The Electorate’s Problem Isn’t Stupidity, It’s They Are Mollycoddled

Explaining Trump 2.0

Mollycoddled Americans

William Davies wrote an article in The Guardian that’s well worth reading. In it, Davies attempts to explain why, in the name of all that is holy, did the US electorate put Trump back in office. The well-read Davies points to the most common explanation that commentators have given for Trump and Trumpism: stupidity.

Davies agrees that Trump’s second administration is undoubtedly stupid, but he rejects the explanation for it that he calls the “social model of stupidity.” This is the idea that stupidity has spread throughout society, with people now conditioned by the social and political environment not to think critically but to instead wait to be told how to think. He observes that this model, despite having “a superficial plausibility as a depiction of contemporary authoritarianism,” misses an important dimension of current society. “Judgment,” he says, “was not replaced by dictatorship, but rather outsourced to impersonal, superintelligent systems of data collection and analysis.”

I will not repeat here the details of Davies’s solid argument that blames society’s current lack of judgment on the neoliberal (libertarian) thinking that dominates business and tech. “In a fully platform-based world,” he says, “everything shrinks to the status of behaviours and patterns; meaning, intention and explanation become irrelevant.” This, Davies argues, has led to the emergence of reactionary influencers and conspiracy entrepreneurs who produce outlandish and pointless fantasies that exist for no reason other than to be shared online because online engagement is all that matters.

This analysis, Davies concludes, helps us chart the current political floodwaters of stupidity. By extension, this explains why the Trump regime was elected and why it makes its “deranged and bizarre, not to mention sick,” conspiratorial claims that blame, for example, DEI hiring policies for the nation’s ills. The regime need not explain or defend its claims—the liking and sharing of their claims are all that matters.

Another Dimension—Push-Button Nation

Davies’s article astutely points at the social role played by the platform-based information space. The media platforms not only dictate the subjects of discussion—they set the bar for the acceptability of statements. That bar is set rather low, in that statements become widely accepted from repetition and volume, not reason and evidence.

There’s another dimension to the platform-based world that Davies neglects to discuss as he circles back to focusing on stupidity as the explanation for Trump and Trumpism. He’s correct that the platform-based world has cultivated stupidity, but it also cultivates something that is a precursor to the breed of stupidity currently present across society.

Another recent article in The Guardian that’s well worth reading pointed to this other dimension. In it, Moya Sarner wrote:

We suffer from a profound and painful longing for things to be done right away – for there to be, instead of a process, a button to press that makes it happen. I wonder if it was this unconscious wish for immediacy that led humankind to develop machines and technology. . . .

You press a button and something happens – a light goes on or a sound comes out or an explosion goes off. This is seductive for so many of us; it gives the intoxicating illusion of control. . . .

We live in an era when so much can be achieved so quickly by the press of a button and its close relative, the stroke of a screen, that it is difficult to accept that many things do not work that way.

Sarner puts her finger on the human need that the business and tech corporations’ platforms cater to—the shortcut, the easy resolution, the immediate gratification. Press a button, get what you want, and if things aren’t that easy, something is wrong.

The combination of the articles from Davies and Sarner reminded me of an article that I wrote, “People Aren’t Stupid — They’re Lazy Thinkers.” People are basically smart, just like they are basically ethically decent. People believe wrong and stupid ideas not because they are stupid but because they are lazy.

As Sarner implies, we developed machines and technologies to satisfy our wish for immediacy. We also wish for immediate ideas. The media and tech corporations engineered the platform-based world to cater to that human desire for push-button ideas. Press a button and get a statement. Is it a correct statement? Doesn’t matter, it has a ton of likes.

This lazy wish fulfillment for easy ideas is a better explanation for Trump and Trumpism than stupidity. The media and tech corporations haven’t so much been cultivating stupidity as they have been coddling people with quick, easy push-button ideas. “Look here,” the platforms show, “this statement has over a thousand likes; you can stop thinking now.” We can talk about the endorphin rushes that online platforms give to people, and that explains cat photos and look-at-me-being-silly videos, but it doesn’t entirely explain superficial and stupid political content.

Truculent Trump

Is Donald Trump stupid? We can’t be sure, but we can be sure that he plays stupid on TV and online. We shouldn’t, as Davies wisely says, accord Trump’s actions with a kind of intelligent design behind the deranged and bizarre, not to mention sick, statements. Trump and his people aren’t playing four-dimensional chess. They are acting stupid out of their lazy thinking, or at least taking advantage of the lazy thinking of other people.

The real question is why the stupid acts and words of Trump and his cronies persuade people to agree with him. It’s not that stupidity is contagious. Well, it is a bit, but what is more contagious is the beguiling illusion that things are easy. The outlandish and pointless statements Trump and his cronies make connect with people not because the statements are stupid but because they provide push-button answers that coddle a segment of the electorate.

What do I mean by “coddle?” Imagine someone being situated in a comfortable chair, in a comfortable room, with a button within easy reach that once pressed brings to that someone whatever they desire. Like, maybe, a button that brings that someone a Diet Coke—just saying. Such a someone is coddled. Rich people and narcissists, especially rich narcissists, arrange to have underlings coddle them by catering to their needs. It’s a kind of power, a power that tempts us.

Sarner is correct that “we suffer from a profound and painful longing for things to be done right away – for there to be, instead of a process, a button to press that makes it happen.” In other words, we wish to be coddled. We all have within us a wish to not have to do for ourselves but to have things done for us. Whether it’s a beverage, a pillow, or statements that sound like answers, we wish to be coddled. Who wouldn’t rather be comfortable than suffer?

Is Donald Trump a narcissist? We can’t be sure, but we can be sure that, more than anything, he wants to be coddled. He grew up coddled, and he never grew out of it. That better explains his behavior than saying he’s stupid. He wants the illusion of control, to feel that coddled comfort that he knows everything, that he is always the smartest person in the room, and that he can press a button and everyone will rush to give him what he wants and believe everything he says. He does not need to explain or defend his desires—all that matters is that others like him and want to fulfill his desires.

As I wrote before, Trump wants to be the Boss, the coddled kingpin. He doesn’t just want to be coddled—he demands it; and if he doesn’t get coddled, something’s wrong and somebody has to pay for it.

And Trumpers, don’t even try pretending I’m wrong about these things. We can disagree on many things, but you know I’m accurately describing Trump and pinpointing why you like him.

Mollycoddled MAGA

Davies’s term, the “platform-based world,” captures a reality of our society. The information space has been designed by tech corporations to be push-button dispensers of coddling infotainment. It’s a system that monetizes the 20th century’s worst innovation—the disposable, detached society. Press a button, turn on the TV—200 cable channels at the press of a button. Press a button, see on the Internet what you want to see. Press a button and block what you don’t want to see. The system is working as intended—coddling people by fulfilling their desires for immediacy and gratification, ensnaring them in a sphere of superficial and vicarious sensations. No need to make an effort, no need to think; push a button until the battery runs out, then throw it away and get a new one.

The platform-based system works in various ways for various people, but it works extraordinarily well in right-wing politics. I remember reading in 2017 that Trump was the first Twitter president. It’s a shame that idea seems to have receded into the background because it is so accurate. Trump is the president of the platform-based information space—the emir of the platform-based world. He says what he wants to be true and then judges that it is true because people say what he said is true.

Take, for example, any of Trump’s statements about immigrants or DEI. Those statements aren’t truthful. He doesn’t care if they are truthful. All that matters is that people like what he says. It coddles him. And if anyone points to the untruth of his outlandish and pointless fantasies, he falls back on “well, a lot of people are saying . . .”

But it only works because the deranged and bizarre, not to mention sick, statements made Trump and his cronies coddle the MAGA base. Granted, how that bunch wants to be coddled is radical, but they share with the rest of humanity the wish for immediacy and the intoxicating illusion of control.

One push-button way to feel coddled is using simplistic, denigrating stereotypes of other people. Platform-based memes aren’t only funny images about pets; they are often deranged and bizarre, not to mention sick, bigoted slurs.

Today, as I wrote this, the Project 2025-Trump regime is posting stupid AI-generated images and video of Democratic congresspeople. They know the bigoted slurs are false, but that doesn’t matter. They post them because its push-button self-coddling. They can stop thinking.

Why do Trump, Vance, and Johnson keep lying that the Democrats want to give free health care to illegal aliens? Push-button self-coddling. They can stop thinking.

And that’s the reason why Trump and Trumpism are popular—Trump and the regime know what buttons to push that will coddle their base. Red meat for the masses? Push-button memes for the MAGA base that they eat up. They pressed the button on their media platform—social media or “news” network—and the platform brought them the memes and statements that coddle them.

They have the answers now. It doesn’t matter if the answers are wrong; they probably know the answers are wrong, but they have the intoxicating illusion of control that comes from the push-button memes and statements. They can stop thinking. They can stop listening.

If anyone points to the untruth of MAGA’s outlandish and pointless fantasies, something’s wrong and somebody has to pay for it. Don’t take away their mollycoddled feelings of “knowing” everything about immigrants, minorities, “liberals,” and well, everything. They did their own “research.” They pushed a button, and the platform-based world told them what to think. They aren’t stupid; they are mollycoddled. The system is working as designed.

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