Let’s talk about the kind of leadership that makes people defend what’s destroying them.
This brand of leadership isn’t about policies. It’s about psychology.
It starts with fear.
Fear of loss, fear of change, fear of being left behind.
Once people are afraid, it gives them a villain — immigrants, people of color, women, whoever the story needs that day.
Then comes comfort. With a strongman promise.
“I’ll fix it.” “I’ll protect you.” “Only I can save you.”
And for people who feel unseen or unheard, that’s powerful. It’s validation disguised as salvation.
Once they’ve accepted that story, facts don’t matter anymore.
Because it’s not about logic — it’s about identity.
You’re no longer debating reality; you’re defending who you are.
That’s why people who seem intelligent, educated, and even kind, can still buy into lies that collapse under basic scrutiny.
It’s not because they’re stupid. It’s because this kind of leadership rewires what truth means to them. It moves truth from evidence to emotion.
And once emotion becomes the filter, critical thinking doesn’t stand a chance.
You ask, “How can they not see what’s happening?”
They can’t — not because they’re blind, but because they’ve been told that seeing anything else means betrayal.
That’s the psychology of control.
It doesn’t demand agreement — it demands allegiance.
If you challenge it, you’re not just disagreeing. You’re leaving the group you belong to.
And leaving the group of belonging is the scariest thing for someone who’s already been made to believe the world is against them.
So what kind of leadership are we dealing with?
Charismatic authoritarianism.
It speaks the language of the people it seeks to control while hoarding power for the few.
It calls empathy “weakness” and cruelty “strength.”
And it thrives where people mistake rage for courage.
The only way to counter it is through connection.
Not with shame — but through truth told with calm conviction.
Because you can’t fact-check someone out of fear.
You have to make them feel safe enough to think again.
So to those of you who are awake, who keep getting laughed at for caring about the demise we’re witnessing — keep going.
History isn’t changed by the comfortable.
It’s changed by the ones who see through the illusion and stay loud enough to pull others out of it.
