The MAGA Strategy: Distraction, Outrage, Overwhelm, Acquiescence
We will not be overwhelmed or distracted into giving up
At least a dumpster fire is stationary. That’s a singular problem. But the American political landscape is a flaming carousel of human rights violations, constitutional breaches, and the instigation of international conflicts.
Staying informed will break your heart. Every. Single. Day. But overwhelm has been the MAGA strategy since its first administration.
Within 24 hours:
A U.S. senator broke a Marine Corps veteran’s arm on multiple cameras
Puppy-killing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is finally fired, not for failing Americans, as many have pointed out, but for being the flying monkey who failed to accomplish more of MAGA’s agenda.
The U.S. senator nominated to replace Noem as a cabinet secretary is the same senator who threatened a witness, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O’Brien, during televised testimony about unions before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
“Sir, this is a time. This is a place. You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults — we can finish it here,” U.S. Senator Markwayne “what was we ranked in math and education” Mullin challenged O’Brien, who accepted the challenge. “Well stand your butt up then.”
Senator Bernie Sanders intervened to remind Mullin that he is a sitting U.S. senator and to sit down and act accordingly.
The Alexander brothers, luxury real estate tycoons are on trial for federal sex trafficking charges. The Israeli-American trio was charged with drugging and raping women and underage girls dating back to 2008. The jury heard closing arguments after 30 witnesses testified, including 11 female victims.
The stomach-churning details of their almost two decades of “preying”, “hunting”, and “trapping”, terms they themselves used in texts and public blog posts, on women and girls in multiple cities and countries are infuriating to read. But the bravery of their victims coming forward is to be commended, particularly after Australian Kate Whiteman died. In 2012, Whiteman was the first to accuse the twin brothers of sexual assault. Subsequently more than a dozen women filed civil suits alleging the same. Whiteman was not scheduled to testify and the coroner determined her death was “not suspicious.”
Secretary of War, as Pete Hegseth re-christened himself, ordered the torpedoing of the IRIS Dena, an unarmed ship in the Indian Ocean, killing 87 sailors and leaving almost a hundred more stranded at sea.
The Iranian frigate was returning from MILAN 2026, a multinational naval exercises. The ship had roughly 180 people on board. The Sri Lankan Navy rescued 32 people but 61 are still missing.
The BBC quoted Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchias saying that the U.S. "perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran's shores".
Make no mistake, they will do anything to distract and delay actual investigation into the Epstein files. The MAGA administration that campaigned on America first instead of foreign wars has already threatened to annex Canada and Greenland, bombed Venezuela and strafed Caribbean fishing boats, and is now bombing Iran.
They will keep subpoenaing the wives of prominent Democrats to testify about their husband’s behavior before they subpoena the powerful implicated men themselves.
The human brain can only process so much information at one time, especially vicariously traumatic information. The human heart can only process so much tragedy at a time. The human psyche can only hold so much outrage. And the soul just cannot reconcile this much simultaneous injustice.
Distract.
Overwhelm.
Psychologically exhaust people into acquiescence.
If we feel helpless, if we feel powerless to make a difference in this vast morass of chaos and cruelty, maybe we’ll just give up.
Trial lawyer Daphne Delvaux, explains why, with respect to the horrifically traumatic Epstein files, this strategy is not actually allowed at trials.
“Courts understand that when the brain is flooded with horror, your system gets hijacked by the primal brain. You go into hypervigilance, rage, obsession, and collapse. We have a name for this: reptile theory. Reptile theory is a trial strategy built on this premise: if you can bypass the cognitive brain and activate the primitive survival brain (the oldest/reptile part of the brain), you can control outcomes without ever persuading on facts or law. This strategy is not allowed at trial.”
MAGA is trying to flood us with horror, hypervigilance, and collapse.
“Oscillating between being completely consumed and enraged, and wanting to turn away and burn your phone forever, is a healthy response,” Delvaux further explains. “That swing is your nervous system trying to protect itself.”
Listen. Joy is not resistance. Not in and of itself. But joy can be sustenance for the duration.
My friends, we are in this struggle for the long haul. Peacefully uniting to fight tyranny is a marathon, not a sprint. So if you are privileged enough to unplug, to look away for a moment here and there, to decompress, appreciate your privilege, and let your soul rest when you can.
But please remember how many people are living in abject terror right now. Don’t forget how many Minnesotans can’t leave their homes and are depending on the heroic generosity of their neighbors and strangers to bring them supplies, to take their children to and from school, or to provide an underground medical network of care for families too scared to go to hospitals, even to deliver babies. Think about the families all over this country who are also too scared of ICE to leave their homes, regardless of who’s in charge of DHS.
Remember the Greenlandic people, Venezuelans, Iranians, and whoever is next in MAGA’s ruthless distraction campaign.
If you are lucky enough, and safe enough to step back for a moment to read heartwarming Swedish novels or to fall in love with gay hockey players on TV, count your blessings. But do so in order to return to the fight refueled and reenergized to advocate for children being raped in immigration detention centers, families trying to find bomb shelters, and Minnesotans still under siege.
The MAGA administration is trying to shock, emotionally overwhelm, and psychologically short-circuit Americans into giving up on legal consequences for Epstein accomplices and human rights violations by distracting us with international war crimes.
Stay the course, friends. We can do this.