Trae Crowder recently declared this while sporting a look of utter disbelief on a popular political talk show. The self-proclaimed “Jane Goodall” of rednecks boasted a claim that the general redneck opinion of Trump only three years ago would have been consistent with that of any decent person.

His claim was based upon his observation of those around him. In his opinion, support for Trump would have been nonexistent for many of the same reasons liberals are currently appalled. So how then could these same individuals come to find rousing support what had so recently been reprehensible? Crowder was unsettlingly unsure.

It was soon after pointed out that Hillary had lost many of the voters that Obama had won.

I’d heard it described by another guest that a great many people were ideologically “unmoored”. I believe this is a wonderful way to describe the situation. And this is indeed the situation.

Obama promised change. And while he carried himself with a singular grace over the course of his presidency, and fought valiantly against impossible odds, never wavering in his overwhelming respect for the rule of law, ultimately he was not able to deliver the change that was envisioned.

For many, what he did was more than one could have dreamed. But for the young; for those utterly disillusioned by the raw, relentless impact of the march of exponential technology, who suffer daily the crushing inescapable depression wrought by being half-fabricated cogs destine for an obsolete machine, who dream of access to only a little bit, just enough to enable a simple life, with simple pleasures enjoying peaceful cohabitation with universe and indulging the exploits of the wells of knowledge… For those… What he did was not enough. Not nearly.

And so you were presented a choice. Change, or suffer the same feeling of paralyzation we have felt as we’ve arduously awaited the day our plight is acknowledged. Either demonstrate an effort to enact genuine meaningful change for the better, or, for the lulz, we will punish you by subjecting you to the same sort of terrifying uncertainty; the same coarse and persistently horrid notion that your future is in jeopardy that we have felt all our lives.

Trump embodies business as usual. He does openly what others endeavour to obscure. He says openly what others, despite their insistence otherwise, clearly believe. He is the emperor with no clothes, parading for all to see the gross debasement that has become of democratic capitalism in the USA. This is meant to be a lesson, if you ask me. You are now dealing with a segment of folks who do things like launch fireworks from their butthole. Why? Because they can. Because someone will laugh at it. Because they’ll laugh at it. Even if it hurts like hell. Though sometimes, through the luck of the draw, they learn a hard lesson. To them, it’s worth it. Don’t ask me, I don’t get it.

I’ll admit, I didn’t expect this outcome. But I suspect there are a lot of otherwise really well-meaning people who saw fit to vote Trump. And not just because of the narrative pushed by the media. People feel a sense of urgency. The tone of everyday life is ‘off’, and it’s hard to not notice. Everything is about profit, about efficiency. About chasing that dollar. From the dead look in the eyes of your cashier to the oxymoronic degree of isolation in the daily urban routine to the needless traffic-generating self-interest on the roads.

Life isn’t happy anymore, somehow. Perhaps it’s because people feel guilty on account of seeing more clearly the rest of the world, and it makes living a comparatively luxuriant lifestyle less enjoyable on some level. Though many wouldn’t, and couldn’t admit such a thing. Much of it comes from better understanding the consolation of wealth that is occurring as a result of technological unemployment. The ‘rust belts’ are the clearest examples, but make no mistake, the phenomena is pervasive. Technology is simply astoundingly superior to humans. In any way that it is not, it can demonstrably be made to be, given adequate resources.

Scandals and whatnot aside, Hillary for the most part offered what Obama delivered. And that just didn’t cut it for a lot of people. They wanted pertinent and drastic changes and that’s both what Trump was peddling, and was fated to deliver. That’s why he could do no wrong. He had a superpower; the power to disrupt.

There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! – Mario Savio

This is historically unprecedented. That is, both Trump’s presidency, and the swiftly unfolding consequences of the automation revolution.

Note the correlations.