Are Americans Just Stupid...
Or is it something else?
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of folks ask the same question, eyes wide with despair, wine glass in hand like it’s a stress ball:
“How did the United States elect this clown?”
And by this clown, I mean Donald J. Trump—former reality TV personality who “discovered” the word groceries literally a month ago and seems to think it’s new to the rest of us, too. A guy who knows less about global trade economics than my cat James (no offense, James). Serial liar. Six-time bankrupt “businessman” who somehow managed to bankrupt a casino. Rapist (per a judge, not just social media). Draft dodger. Putin pen pal. Man who wants to buy Greenland because he thought it would be “cool.” Creep who thinks it’s “fancy” to gild… toilets.
And yet somehow, this guy—this odiferous, spray-tanned Nazi apologist adult diaper ad steeped in a bowl of word salad—was handed the nuclear codes by the same country that put a man on the moon and invented jazz.
So. What the fuck happened?
The easy (but wrong) answer is: “Americans are stupid.”
And look, I’ve been to a Florida Walmart in August. I get the temptation.
But that’s not quite it.
This isn’t just about bad civics education or Fox News melting brains like microwaved Velveeta.
It’s about early childhood trauma.
Specifically: Authoritarian child abuse—and the way it wires people’s brains, early and permanently, to seek out charismatic narcissistic abusers like heat-seeking missiles launched from the tiny neglected hearts of their own bruised inner children.
Because when you’ve been raised to believe that “love” looks like unquestioned power, punishment, and the Holy Belt of Righteous Correction—
when you’ve been taught that independent thought is the Devil’s playground—
when you’ve been trained to believe your needs will only be met by enabling and defending a person who hurts you—
A narcissistic strongman doesn’t scare you.
He feels like home.
Why Daddy’s Rage Felt Like God’s Love: Evangelical Parenting & the Cult of Obedience
To understand how we got a president who throws tantrums, grifts openly, and seems to confuse the Constitution with a doctored golf scorecard, we have to talk about childhood.
Specifically, American childhoods. The kind where “discipline” wasn’t just a word—it was a family hobby.
Where “spare the rod, spoil the child” was recited more faithfully than the Pledge of Allegiance—then enforced with belts, switches, and Bible verses cherry-picked like strawberries at a megachurch pancake breakfast.
Where guns were worshipped, and sensitive boys were taught to shoot Bambi for “sport,” and beaten if they cried.
Let’s be real: this country has millions of adults walking around with undiagnosed C-PTSD, convinced their trauma is patriotism and mom and dad’s violence was love—because it came wrapped in Sunday school songs and sweet tea.
Authoritarian parenting—especially the evangelical variety—isn’t just abuse. It’s training.
It teaches kids that love = fear. That power = safety. That obedience is the highest virtue, and questioning authority gets you a backhand and a one-way ticket to Hell.
And here's where it gets historically horrifying:
Wilhelm Reich, in The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), argued that fascism thrives in rigid, patriarchal households—where obedience is demanded, sexuality is repressed, and the father is feared.
Erich Fromm, in Escape from Freedom, said people conditioned to obey learn to fear freedom. They don’t want democracy. They want Daddy.
Theodor Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality described how punitive parenting produces adults who crave strongmen—not because they’re evil, but because it feels safe. It feels familiar.
So when a red-faced billionaire stomps onto a stage promising to punish your enemies, protect you from immigrants who look different from you, and make everything “great again” by force?
That doesn’t sound fascist.
It sounds like home.
It sounds like Dad.
The Cult Is the Point: Coercive Control and American Christianity
You know how people say, “Trump runs it like a cult”?
Yeah. That’s because he does.
And cults are kind of America's other national pastime—right next to football and pretending billionaires are relatable. From Jonestown to Waco to your aunt’s Facebook group called Jesus, Guns, & Essential Oils, we’ve got a long history of confusing spiritual devotion with blind obedience to lunatics.
Where do many of these cults start?
Church.
Not all churches. But a very specific flavor: white evangelicalism, patriarchal control, conspiracy ideology, and a heaping scoop of end-times cosplay.
In these environments:
The pastor is infallible.
Dissent is sin.
Women are “helpmeets.”
Children are property.
The Earth is just a disposable backdrop for the Rapture.
And Trump—who couldn’t name a book of the Bible if it were tattooed on Stormy Daniels’ thigh—becomes God’s chosen vessel.
In cult psychology, this is called coercive control.
Psychologist Margaret Singer defined it as a system where victims are isolated, gaslit, kept in fear, and convinced their abuser is their only hope.
Sound familiar?
That’s also Trump’s whole playbook.
“Only I can fix it.”
“They’re coming for you. I’m just in the way.”
“I will be your retribution.”
These aren’t campaign slogans.
They’re trauma hooks.
So when Trump contradicts himself mid-sentence, rewrites history every three days, commits obvious crimes in broad daylight, and screams “witch hunt”?
His followers don’t feel confusion.
They feel seen.
They recognize the pattern.
He’s not supposed to make sense.
He’s supposed to make them feel safe.
So Now What? How Do We Heal a Nation of Undiagnosed cPTSD Victims Who’d Rather Shoot Us Than Admit They’re Traumatized?
Look, I wish this ended with a group hug and a couple deep breaths. But America’s not there yet.
Hell, we’re not even in the parking lot of “there yet.”
Half this country is still locked in a Ford F-150 outside a Bass Pro Shop, gripping a semi-automatic and muttering about lizard people.
Because here’s the thing: healing requires self-awareness.
And you can’t reach self-awareness when your nervous system is stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or post-9/11 country music video.
The U.S. is a nation of undiagnosed C-PTSD survivors, particularly in working-class, rural, and evangelical communities. They were never taught to regulate emotion. Never taught that love doesn’t come with violence. Never taught that power isn’t protection.
Instead of therapy? They got Fox News.
Instead of EMDR? They got Back the Blue.
Instead of healing? They got Donald J. Trump—a one-man trauma reenactment loop.
So how do we break the cycle?
You can’t fix this alone. You’re not a licensed exorcist. You’re a tired, underpaid American eating anxiety gummies for dinner and trying to outlive fascism.
But here’s what we can do:
✅ Call it what it is.
Stop saying “economic anxiety.” Say trauma-bonded fascist loyalty. Say authoritarian conditioning. Say we raised generations to obey monsters and then acted shocked when they voted for one.
✅ Protect the vulnerable.
Vote. Organize. Fund abortion access. Defend trans kids. Support immigrants. Read banned books. Throw potlucks. Be the antidote to cruelty.
✅ Deprogram where you can—but know your limits.
You’re not changing Uncle Randy’s mind. But maybe you can raise a kid who knows that love isn’t pain. That safety isn’t submission. That freedom isn’t following a man who needs four aides just to button his coat.
✅ Rebuild culture around empathy, not obedience.
Ditch the bootstraps. Uplift mutual aid. Teach emotional literacy. Fund libraries (before they’re gone). Make being kind cooler than being right.
Because here’s the truth: America doesn’t need to be made great again.
It needs to be healed.
It needs trauma-informed policy.
Trauma-informed parenting.
Trauma-informed education.
Trauma-informed everything.
Until that happens, we’re just gonna keep cycling through Daddy Issues with nukes… until there’s nothing left alive.
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— before all the libraries and writers are gone.
This is one of the best and most underrated clarifying articles on this subject that I’ve read. I think you are spot on. As an adult survivor who HAS done the work, I saw him coming 10 miles away. But most of us trauma survivors aren’t necessarily that far along in their healing, and I only have to listen to the ex-husband in my head scream about “psychobabble bullshit” to understand how vulnerable they are to the authoritarian playbook trump is using
Holy crap, yes.
I think cptsd is also the reason so many Americans who are in the cult get angry when they see other people being given any sort of help or safety net or even a whisper of a chance at a level playing field. I think it triggers their rage from childhood all the things they were denied.