There’s a saying that’s been floating around for years — maybe you’ve heard it: “You can’t fix stupid.” Well, after the Trump era, we can confirm that not only can’t you fix it — you also can’t reason with it, debate it, or even Google it out of someone’s brain.
My father once joked, “I’ve made up my mind, don’t confuse me with the facts.” We laughed. Oh, how we laughed. What a funny little one-liner! Then came MAGA, and suddenly that offhand quip wasn’t a joke anymore — it was a political platform. It was policy. It was the default setting of millions of Americans, all running on the same glitchy software: fact-resistant nationalism 1.0.
Let’s be clear: we’re not talking about innocent misunderstanding here. We’re not talking about Uncle Joe who thinks the moon landing was filmed in a parking lot. No, this is next-level. This is a systemic refusal to believe anything that doesn’t come from a red-hatted, blue-checked Twitter account or a guy in a suit yelling into a camera about how wind turbines are causing cancer.
When presented with hard facts — say, a unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision smacking down a Trump policy — the Trump team didn’t even flinch. No pivot, no apology, not even a polite “we disagree with the Court.” Nope. They held a press conference in the Oval Office, and Steven Miller stood there like some kind of haunted ventriloquist dummy and told the nation, with the straight face of a man who’s never once blinked in his life, that they had actually won. Vindicated! Triumphant! Black is white! Up is down! Cats are dogs! War is peace! And don’t you dare ask questions, or you’re the problem.
This isn’t just confirmation bias. This is gaslighting on a national scale. It’s the political version of “Don’t believe your eyes, believe me.” They lie so boldly, so shamelessly, that some people start to wonder if maybe they’re the ones who got it wrong. (Spoiler: they didn’t.)
The MAGA movement perfected the art of turning delusion into doctrine. The strategy? Simple:
- Say something wildly false.
- Say it louder.
- Repeat it until your followers believe it, the media reports it, and the rest of us are too exhausted to argue anymore.
And if that doesn’t work? Just accuse your critics of doing the thing you’re actually doing. Rigging elections? Check. Politicizing the justice system? Check. Undermining democracy? Triple check. It’s like watching a toddler knock over a vase and then cry because you did it.
What makes this dangerous — more than just frustrating — is that this isn’t a bug. It’s the feature. It’s how fascism works. First, you destroy trust in institutions. Then you create your own alternate reality. Then you punish anyone who tries to leave the cult.
We are not in a policy debate anymore. We are not arguing over tax brackets or zoning laws. We are standing at the edge of something far more serious: a coordinated attempt to replace democracy with authoritarian rule — and to do it while telling you it’s for your own good.
And yes, we can joke. We should joke. Humor is a survival skill. It’s how we stay sane when surrounded by people who genuinely believe JFK Jr. is coming back to run as Trump’s VP. But we cannot afford to dismiss this as just “stupidity.”
Because stupidity can be laughed off. This? This is strategy. This is propaganda. This is how you overthrow a country in broad daylight — not with tanks, but with talk shows. Not by silencing dissent, but by flooding the zone with so much nonsense that truth itself becomes irrelevant.
So yes, you can’t cure stupid. But you can outvote it. You can outnumber it. You can call it out, confront it, and refuse to normalize it. And most importantly, you can recognize that beneath all the chaos, confusion, and conspiracy theories lies a very clear goal: absolute power.
And if we don’t stop it now, we may not get the chance again.