JA WestenbergApr 3, 2025

Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" has landed.

Liberation from what? Accountability? Cooperation? Reality? He's celebrating a barrage of tariffs—the economic equivalent of lighting your house on fire and calling it a renovation.

There's no liberation here. It's coercion. It's control. 🧵

Show threadJA Westenberg

This is economic nationalism as religion—ritualized suffering, blind loyalty, and faith in a strongman savior.

The numbers barely matter—ten percent, twenty-five, fifty. What matters is the theater: the countdown, the choreographed chaos, the flag-wrapped announcement.

Apr 3, 2025 at 11:04amBuffer
Show threadJA WestenbergApr 3, 2025
Trump does not have the knowledge or the will to drive the U.S. economy; all he can do is demand allegiance. If prices go up, that's the point. If allies retaliate, all the better. Pain is the performance. The more Americans are made to struggle, the more devotion can be measured.
Show threadJA WestenbergApr 3, 2025
This is masochistic nationalism, and it's not new. MAGA has always fixated on pain as a path to purification. From the cultish obsession with economic ruin to the glorification of border brutality, suffering is not a consequence to be managed—it's a feature to be worshipped.
Show threadJA WestenbergApr 3, 2025
It's the politics of blood and soil, repackaged for the Walmart parking lot.
In this twisted worldview, tariffs are tests, not tools. Can you still chant "America First" when your car costs 8% more? Will you keep praising Trump when your grocery bill breaks your budget? Good. That's your sacrifice.
Show threadAleksandr KoltsoffApr 3, 2025
@Daojoan Interestingly I just ran across this yesterday and watched it. The whole sacrifice aspect resonates so strongly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMyHbgUYk78 ( "Timothy Snyder: The New Paganism—A Framework for Understanding Our Politics" )
Timothy Snyder: The New Paganism—A Framework for Understanding Our Politics | LIVE from NYPL

YouTube
Show threadJust another rakyat 🇲🇾Apr 3, 2025
@Daojoan “Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them, 'I offer you struggle, danger, and death,' and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.” - George Orwell
Show threadmiket330Apr 3, 2025
@Daojoan yeah, what is cheetolini sacrificing?
Show threadëRiCApr 3, 2025
@Daojoan oh grocery! What a beautiful word!
Show threadSassinake!Apr 3, 2025

@Daojoan

Working the absurdities to get to the fun part: atrocities.

or how to divert the people's rage from 'eat the rich' to 'eat your neighbour'.

Show threadErik AblesonApr 3, 2025
@Daojoan Noting that the pain is supposed be borne by "others". It's an inherently sadistic worldview.
Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyApr 3, 2025
@erik @Daojoan That it is - but definitely also masochistic; as the consequences of their support of The Great Leader™️ come crashing down, The Faithful & Patriotic™️ grit their teeth & endure, feeling pride in their sacrifice for The Greatest Country On Earth™️. We are literally already seeing Trump supporters shrug off *the death of their children* as no big deal; a price worth paying for Righteousness™️. It's a death cult & that's why it's the most fertile soil imaginable for pure, wanton evil.
Show threadpaddlarenApr 3, 2025

@Daojoan

Don't think it is the intention, but he is on the verge to a trade war that might break some of the free trade agreements that has cased us to over consume since the 70's (during my lifetime), and to always value money over anything (such as life).

I despise the blond bastard but I think this might actual benefit the planet and that is a good thing regardless.

Wonder what MAGA will do when they realize...

Show threadJames TurtonApr 3, 2025

@paddlaren @Daojoan this is interesting, so you're suggesting that a runaway consumerism problem in the US could be countered by the tariffs, and the net effect could benefit that population?

I like the philosophy, for sure, but can you make a move like this in a way that won't derail? Isn't consumption the fuel that the fire needs to burn?

Show threadJohn Rohde JensenApr 3, 2025
@Daojoan It's also first step for a USA that demands tribute payments from its empire.