cultural awareness.
Their senses have been dulled by an excess of salt and fat, reality show programming and MAGA Nashville musical pablum.
Their minds have been infiltrated by endless American flag chyrons and slick and smarmy frat bros on Fox News telling them what to believe.
And what they believe is we are at war.
The irony of all this of course is that we should be at war.
At war against climate change and the enormous influence of the oil and gas and petrochemical industries.
They are making staggering profits while heating our atmosphere to the point that we are breaking global temperature records on a weekly basis.
That is what we should be mustering our defenses against.
It is every bit as much the existential threat as any fascist dictators we gallantly fought in decades past.
Imagine if we needed to protect out freedom in a foreign war and nobody wanted to fight.
They not only don’t want to get on the boat they want to pretend the battle doesn’t exist.
Imagine the outcome of World War II if the Greatest Generation simply didn’t show up or someone told them the threat wasn’t real and they believed it.
That is precisely what the folks filling the coffers of the Republicans want.
A voting base of people so stupefied they wont participate in their own defense and would prefer instead to enter into battle with fellow Americans in defense of a vainglorious grifter who doesn’t really care if they live or die as long as he can make a buck off of them and stay out of prison.
We must educate our fellow Americans as to what is really at stake and break through the chaos and noise.
In the end the truth always finds the light.
My Brother, I finally had the time to catch up on your podcast and Noel's Notes. I'm really glad that it happened this way, I got to watch the podcast and then I read Notes and they went together. There were several subjects that you hit on in the podcast but went deeper in Notes. I don't know if you meant it that way or it was just a coincidence but IT WAS GREAT!!!
You have a genuine gift. Please keep the words flowing My Brother ❤️🙏🤘
Noel, you’re always the clearest voice in the room Thank you and I wish you were required reading for all.
Let’s not forget, Mitch McConnell is from the coal state of Kentucky, and until he retires, coal will always be on the American menu. His wife was Sec of Transportation, her family is in shipping and coal from the US to China was massive during Trump’s reign (and still may be today). The coal states have real power, a solid problem for our planet.