It’s just simple abuse. It’s no more complicated that that. Trump is not some genius, he’s just an abusive asshole with a megaphone.
The whole point is to constantly be testing the loyalty of supporters, while punishing detractors. For the supporters, the constant “attention” is a reward. Every opportunity to say “there are three lights” is making themselves part of the lie. For the rest of us, the constant, unavoidable gaslighting is exhausting, and the visible, ever present degradation of our civic institutions is horrifying. Yet we are forced to either witness it and confront it day after day if we are to oppose it, or check out and let it happen, just hoping it ends quickly.
Trump is not some genius, he’s just an abusive asshole with a megaphone.
As the son of a former abusive asshole myself, there’s truth in it. A large percentage of people will accept abuse for close to a decade, but usually they inevitably snap and try getting away from the abuse. It just requires constant small losses to realize, and you can’t let them rot alone. Otherwise they fall even deeper into a cult-like thinking. Maybe it should be seen a little akin addiction, they need a reminder, there’s a small way to get back to how things were before.
