With news of Google bending the knee to Donald Trump by changing the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on its maps, many Americans must be feeling rather overwhelmed right now. “This is pretty much the stupidest thing that we could be focusing on right now,” remarks one commenter on the situation, and they couldn’t be more right. However, the President’s recent bombardment of outlandish and enraging executive orders might be more intentionally strategic and exploitative than we think.
Courtesy of an Instagram post by courtvox, we can learn what Donald Trump is actually doing with all his recent bamboozling of the American public. “Don’t let The Overwhelm get to ya, it’s a tactic,” their post says, encouraging readers to check the first comment containing information from sociologist Jennifer Walter’s findings on the whole Trump situation. Whether it’s a ban on trans people in the US military or the pardoning of Jan 6th rioters, Walter claims that the goal of the President’s executive orders is to overwhelm people, causing public discourse among the citizens. “This isn’t just politics as usual – it’s a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits,” she states.
Award-winning author Naomi Klein calls this sort of strategic exploitation “shock doctrine,” during which “chaos and crisis” are used to push radical changes on the people. The flood of executive orders Trump is forcing on the American people, regardless if it’s threatening, life-changing, or absurd, is a means to disorient everyone, making the people too bamboozled to resist what’s happening.
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan follows up on Klein’s idea by stating that people become “passive and disengaged” when faced with information overload. “The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck,” Walter explains. As a result, it is nigh impossible for anyone, including the media like news outlets, “to thoroughly analyze any single policy.”
Agenda-setting theory clarifies Trump’s strategy of “fragmenting public discourse” by flooding the public with multiple major policies all at once. Simply put, no one can keep up, leaving everyone to produce or consume only superficial coverage of what’s going on. Walter says that all this leads to “weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.”
Several Reddit users on the subreddit r/offbeat following Donald Trump’s outrageous decision about the Gulf of Mexico seem to have caught on to the President’s scheme. “All a distraction as trumps handlers empty your pockets,” one remarks. “This was the Trump presidency last time,” chimes in another. “Do stupid attention-grabbing s*** with your left hand; do your dirty work with your right.” “Do not be distracted by this stupidity. Pay attention to everything else he does. RIP America,” mourns a third.
Fortunately, sociologist Jennifer Walter has provided some guidance as to what Americans should do to avoid getting bamboozled and overwhelmed by Donald Trump’s jabs at the public with his policies. First, she encourages people to “set boundaries” by focusing only on two to three key issues that have a direct, personal impact or require their attention.
Next, Walter pushes people to “use aggregators and experts” to comprehend and analyze the situations for them. In other words, “let the experts handle it,” as the saying goes. Third, we must “remember” to recognize when we are being overwhelmed and not let our emotions get the best of us. “Practice going slow” is the fourth step, which involves waiting before reacting to new policies. “The urgent can cloud the important,” after all.
Finally, “building community” by sharing the cognitive load with others can help ease one’s stress levels and heighten one’s focus on what one considers important. The post’s comment concludes with, “They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.” It’s a great message to Americans to come together and resist the policies they disagree with, focusing on what’s truly crucial instead of being split apart by all the confusion.
