Over at Twitchy, writer Warren Squire collected a number of social media reactions to the “Schumer Shutdown” to make an interesting point: Corporate news personalities have lost the ability to shame non-leftist Americans into doing what leftist corporations want.

Well known social media commentator “Western Lensman” describes CNN’s Kaitlin Collins as being stunned that the White House continues to mock Democrats during the shutdown.  “They simply don’t care about the criticism,” Collins says.  Lensman argues, “That’s exactly what’s driving the propaganda press insane.  They’re powerless.”

“Planet of Memes” posted a cartoon showing Homer Simpson discovering “how to be happy.”  The answer is simple: “Make memes of Libtards until they cry.  Then make memes of them crying.”  The “Planet of Memes” account excels in this pursuit of happiness.

“Flopping Aces” gets to the nub of the issue: “Once you’ve been called Hitler 10,000 times, the insults lose their sting.  It’s like chemo: your pain receptors get fried, and suddenly a reporter shrieking ‘racist!’ feels like a mosquito bite.”  Ol’ “Flopping Aces” is entirely correct.  As he says, “Their big scary words are now background noise.”

By refusing to be shamed into silence over the last ten years, President Trump has demonstrated time and again that you cannot win if you play by the leftist media complex’s rules.  In the past, a single reporter could criticize a Republican politician, and no matter how absurd the criticism, the Republican would eventually grovel before the public and beg for forgiveness.  It was embarrassing, weak, and pathetic.  

Trump has never fallen into this trap, even though he has been the target of more media attacks than any national figure in the last century.  How has Trump survived politically when someone such as Paul Ryan would be curled up in the corner sucking his thumb after being on the receiving end of only a smattering of similar attacks?  Ellie Anders provides the answer on X: The more the news media criticize Trump, the more intensely Trump doubles down.  Whenever leftist corporations use propaganda and manufactured shame in an effort to curb Trump’s actions and demonize his message, the president recognizes what they’re doing and gives them more of the same. 

Commenting on Hakeem Jeffries’s recent appearances on cable news, during which the Democrats’ House leader feigns offense at President Trump’s hilarious jokes at his expense, Issac laughs on X: “Imagine your entire life was spent saying lies in a serious tone...Only to be beat by a sombrero video.”  In the past, Jeffries would have been able to whip out the “race card,” and most Republican politicians would have quickly denounced Trump and demanded a White House apology.  Because Trump continues to make Jeffries look like a weak and hypocritical fool, Republicans in D.C. are able to lean on Trump’s spine.

All of these funny reactions to the dynamic playing out in D.C. reflect perhaps the most important feature of the Trump Revolution: The corporate news media’s psychological manipulation of non-leftist Americans is no longer working.  In the recent past, television talking heads framed the acceptable parameters of ideological debate.  We call it the “Overton Window” or “political correctness.”  Over the last century, leftist corporations, bureaucratic agencies, and so-called “non-governmental” organizations have essentially fabricated a mental prison in which only certain ideas, beliefs, and opinions are treated with respect.  Everything that exists beyond their mental prison — Christianity, patriotism, family values, tradition — is treated with contempt.

The left’s propaganda machine has been remarkably effective at shaping society by rewarding Americans professing “correct” viewpoints with praise and demonizing Americans expressing “incorrect” viewpoints as “haters.”  

In the ’90s, Bill Clinton insisted that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”  After the leftist machine did its work, women were emboldened to “shout their abortions,” and the Obama-Biden DOJ decided to imprison pro-life Americans for “hate speech.”  

Before the legalization of so-called “gay marriage,” activists said that gay Americans just wanted equal rights.  After the Supreme Court empowered itself to reinterpret the ancient institution of marriage, the leftist machine quickly labeled Christian beliefs “hate speech” and encouraged “tolerant” gays to sue and socially harass random bakers whose moral consciences kept them from making “gay wedding” cakes.  

Until recently, everyone in America knew the difference between a man and a woman.  Over the last twenty years, the leftist machine has brainwashed half of society to believe that men dressed as women should “twerk” in front of kindergarteners, that boys should be allowed to change clothes in girls’ locker rooms, and that restrooms for men should include menstruation products.

By constraining Americans’ thoughts and pumping out lies for decades, the leftist propaganda machine has convinced too many otherwise sensible people to believe false and delusional things.  By refusing to be shamed into silence and by routinely mocking all the animatronic “reporters” working for the machine, President Trump has destroyed their enduring system of mind control.  He has opened the doors of the left’s mental prison. 

It is as if millions of Americans have awakened from hypnotic slumbers and realized how fantastically idiotic the leftist news machine really is.  With the effectiveness of the leftist machine’s coercion waning, actual truth is finally breaking through into the social consciousness.  

Trump’s memes and mockery are genuinely hilarious.  They are also purposefully liberating.  That’s what terrifies the machine’s mouthpieces most: Americans have begun to think for themselves.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.