The Witness Chronicles, 2/25/25

The shame

Feb 25, 2025

President George Washington — Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

White Guy in America: A Myth Dies a Horrible and Shameful Death

They think they are retaking power but they are shaming it

Powerful people do not spend their power intentionally hurting others, not if they have real power. Nor do they look away when leaders are wreaking vengeance on those they think have disobeyed them. And when our leaders are doing these things, our country is broken.

And that is where we find ourselves today. But we can fight this virus of heartlessness and rebuild by not buying into their mythology of white male superiority and mysognism. Full disclaimer, I am a white guy and I am fully aware of the advantages that confers upon me and the things I did not have to deal with because of an accident of birth.

This week we saw experienced military leaders summarily fired because they were women or people of color in a blatant display of racism and hate. That should forever be a moment of shame for all of us. And we saw silence from the Republican Congress as these actions were taken. Not only that, but we have a President who ordered those firings and took pleasure in them.

That is how the right rewards lifetimes of service and loyalty to the principles this country was built on. Frankly it makes me disgusted to be represented by men and women who have abandoned all decency in the name of a would-be petty despot billionaire and his lackeys.

One of the characteristics of Donald Trump is that he does not care about the future or his place in history, and he has surrounded himself with people who share that lack of consciousness about what this country has been for 250 years, the greatest political success story in human history.

For those of us who do not hate or fear everything we disagree with, this lack of personal awareness is impossible to understand. Where do these men come from? What made them so mad and fearful? Where is their pride and honor? And why do their colleagues support them or simply look away in silence as they destroy this place?

I’ll admit I am writing today as a form of cleansing, to rid myself of the disgust that has been building for the last month. But what really bothers me is that these people are going out of their way to find more and more disgusting acts in their search for some kind of retribution, for revenge. It’s a sickness. My writing won’t reach them or change what they are doing. But it might tell others that you are not alone in these feelings.

My friends and family spend too much of our time talking about what is going on in the country, expressing our collective and ongoing shock at the inhumameness of these people. To a normal person their level of hatred and anger looks like the mental illness it is. But, for me, it is not them that I see as the real problem, it is the Party and the elected officials who stand by silent as their leaders tear things apart, seemingly taking pleasure in all of it.

And those who make excuses like ‘at least they are doing something’ as though these are productive actions that will make this country a better place. You don’t make things better by leaving a trail of wreckage, you make them better by building on what works, which is why we have a government.

Government in not the enemy, it is the way we organize ourselves to do that building and to protect ourselves from danger. But it is not a business. In fact, government is there to keep things fair and equitable for all, to create a level playing field. But a level playing field is not what this President wants.

And that is the true shame here. He told us exactly what he was going to do and he is doing it. And a slim majority of us told him to go ahead because, to be blunt, they could not be bothered to think about what he was promising and who he has been all his life, a liar and a scam artist.

Elon Musk claims transparency in his actions, though there is no evidence of any. And he is sowing fear across every federal worker with his threatening emails, a completely unnecessary and cruel action that is disrupting all the critical functions of the government.

Cruelty is the worst thing about what these men are doing and tells us a lot about their personalities, which show signs of being psychopathic. I have always assumed Trump was a sociopath because he was incapable of caring about others, but I now believe he may be a full blown psychopath that takes pleasure in hurting others. Musk shows signs of the same callous behavior.

It is possible that the assassination attempts last summer have driven Trump over the edge, after an abusive childhood, something he apparently shares with Musk. That’s all speculative of course, but the evidence is mounting and is the only explanation for why and how they are doing these destructive and cruel firings and freezes.

They’re not just psychopaths, they’re idiots

Why would you fire tax collectors during tax season when you are trying cut the deficit? These people bring money into government.

The obvious answer is you do not give a shit about reducing government debt, you only care about evading taxes. And that is the core reality of what these people are doing. They are only looking out for their own interests and the interests of the other new members of the new American oligarchy, the billionaires, who could care less about you or me.

It’s called self-dealing, pretending the actions you are taking have benefits for the country when, in fact, they only benefit a tiny fraction of the people, not one percent; one percent of one percent. Fire the tax collectors? The argument for this is idiotic, as is nearly every thing they do. And that is their weakness.

The Witness Chronicles, politics decoded

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