Week 8: Sunk Cost Fallacy and Full Steam Ahead Toward Fascism

Rundown

A lot has happened since last week.

Bernie Sanders and AOC held a rally in Colorado that drew over 30,000 people, AG Pam Bondi threatened Jasmine Crockett for exercising her constitutional right to criticize Elon Musk; people have set Tesla cars on fire at some dealerships have been vandalized, prompting Trump to beat his chest about classifying them as terrorists.

And speaking of Tesla, the backlash to CEO Musk’s supervillain antics has resulted in record returns of Tesla cars and the stock tanking. Trump also revealed he will be giving Musk access to his security briefings without his having any security clearance.

Transportation Secretary Shawn Duffy visited NYC and complained about the subway system while offering zero solutions to improve it or the US’s overall infrastructure. Neither did he addressed the continuing crisis with the FAA re: plans crashing and colliding.

Trump also signed an executive order abolishing the Department of Education, and when Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was asked how this would affect funding for special education students, she floundered before giving a noncommittal answer that the sates would decide the issue.

Trump also gained access to the IRS’s database and is using it to ramp up his efforts to deport undocumented people. And speaking of deportations, news broke this weekend that Trump has been sending legal green card holders to El Salvadoran prisons based on their having certain tattoos and without due process.

Footage of detainee conditions and treatment at these prisons leaked, raising questions about human rights violations and whether Trump will turn his sights next on to disappearing his political enemies.

Trump has also bullied Columbia University into accepting his demands re: DEI and woke subjects with promises of reversing his planned funding cuts. They are foolish to believe given Trump’s countless lies and his above noted executive order dissolving the department of Education.

In related news, Trump signed an executive order targeting law firm Paul, Weiss et al., which he then rescinded after they pledged $40 million in legal aid to him and his various projects.
Tension between the US and other countries have risen, prompting Canada to issue a travel advisory that its citizens aren’t safe traveling to the US.

And following the recent elections in Germany, many Germans no longer see the US is a trustworthy partner, citing Trump’s policies re: Ukraine and NATO.

When Germany is side eyeing you, you’re down bad.

And while we’re on the subject of Germany, historians and other experts across the spectrum have been raising the alarm about how much the current state of things in the US mirror pre–Nazi Germany 1933.
This leads me to this week’s theme.

Sunk Cost Fallacy and Full Steam Ahead Toward Fascism

While trump has suffered many legals losses, he and his cadre of loyalists continue their dismantling of government at every level, often in content of said legal ruling. Because no one seems to have the spine to jail his ass.

Instead, our democratic leadership sits on their hands, telling us to hold tight until the midterms. Then if we have enough seats, they can give Trump his comeuppance. And in the meantime, let the legal system handle him.

There are several issues with this approach, the biggest one being the assumption the US as we know it will still exist then. At the rate Trump et al are going and the rage people are feeling right now, the cold civil war that started on January 6, 2021 could turn hot. If so, this would give Trump the excuse he’s been waiting for to institute Martial Law and suspend the constitution.

Second, even if the courts can keep him in check, the damage he does to our government and the world in the meanwhile might not be fixable, and if it can it’ll take generations.

This is why we need to act now, not next year, because by then Trump might not even allow elections beyond the political theater his buddy Putin allows. We need to take inspiration from South Korea’s action against its dictator. They had him out of office in mere hours, while we’re 3 months and counting into Trump’s regime.

Our leaders are too invested in the current system to realize doing things the old ways aren’t going to cut it. They believe following the rules will save them despite proof otherwise. They continue acting as if we aren’t in the middle of an ongoing coup. They keep doing the same thing they’ve always done, hoping if they keep at it a bit longer everything will turn out okay.

This is the definition of sunk cost fallacy: continuing to do something because you believe you have more to lose than gain in spite of mounting losses.

But keeping their heads down and hoping things will get better if they give it enough time won’t work for the reasons I listed above. Once the Trump cabal gains total power it’s game over.

Screw business as usual and fuck the rules. Do whatever needs to be done. Remove Trump now.