Winners & Losers | Small Men Want to Destroy the World
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Sixty weeks.
In the span of only sixty weeks, the military and economic alliances that shaped the 20th century, ensured relative* peace in the world, and signaled the arrival of a superpower unlike any the world had ever seen have been, functionally, broken.
President Trump has bankrupted the country, picked fights with our friends and rewarded our enemies. He has unleashed violence across the globe and spread the mighty American military so thin that it can’t guarantee safety to ships on a span of ocean 20-odd miles wide.
Obviously, this deterioration of American power didn’t begin 60 weeks ago. The cultural, economic, and political winds have been blowing this direction for decades. Nonetheless, from the word Go on January 20, 2025, Trump and the men and women surrounding him have been on a sprint to bring this country to its knees.
Sadly, it’s working.
Last week, we lifted sanctions on [checks notes] Russia because we are fucking up the global economy so badly with our war of choice. This is the same Russia that, it’s been reported, has been doling out intel to the Iranians to help them target Americans and American military installations. For that, they get a reprieve from sanctions that will fill their coffers with money that will be fed directly into the fight against Ukraine, another of our allies.
There are too many Losers to call out, to be frank. The entirety of the Trump regime is at fault for this, and maybe their voters, too.
But this week, let’s look at one Loser in particular who exemplifies at least one of the reasons we will continue to self-inflict wounds that will forever change us.
Pete Hegseth, Loser
Hegseth is a small man. He’s been one of my Losers in this column before. And why not? He sucks. But his sucking is the Platonic form of MAGA sucking. It’s instructive to have another look at this Loser.
He ticks almost every MAGA box in a way that feels almost practiced or too good to be true.
He’s been characterized as a white Christian nationalist, in part because he is openly aligned with Pastor Doug Wilson (See video below) and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which explicitly embraces Christian nationalism (and, by extension, “white” Christian nationalism).