Why Resistance To Donald Trump Is Futile

Donald Trump is going to be re-elected.

Resistance is futile.

This is going to happen.

Last night’s landslide victory by Boris Johnson gives us great insight into why Trump and Trumpism is here to stay and about to change America forever.

Boris Johnson is very entertaining. He is fun to watch. You may detest his policies, but he is great TV.

Jeremy Corbyn has the entertainment qualities of a plank of wood.

When voters in Britain went to the polls, they may have believed they were voting for a platform or a policy. They were not. They were voting for the best entertainer. Even if they were not aware of this, they could not help themselves.

We live in a society that is dominated by media in general, and video and TV in particular. The average American (and Brit) spends a mind-boggling 8 hours a day, every day, watching TV or Netflix or online videos on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram. The average American also spends 19 minutes a day reading.

We now spend more time watching stuff than we do reading, eating, exercising, talking to other people, working and even sleeping. This is who we are.

What happens to a society that spends almost all of its time watching things?

First, it makes entertainment a priority. Candidates who are not entertaining, ie, Elizabeth Warren or Mike Bloomberg are dead. No one wants to watch The Elizabeth Warren Show for four minutes, let alone four years. When voters vote, they vote for ratings, not policy. No one cares about policy. Trump rallies are fun. Love him or hate him, he is a great entertainer.

The only Democrat with half a chance of getting elected is Bernie Sanders, but only because he reminds people of Larry David.

But the influence of media goes far beyond mere entertainment.

If you spend 8 hours a day (or even 4) watching things, day after day, year after year, it teaches you things.

First, it teaches you passivity.

Watching, by definition, is a passive activity.

People who watch a Steelers game and think they can influence the outcome of the game are placed in mental institutions. TV and video teach us over and over that our job is to be passive observers.

Second, watching endlessly also teaches us that everything will ultimately work out fine in the end — it always does — without our lifting a finger.

So when we look at Trump or Climate Change, we may post something on Facebook, we may tick a LIKE next to a comment we agree with. We may, may even go out for a march once or twice.

But that’s about it.

Other than that, we are pretty content to watch. We may not be happy, but we will just keep watching.

That is who we are now.

A nation of watchers.

A passive people.

We deserve what we are going to get.

And what we are going to get is Planet Trump, where the average temperature is 120 degrees on a cool day.

for more details on this, read my new book, Don’t Watch This!

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dont-Watch-This/Michael-Rosenblum/9781510758278