I explained, "if the Trumpists’ commitment seems surprising in the wake of ever-mounting scandals, that’s because mainstream journalists still haven’t grasped the Trump phenomenon for what it is: a cult.”

I went on to compare Trump’s escalating tactics to the those of cults I researched for a 1990’s study on indoctrination. The main technique is to get your followers to do or say increasingly outlandish things - to support lies, perform “hits,” alienate friends - until the only way to justify having done such terrible stuff is to believe the cult leader really is the hero.

So, in the case of Trump’s followers, the only way they can justify having fabricated stories, broken laws and destroyed lives on his behalf is to convince themselves that the democrats, the FBI, and the CIA are so corrupt, that we NEED to take extraordinary measures to overturn them. Yes, even if that means turning to China and Russia’s secret service to come in and clean them up. To them, it’s not treason.

The piece shows how the progression works. It starts with something simple, like lying about the size of the inauguration crowd, but then builds up to a “moment of truth.” I explained that “judgment day will have less to do with some action taken by Trump or his followers than their reaction to something done to them.” At that point, “Trump simply admits the whole thing: that he’s actually been working with Russia, but not for his own gain, but because we are in a by-any-means necessary revolution against the treasonous internationalists in the Deep State.” Going on TV and asking China to help root out Biden corruption amounts to pretty much the same thing.

I’ve been working way too hard, lately, but at least that means I’ve gotten to see a lot of people in different cities. I’m going to try to travel less, as a way of minimizing stress on both the planet and my own body. But I’ve been writing a lot, and figured I should share some of the latest output and news, here. I’ve signed on to a bunch of film, TV and theater projects, too, and look forward to sharing those in the next couple of weeks.

CNN: Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks a President Elizabeth Warren would ’suck’ - If there's one thing that seems to scare Mark Zuckerberg to the bone, it's the threat of a functional government that represents the interests of its citizens….

MEDIUM: Most VR is Total Bullshit - This is going to change everything,” Timothy Leary told me as he took off his bulky headset and pulled an electronic glove from his right hand. It was the early 1990s, at a rave club in San Francisco.The famed psychologist and popularizer of psychedelic drugs had ventured into virtual reality for the first time, and he was reeling. At last, a technology capable of taking humanity to the next stage of consciousness and communication….

VIDEO TALK: Team Human - Closing Keynote at Bretton Woods - Here’s a fast-paced, 25-minute talk in which I explain how the digital economy went wrong, why it is killing us all, and what to do about it. I see it as the best culmination of my last 25 years of work. It’s a perfect “period” to all this work, from Cyberia right through the tech billionaires asking me for doomsday bunker advice. This is me not as futurist, but working propagandist.

Everybody, please stay calm and coherent as you can in the coming weeks. I know it’s hard to watch one of the world’s great efforts at democracy seemingly come apart like this - and at the expense of addressing our collective climate challenges.

But remember: the majority of human history and experience has been very different than what most Westerners have enjoyed these past seven or eight decades. And no matter what happens, we still have a choice about how we choose to go through this - with fear, or with love.