I spent an hour tonight perusing Twitter, something I have not done in a good while. I was left with the impression, and I could be wrong having such a small sample size, that things have changed. There appeared to be much fewer attempts to explain and predict things, and something akin to an acceptance of what we have become as the new normal. I perhaps may be over-reaching, but I have a sense that people are just lost now.

It would seem logical. We, and by that I mean those that disavow the standard narrative, may know with certitude that something is not right, that something is going on, and perhaps that something more is coming but it has been simultaneously simple to predict that next something and exceedingly difficult to make accurate calls as to what might come next.

That we would face yet another ‘scary’ virus popping up in random places, all at the same time, that seems like a trope, one is left saying to themselves, ‘no way, that is too obvious”. We say this just before we realize, obvious or not, it will not matter, if they turn on the 24/7 fear machine we sense that many around us will react.

We might have assumed that legislative action to consolidate power and move the reset agenda forward would have been more successful. We might have been incapable of honestly anticipating that the entire West would go all in, risking it all, in Ukraine. We might have known because it is common sense, that all that helicopter money that began flowing with bipartisan support in 2020 would come home to roost in higher inflation but the scale of it is still shocking. We might have anticipated shortages because shutting down the engine of the world has to have consequences, but baby formula – come on man.

We are a bit shocked by it all – the narrative of American exceptionalism is not just under attack theoretically by the New York Times, it is happening in real-time.

We observe the president of what is theoretically the greatest nation on earth boasting that he sent military planes to another country to retrieve baby formula and we cannot help but conjure up images of this occurring in some poor nation. There is little to celebrate in Operation Binky. Somehow we know this portends something more, but we are tired of it all.

So many that we upheld as heroes over the last two years proved themselves either not up to the task, or never as heroic as they pretended in the first place. My friend MJ published a piece, Itchy Ears, and Conspiracy Theories: How Social Media Influencers Obscured America's Color Revolution, outlining how grifters, fools, and dupes muddied up the waters of the 2020 election and more importantly, how their distractions and fabulous tales diverted all attention from the much bigger thing that was occurring. Some of these have now fallen out of favor, some are embroiled in lawsuits and others have picked up their whiteboards and moved to other platforms, only to begin recycling old crazy theories to fit new circumstances. It is not just the obvious grifters, folly seems ubiquitous, almost so common it defies random chance probability.

Most of us have grown tired of it all. We have been lied to, deceived, fooled, led astray, gaslighted, and dismissed so often that it seems a melancholy acceptance has set in.

"Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution."

I am not saying this all seems like something out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook executed at scale, but then again, it certainly does look like something out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook executed at scale. Some of us are pacified and encouraged still by the words of Trump, those that feel that way perhaps never learned what the Q folks failed to learn; no hero will save you and Trump never really fit the mold of a proper hero in the first place. Others pin hope to the latest “proof” that everything was stolen, these sorts are scanning video segments looking for mules. Others still have faith that if the Supreme Court overturns Roe, we will be on the path to getting things right again. I am not sure the other side in the culture war would feel that way, Obama may have laughingly told them there was no culture war – because they had effectively won – but if Roe is overturned I think we will redefine what culture war really means. A victory in the court will be the catalyst for something else and perhaps the fuel that enables a full turn of Congress so that all the legislation that has thus far been unpassable will be a piece of cake. (Will Roe v. Wade Enable The Consolidation Phase)

One thing is clear to me in all this, we are not facing idiots, they may have idiot foot soldiers just as our side has its share of gullible idiots but those running all of this have demonstrated strategic patience and a complex strategy.