It’s fascinating watching progressives go into zombie mode and repeat talking points. In an essay on this platform, I describe this as “brain-locking.” (For more on brain-locking and the zombie metaphor, see The Phenomenon of Progressive Brain-Locking and Its Role in the Madness of Crowds and Zombie Politics: the Corporatist Ideology of Antiracism.)
Here’s an example I see all the time on social media and in street interviews: “Donald Trump is a trust fund baby.” The blankface dummy in supervillain garb repeats this as if it is a remarkable and essential truth. (We see this also in the constant repetition of the irrelevant fact of Trump’s felony conviction. See “Trump is a Felon!” The Squawking of Party Parrots.)
Trump inherited an estimated $177 million from his father, Fred Trump, when the family real estate empire was sold after Fred’s death in 1999. Trump received at least $413 million total over his lifetime through inheritance, gifts, trusts, and loans. When Trump entered the White House in January 2017, Forbes estimated his net worth at about $3.5 billion. As of February 2026, his net worth is estimated at roughly $6.6 billion, fluctuating mainly due to real estate holdings and stock valuations.
The talking point denies the truth: the man took the millions he inherited and made himself a multi-billionaire, not only in real estate but also in, among other ventures, producing a successful TV show that ran for several years. The Apprentice was not just a hit—it topped the ratings charts at various points, making Trump a household name. How is this the record of a “failed businessman”?
“Because he declared bankruptcy many times.”
Trump himself has never declared personal bankruptcy. Six of his companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy between 1991 and 2009, mostly involving casinos and hotels. However, this is not unusual in large-scale real estate, where developers commonly use bankruptcy strategically to restructure debt while protecting personal wealth, and many successful real estate billionaires have had multiple corporate bankruptcies during their careers. The fact that bankruptcy is a tool in successful business practice is mundane. You may not like it, but it is, and it’s not like personally declaring bankruptcy (there is no shame in that, either).
“And now he has bankrupted the Kennedy Center!”
Trump did not bankrupt the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. When he assumed the position of chairman of the board, artists, performers, and production companies—cultural elites programmed with progressive ideology—boycotted the center and canceled their engagements. Ticket sales plummeted and, as a result of organized protest, the center now faces financial and operational strain. A planned two‑year closure for renovations was exaggerated into existential concerns about the institution’s cultural standing and future stability. “He even put his name on the building!” He won’t be president forever. A future president can take it off.
“But the East Wing!”
Stop and address the question. How is Trump a “failed businessman”? Clearly, he isn’t. He is on the list of the 400 richest individuals in the United States—and he earned that status as a successful businessman. This is the diametric opposite of the zombie’s portrayal.
But there is a deeper question: why does any of this matter? So Trump inherited money from his father. So Trump’s business ventures have occasionally run into financial difficulty. So a handful of his companies declared bankruptcy. So Trump put his name on a building. Hardly unusual for a wealthy man.
Is that the problem—that he is rich? Is it class envy? Nietzschean Ressentiment—the deep, internalized resentment of the failed and self-perceived powerless towards the self-actualized and successful that shapes slave morality?
At the founding of the country, George Washington’s relative wealth in his era—landholdings, stocks, etc.—made him the undisputed richest individual in the country. Ponder that, if you will: the richest man in America became America’s first President. Moreover, Washington faced serious financial difficulties at times in his life. He managed these deftly and died a wealthy man.
Try explaining this to a zombie. It won’t work. Try explaining fascism to a zombie. Same blank stare. Rudimentary biology draws the same reaction. Zombie mode is an impenetrable state of mind. Progressives lumber about seeking brains because their own have atrophied.
This mental state is akin to the phenomenon of a programmed assassin—an individual who is the product of conditioning, ideological influence, and manipulation to kill without fully autonomous intent or moral deliberation. The programmed assassin is not a rational actor but a tool—shaped by external forces, e.g., leveraged personal grievances, psychological conditioning, or radical ideologies—that, on command, channels action toward a specific target. The culmination of layered manipulation, obsessional drives, and social pressures programs an individual to commit violence. (We see this in Islam, as well, with the suicide bomber phenomenon. See Message to the Rank-and-File Progressive; Alliance of Death Cults: The Rise of Lethal Misanthropy in the West.)
That example might seem extreme. But it’s the same dynamic that lies behind the flipping of a switch that causes thousands to take to the streets (to join the professional agitator who earns his living at it), one day chanting and waving signs with the slogan “Free Palestine!”, the next day, “No Kings!”, and the day after that, “ICE Out!”
When a zombie driver follows around ICE officers rounding up child molesters and rapists illegally present in our country, says, “I don’t care,” after an ICE officer generously explains that they are doing—that’s zombie mode. It’s the mind state that lies behind an activist mashing the accelerator pedal when an ICE officer walks in front of her car, or the “constitutional observer” bringing a firearm to an organized effort to interfere with law enforcement operations. (see Wokedom and the Problem of Lethal Altruism; also “Assault Me, Motherfucker!” Suicidal Altruism and the Politics of Suicide Contagion; “The Whole System is Guilty!”)
Have you ever seen the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoon from the 1940s, “The Mechanical Monsters”? It’s like that. The mad scientist, Dr. LeHah, controls the robots with a big console full of levers and switches. There’s a dramatic moment where he flips a switch, and the robots immediately stop what they’re doing—I think in one scene they’re raiding a bank—and switch to another task, obeying his commands instantly. LeHah has total control over mechanical soldiers responding to a single will. (I have used this analogy before, see Robots and Zombies Assemble! We Must Have War!)
Woke is an elite cult-like project that grooms and programs true believers in need of direction and meaning in life. (See “Hey, Ma. The Zombies are Marching Again.”)
This is the purpose of “inclusion” in progressive circles: appealing to disordered personalities to amass an army of robots. This explains why, when most of America has awakened to the madness of gender identity doctrine, Democrats introduce legislation to recognize “trans rights,” including in the list of demands everything ordered personalities reject. It’s a signal to the zombies that Dr. LeHah is still at the controls. (Before Andrew Wilson’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, I was writing about this. In addition to the essays I have already embedded, see Deviance as Doctrine: The Post-Liberal Moral Revolution; The Politics of Disaster Capitalism.)
To take this analogy to its logical conclusion, in those Fleischer Superman cartoons, Superman isn’t just fighting generic villains; he’s defending ordinary people, society, and the foundational moral order. He stops criminals and mad scientists who threaten the safety and stability of everyday life. In later serials, protecting the public and upholding law and order evolved into the catchphrase, “Truth, justice, and the American way.” Superman is not the Nietzschean Übermensch (“Overman”). The Man of Steel is the personification of our civilization. And this is why progressives will never understand MAGA.
Progressives have turned the world into a living manifestation of a Fleischer Studios cartoon—with some DC Comics villains mixed in (see my 2019 essay Joker and the Mob).
freedom and reason 