I honestly thought things would become clearer with age. That the fog would lift. That the incomprehensible would become less… incomprehensible and confusing.

That I, with a certain world-weary dignity, could lean back, shrug nonchalantly, and think: “Well, the world’s nuts, but I don’t need to understand or care about everything anymore.”

But that’s not how it turned out.

Instead, it feels like I’m stuck in an episode of The Twilight Zone, directed by David Lynch on a bad day, where every attempt at logic only leads deeper into surrealism.

What really eats at me is how many people – especially in the U.S. – seem to accept behavior that here in Sweden (and in many other parts of the world) would have made people change tables at a restaurant, ask for the manager, or cut ties altogether.

The authoritarian, mocking, aggressive behavior that Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Musk, and the gang engage in – day in and day out – seems to have become the new normal. A model for how to act, despite being anything but. As long as you do it with swagger, it’s apparently okay to be a complete asshole.

And what I truly can’t wrap my head around is how many people not only tolerate this absurd behavior – they applaud it.

I don’t believe that everyone who voted for Trump and Vance saw them as great leaders. On the contrary. For many, it was more of a big, fat, “fuck you” to the Democrats and to the American system that’s been sliding downhill for ages – maybe since the ’70s.

To many, Trump isn’t a savior. He’s The Accelerator. The guy flooring the gas pedal while everyone else is trying to fix the brakes and touch up the paint job. He’s not in the White House to save anything – he’s there to blow it up. Popcorn, anyone? Grab a front-row seat – it’s about to blow!

Many who voted for Trump don’t care about politics at all – they just love watching the establishment with their pants down, sweating it out under the lights. They vote for Trump the same way they watch reality TV – for the drama, the crashes, the screaming. Not for the content. They simply don’t have the capacity to take it in.

We are clearly living in an age where the ends justify the means – at any cost. As long as you win, it doesn’t matter how – or who – you crush along the way. You can mock, threaten, humiliate, and stomp on others – as long as it results in headlines, clicks, nationalism, and a financial payoff. It’s Darwinism on steroids.

And I can’t help but wonder: if it’s okay to behave like a public asshole – what does that say about everyday life? Is it also okay to humiliate your partner? Your employees? Your neighbors? Is everyone who can’t fight back just supposed to take it? Apparently.

If it’s acceptable to insult people, give them disgusting nicknames, ridicule them, or tear them down just to win an argument – is a real punch in the face also okay, as long as it “gets results”?

If we only care about the outcome and don’t give a damn how we get there – then we’re not building a better society. We’re just busy rebranding cruelty as leadership.

And maybe that’s exactly what’s happening. Maybe it’s no longer about improvement, about progress, or about taking care of the planet, one another, and the collective wisdom we’ve gathered.

Isn’t it sad that so many seem to just want to watch it all go to hell – fast, loud, and preferably with red, white, and blue fireworks?

And for those who genuinely believe that Trump & Co will do something meaningful for the U.S. or the world – honestly, I mostly just feel sorry for them. They’ve become just as intoxicated by the power elixir as the incompetent leaders they helped elect.

I created the above illustration with the help of the folks over at chatgeepeetee.