Where will our panic lead? (Issue #89)
As our fear of the Trump presidency sets into reality, it’s time we take a really deep breath.
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Hi friends!
Pretty much every political conversation I’ve had since Trump’s inauguration has followed a now-predictable pattern. What will often start as a brief mention of an admittedly scary Trump administration action, threat, or update, will quickly spiral into a confusing swirl of panic and overwhelm. That’s not to say that panic isn’t justified—this administration has been in office for less than three weeks, and every day has brought a barrage of harrowing headlines. Promises to control what public schools can teach, especially when it comes to sexuality, race, gender, and politics. Threats to hit Mexico and Canada with heavy tariffs (only to pause them a few days later). Steps towards mass deportations, including the rolling back of policies that protected migrants from being arrested at churches and schools and announcing plans to hold migrants at Guantanamo Bay. The disappearance of thousands of government web pages (gift link) containing information on everything from vaccines and scientific research to hate crime prevention. Declarations that the U.S. will “take over” the Gaza Strip. Reports of Elon Musk’s increasing access and control over critical government data.
Any one of these things is scary on its own. But together? It’s a paralyzing deluge of horrifying, hopeless, end-of-the-world-level updates.
Or is it? It’s easy to get lost in Trump’s chaos, which is why I want us to take a step back. To ground ourselves. For me, that means constantly reminding myself to stay specific, stay focused, and stay present.
Trump reminds me a lot of the opponents I faced in high school debate. Stay with me here. These kids dominated the space. They read their arguments at breakneck speed, spewing out a list of points so long it felt impossible to respond to them all. They’d come locked and loaded with a dozen responses for every argument they faced. The first time I debated someone like this, I panicked. I assumed what they were saying had to be true—especially when they backed it up with a rapid-fire string of sources. But over time, I learned better.
Because here’s the secret about debaters like this – their dominance is usually just a mirage. A long, rapid-fire list of responses isn’t the same thing as a well-supported argument. Their evidence was often cherry-picked or taken out of context. Their arguments were confident but messy. But what they were really good at was creating overwhelm—making you feel like there was no way to win. And that, of course, was absolutely not true.
You don’t beat an aggressive debater by panicking and following them down their chaotic rabbit holes. The opposite is usually the best strategy – to take a deep breath and actually look at everything they’re throwing at you. To figure out how to push back strategically. Resist the overwhelm. Keep your confidence. Once I learned to do that, it was sometimes shocking how quickly their case would fall apart.
Now, Trump is not a high school debater, and the stakes are much higher than a little trophy for rhetorical superiority. But I keep thinking about those debates because Trump and his cronies want the same thing from us that those debaters wanted—to make their opponents feel so inundated with information that they can’t even begin to mount a response, let alone win.
We live in an era where new information is impossible to avoid. News outlets, podcasts, influencers, and an endless stream of strangers on the internet are ready to rush in with a new headline, fresh update, or essential how-to. And with it comes a flood of misinformation and disinformation targeting folks across the political spectrum (yes, I am talking to you, Gen Zers, Leftists (gift link), and Liberals — it’s not just your conservative grandpa who falls for conspiracy theories!). This constant barrage leads to one consistent reaction: panic.
In the last few days alone, I’ve seen detailed advice on what to prepare in case you need to flee the country, sincere questions about whether we should all empty our 401k’s, warnings about what could happen if you don’t have an updated birth certificate and passport, survival tips in case the eletrical grid is shut off, and messages of reassurance to keep warning others even if they think you’re overreacting. These aren’t fringe takes. Most of them have thousands of likes.
Now, I’m not saying what Trump has been doing isn’t concerning. Quite the opposite. Has the start of the Trump presidency been deeply frightening? Absolutely! But what worries me is our panic is skipping past where we are now, and giving Trump more credit for destruction than he’s actually accomplished.
If you take one thing from this newsletter, let it be this: listen to this episode of the Ezra Klein Show. It’s less than 15 minutes long, and worth every second.
The episode begins with a clip of a 2019 Frontline interview with Steve Bannon. In it, Bannon describes a tactic he calls “muzzle velocity”:
“The opposition party is the media. And […] because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time.
All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity.”
And to this, Ezra Klein shares some advice:
“Donald Trump’s first two weeks in the White House have followed Bannon’s strategy like a script. The flood is the point. The overwhelm is the point. The message wasn’t in any one executive order or announcement. It was in the cumulative effect of all of them. The sense that this is Trump’s country now. This is his government now. It follows his will. It does what he wants. If Trump tells the state to stop spending money, the money stops. If he says that birthright citizenship is over, it’s over.
Or so he wants you to think. In Trump’s first term, we were told: Don’t normalize him. In his second, the task is different: Don’t believe him.”
Trump’s strategy is to move with the confidence and assertiveness of someone more powerful than he actually is. “If we believe he is already king, we will be likelier to let him govern as a king,” Klein explains.
Trump is the president, yes. But he is subject to the same restrictions as any president before him. That’s not to say he doesn’t want to undermine those restrictions. He does, and he is taking steps to do so. But we need to be careful to not help him along this path. If we believe Trump, if we give into panic, it becomes a hell of a lot harder to believe that resistance is still possible.
So, let’s circle back to where we started. Stay specific. Stay focused. Stay present. What is Trump actually doing? Mostly, he’s issuing executive orders, releasing memos, and making big declarations about his plans. These statements become headlines, but they don’t always mean a policy is immediately taking effect. Because what Trump says he’s going to do isn’t the same as what he can do.
We’re not even a month into this term, and already, Trump has faced resistance. Judges have blocked his plans to end birthright citizenship, and more than 20 states have sued the administration over the order. The plan to freeze federal funds was blocked by a judge and then quasi-backtracked by the administration. And just this week Texas representative Al Green introduced articles of impeachment over Trump’s threats against Gaza.
The road ahead won’t be easy, and not all resistance will succeed. But we’re not at the point of no return. Trump hasn’t torn down every safeguard yet. And before he can rule like a king, he has to get through us first. That means we have to be united, clear-eyed, and ready. Because the only way he wins—is if we let him.
A round-up of things to watch, read, and listen to as you head into the weekend.
The Atlantic: The Wellness Women Are on the March by Elaine Godfrey
A deep-dive on MAHA (“Make America Healthy Again”), a semi-grassroots conservative health movement spreading rapidly across social media. The article examines RFK Jr’s role in the movement, and how Instagram influencers have served as promotion for his fringe, scientifically inaccurate and unspecified claims.
Podcast: Am I Doing it Wrong?
With episodes like “How to Hack Your Credit Card Perks,” “Understanding Grief,” and “How to Keep Your Houseplants Happy,” this podcast promises you’ll end each episode “wiser, less worried, and more equipped to do every day a little better.” I’m excited to check it out!
Netflix: I Am a Killer
Each episode of this series follows a different prisoner convicted of murder, weaving together interviews with them, the victim’s family, and other key figures in the case. I was worried a show like this could easily veer into exploitation, but for the most part, it handled each story with nuance and complexity. That said, some episodes fell flat when they tried to manufacture doubt—leaning into “what if they’re secretly evil?” rather than allowing the viewer to sit with the messy reality of these cases. Still, I think it’s worth a watch!
A new episode of my podcast Truer Crime dropped Monday! In researching, I was routinely shocked by how much this 1984 case could teach us about our current political moment.
"Alan Berg, a prolific talk radio personality, kept Denver listening. At a time when the airwaves still sounded mostly polite and apolitical, Alan was best known for his brash politics and fiery arguments with callers. All of this came to an end in the summer of 1984, when Alan was murdered outside of his home. Today’s episode is about the importance of speaking up, even against the forces that will do anything to keep us quiet.”
You can listen to “Alan Berg” and other episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or by searching “Truer Crime” wherever you get your podcasts.
Things to try + share in the group chat.
As a kid, I was always fighting bedtime and had a habit of tricking my babysitters to stay up later. I even came up with a whole bedtime routine I claimed was non-negotiable — including reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. One babysitter actually bought it, which still makes me laugh. 😂 While scrolling through reels, I realized I’m not the only one who sees the Pledge of Allegiance as prime material for a great prank:
I love Portrai Me’s process for creating custom art. They create “personality drawings,” and you start by sending them a list of words and images that have meaning in your life. They then use ink and gouache on fine-art paper to construct a work of art that is uniquely you. Here are a few favorites:
As part of my monthly bonus issue, I shared about Truer Crime’s launch, my favorite buys, and more of what I loved in January! Check it out:
Until next week!
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Thank you for this. It really helped.