Just when so many are worried about transgenderization, we are witnessing the transnationalization of the USA. The USA was founded on democracy, freedom, and liberty for ALL. However, America is being transformed into a country based on autocracy, enslavement, and subjugation controlled by an oligarchy. This has been a slow, silent transformation that seeks to undermine America’s founding institutions using the tried and true methods of propaganda, gaslighting, and media control.
Opening lyrics to the 1962 song by Little Eva, The Loco-Motion:
Everybody’s doing a brand-new dance now
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)
I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)
The change of one word:
Everybody’s doing a brand-new dance now
(Come on, baby, do the Alter-Nation)
I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now
(Come on, baby, do the Alter-Nation)
This might be a little complicated, but stay with me. I will attempt to analyze Trump’s fundamental skill: flipping people. He converts “normal” people into obedient, cynical reflections of their former selves.
Many liberals were sucked into the world of J. D. Vance in 2016. He wrote Hillbilly Elegy to describe his formative years in his Appalachian culture. It fit the stereotype many had about his culture but also reinforced the idea that a poor boy from Appalachia could make something of himself if he acquired a good education. His book was on the best-seller list for years, and a Ron Howard movie was made in 2020.
The book also contains an antipathy towards government programs that keep many Appalachians poor and uninspired. Many conservatives latched onto his book to describe the fatalism and learned helplessness of the Appalachian poor that resulted in them becoming soldiers in the politics of rebellion against the existing system. His book had something for everyone. Interestingly, after Vance was elected vice president in 2024, he hit the best-seller list again as conservatives rushed to bookstores or Amazon to make Vance a wealthier man.
Similarly, other people have attracted followers from one side of the cultural war and later switched sides. Robert F. Kennedy Jr was a star environmental lawyer from the most famous Democratic family before becoming a Trump pawn. Several of the new Robber Baron-class billionaires, such as Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos, were once the darlings of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
What is happening? Are progressives’ collective values changing? Did they wilt under the MAGA coalition’s wholesale attack? First, let us study how we are all trapped in a world controlled by this new MAGA reality.
I believe most of us have been hoodwinked by a new generation of con artists who adroitly use alternation. Huh, what is alternation?
The term “alternation” in social psychology refers to “the concept of switching between different behaviors, attitudes, or social roles depending on the situation, often implying a dynamic shift between contrasting options, like moving between cooperation and competition depending on the social context.”
I also use the term to mean to “alter the nation.” Instead of changing individuals, alter-nation engineers are change agents for an entire nation.
For most of us, individual alternation is a predictable activity that happens naturally to many people. A young man might be a straight arrow on high school graduation day, but a year later, after one year of college, the young man dresses sloppily, drinks, and parties like there is no tomorrow. He did not intend to change so dramatically, but his social environment and interpersonal expectations were altered, so his behavior, attitudes, and social roles changed.
We could say that alternation is key to America’s cultural war. Each side of the war wants to create an attractive, compelling social context to convince undecided or unattached people to move to their side of the war. The popular term for this activity is “controlling the narrative.” Each side uses podcasts, YouTube videos, movies, television, and other media to retain its existing audience and attract susceptible new members. They also use the government to enforce behaviors that reinforce their worldview. Like herding cattle through a chute to be branded (or worse), cultural warriors use alternation to win battles in the larger cultural war.
I stop here to observe the uncomfortable position that many progressives find themselves in. Ten years ago, many of us were enamored with Tesla, Amazon, and Facebook. We bought Tesla cars, began buying almost everything from Amazon (especially during COVID-19), and used Facebook to communicate with friends and family. Now, we are held captive by three newly revealed MAGA oligarchs who not only control vast segments of our economy but also control us as individual consumers. Most of us lack the nerve to boycott our MAGA-leaning billionaires because we are so locked into their technology. Our morality says one thing, but our practicality says another. Will liberals throw up the white flag to appease the MAGA world?
Many of today’s astute oligarchs have switched their allegiance to the MAGA world because they have realized how Trump operates and that he implicitly understands alternation engineering. Trump obliterates our cultural landscape the way that the first year of college changes a straight-arrow into a slovenly college student. He totally dominates the media with his minute-by-minute tweets. If an apple picker in upstate New York criticizes his sexual proclivities, he will tweet a response and get one of his bald minions to harass the foolish man. He pollutes civil discourse with blatant lies, name-calling, disgusting curse words, and snarls. He alters the social world so much he attracts new adherents after his potential adversaries wilt and bow down to kiss the king’s ring. We have seen this personal conversion behavior countless times with Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeff Bezos, and J. D. Vance (he once called Trump an idiot and compared him to Hitler.) For every “big pigeon” he converts, he convinces 100,000 to be little pigeons.
Trump’s dominance of the conservative media is almost embarrassing. It is entertaining for liberals to watch Fox & Friends defend or ignore Trump’s latest attacks not only on liberal ideals but also on conservative ones. Likewise, Trump dominates the mainstream or lamestream media. They identify and ridicule Trump’s erratic behavior with disdain but become so apologetic that they become entertainment for conservatives.
Trump completely distorts the way Americans view the world to change them. In this sense, he is a successful “alter nation” engineer, even though his world is savage, resentful, and filled with hate. Once he got a majority of Americans, including people who call themselves religious, to accept him and his worldview, he altered their social landscape. Once this happens, people change their behavior. They are altered or transformed. Instead of fighting against his negativity, they drink the orange Kool-Aid and cooperate to destroy the post-World War II version of America. Their worldview has been altered to believe that Russia did not invade Ukraine, that Gaza should become an American seaside casino, that America’s allies are our enemies, that January 6 was a love feast, and that criminality is a virtue. The man who bought a seat at the Resolute Desk intends to take his chosen misfits to Mars. At the same time, our president of alter-nation wants everyone to return America to the glory days of William McKinley, tariffs, and Robber Barons.
A modern-day Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep in 2005 would not recognize America in 2025. Trump’s real genius is getting many people to alter their behaviors, attitudes, or social roles. He is an alter-nation engineer.