G.V. (@gv12997189)
I’m hearing this question often enough that I decided to post my answer here — now I can copy and paste a link vs writing out my answer each time. Most importantly: there are minds far smarter than mine answering and expounding on this question (see the footnote for sources), but sometimes it takes hearing things a particular way in order for them to click. If this clicks for you, I’m glad.
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Question
What is the Trump administration’s objective in all of what they’re doing to destroy the United States government and economy right now?
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My Answer
Personal opinion based on the work of experts and observers I trust: their objective is less "destroying" the country and more with "re-ordering" it. Who has means and who does not; who has rights and who does not; who has power and who does not; how decisions, laws, and decrees get made. The reordering of the administrative and financial systems for the benefit of the people at the top (especially anyone/anything having to do with cryptocurrencies) is just one aspect.
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The crucial thing to understand is that there are at least three groups with agendas (and, interestingly, they each have an attendant tome):
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1 - the global power-play agenda (Putin and his global "zones of influence" plan as outlined in Project Russia — with Xi, Kim, Orbán, and other notable autocrats firmly having Putin’s back);
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2 - the technoligarchy and their Network State agenda; and
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3 - the white Christian nationalist/Christian Zionist/Heritage Foundation/Project 2025 agenda.
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There are overlaps between groups -- for example Peter Thiel, tech billionaire and wannabe-Dark-Enlightenment-overlord, has ties to both Project Russia and Opus Dei/fundamentalist Catholicism.
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There are overlaps in agendas -- for one, the objectives of the Network State project are aligned with/complimentary to Putin's Project Russia. So for now, it behooves all of these agenda-having camps to play together, and it will so long as their goals are aligned.
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For us, the folks on the ground who aren't voluntarily part of any of these agendas and who aren't best served by any of them either, what this would mean is a complete reorganizing of how the country and the world as a whole are put together. They haven't gotten far enough yet for it to be out of our hands, but there needs to be a major shift in what people know and understand about what is going on and what we can do collectively to rise up against it and throw sand in the gears.
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Some good resources on the agenda groups above (not vouching for the subjects’ positions on anything other than the subjects I’m citing them as sources for here):
(1) @Olga Lautman, @masha gessen, @Dave Troy, @Claire Berlinski, @Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Dina Khapaeva, Marietje Schaake, @Sarah Kendzior, @Yanis Varoufakis, @Maria Ressa, Anne Applebaum
(2) @Gil Duran, Dave Troy, Jenny Cohn, Raymond Craib, Yanis Veroufakis, David Gerard, Karen Hao, Adam Becker
(3) Jenny Cohn, Bruce Wilson, Gareth Gore, Katherine Stewart, @Brad Onishi, Andy Kroll
(all of the above / relevant to multiple agendas) @Heather Cox Richardson, @Jared Yates Sexton, Jack Bryan, @Grace Blakeley, Jason Stanley
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Sue Cohen
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