Cooperating with the enemy (updated)
We criticize with impunity the Trump administration’s assault on the free speech of late-night comics who ridicule him, or business executives and government officials who disagree with his policies, or his call for federal troops to patrol US cities for “combat training,” but this is only the initial phase of the assault. The impunity will likely vanish as Trump, who has disguised himself as a semi-literate buffoon, is revealed as the highly focused spearhead of a destructive movement against all humanity, a movement much more powerful and dangerous than others originating in post-World War II America, such as the comparatively ineffective campaign against free speech and thought in the early 1950’s, termed the “McCarthy era,” led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was disgraced and robbed of power before he could destroy the country. From indications so far, Trump, though he may be disgraced, will not be robbed of power before he achieves what he is after.
What he is after, with worldwide backing from people after the same thing, is ownership and profit derived from, first, demolition of the world’s current civilizations, followed by replacement of outdated humanity (us) with humanity 2.0 and revised civilizations. This transformation will happen remarkably fast-with or without Trump - probably within the lifetimes of young people alive today. It will have varied conceivable outcomes, some less nightmarish than others, depending on whether only Trump and his ilk, or other, possibly more benign forces influence it. Its roots come from science: new abilities to speed up evolution by manipulating human genetics, and to make what has been the strikingly powerful human brain secondary to Artificial Intelligence. At the end of the process, we will have no more in common with humanity 2.0 than we have with tribal humanity 300,000 years ago. In fact, we’ll have more in common with humanity 300,000 years ago.
Trump and his fellow investors have hitched their wagons to this developing future, with the goal, not of creating a new and better humanity, but of acquiring tremendous wealth and power.
Trump seeks dictatorial rule in order to carry out his role in the transformation. Any resistance from the populace will likely be derailed in large part by distractions of war (also useful in demolishing civilizations), presented as arising in response to unprovoked attacks on us by enemy groups or nations. On one level, the attackers may be actual enemies, while on another, less ideological level, there are often parties in enemy leadership willing to reach covert agreements with our side on critical details, like the timing of attacks. We have a history of such agreements. Dexter Filkins, in The New Yorker magazine, wrote that the US made deals with the Taliban during the Afghan war about where and when it would attack US troops; former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, in Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, advocated agreements with our “enemies” on where and when to drop nuclear weapons on each other. With such precedents, it seems likely that Trump’s highly provocative recent moves towards dictatorship will be accompanied soon by one or more violent attacks from foreign sources against the US, attacks so threatening that we will forget all about late night comics, federal troops patrolling our cities, James Comey, Jeffrey Epstein, dictatorship or anything other than how to survive.
[Update, 10/18/25: The current Israeli/Hamas deal on the hostage release and future of Gaza, since it comes at a time of increasing public questioning of Trump’s rule, could serve as a test of the premise that the purpose of war is often to distract from domestic tensions. In such a scenario, after the hostage release last week, if Hamas remains in Gaza and resists disarming, this could be followed by new Israeli strikes on Hamas, this time backed by the US, followed by an especially violent attack on the US, perceived, correctly or not, as perpetrated by Hamas, followed by war - now involving webs of alliances on both sides - of such intensity that an Orwellian takeover of American media will seem a necessity, rather than an objective of the war.]
Thus, any attack, from Hamas or another quarter, at the current peak of the administration’s need for distraction, can be considered evidence of covert US cooperation with the hostile state or group that launches the attack. Such evidence would be circumstantial, but compelling, circumstantial or not.
What can we do about our situation other than enjoy a short-lived freedom to make fun of it? I don’t see what one individual can do. You might as well have tried to stop World Wars I or II by yourself. One credible hope might be a well-funded and determined group that is focused, not on stopping the transformation of our species - since it can’t be stopped - but on demanding that humanity 2.0 retain significant human memory and identity, and some independence from the new kings, pharaohs and would-be gods now salivating at their prospects.