Dear Trump Supporters, Conspiracy Theorists, Gurus, and the like.

Dear Trump Supporters, populists, conspiracy theorists, religious fanatics, astrologists, gurus, and the like,

For once, I’m going to write to you as I talk to my best friends:

There’s no excuse for your f*****g stupidity. 

Just like there’s no excuse for mine. 

Like those who have felt a greater power in a church, Trump rally, or holistic healing retreat, I’ve felt the forces we can’t explain. The loss of mysticism has dried up more souls and caused greater mental illnesses than any amount of pharmaceuticals and scientists will solve. 

As Ted Gioia points out in “Are Visionary Artists Just Mentally Ill?” shamanic experiences, musical masterpieces written in dreams, and other mystical visions challenge our rationalistic biases.

I try to open up my mind to realms of experience beyond the empirical. That’s where creativity comes from, and I don’t want to shut myself off from the source because of close-mindedness.

— Ted Gioia

Through viewing you Trump supporters, populists, astrologists, religious fanatics, holistic guru followers, and the like as pieces of art, I’ve grown to understand you. You’re full of pain, contradictions, skewed beliefs, and all the ingredients that make us human.

The fact that we’re all going to die should be enough to make me love you. Yet, I want to die by my own doing—extreme sports, pretending to be a firefighter, liver failure, whatever. What I don’t want is your belief systems and unawareness of cognitive biases to ruin the world I’m enjoying in this body.

Whether you’re a trump supporter or a conspiracy theorist, the root of the problem is the same. Your fear, anger, anxiety, and need for answers, coupled with a lack of critical thinking skills and healthy skepticism, have led you down an insidious path and streamlined our inevitable extinction.

I know you think you’re marching to the beat of your own drum, but the truth is, you’re all stuck in the same mental traps, falling for the same cognitive biases that make you cling to your b******t.

Let’s talk about confirmation bias. Whether you're waving a MAGA flag, reading your horoscope, or downing some overpriced essential oils, you only see what you want to see. Trump or Musk tweets something about free speech, and you call it genius before looking up their hypocrisies. You get a vague prediction about “big changes” this month, and when literally anything happens, you nod and think the stars knew it all along. What you're really doing is cherry-picking evidence to fit the story you already believe. You’re just reinforcing the cage you built for yourself.

Then there’s authority bias. You’re primates out of control in need of a leader to give you the answers you’re too afraid to find yourself.

Trump? You think the billionaire boy’s club wet dream is the saviour of the working class.

Your astrologer? By explaining planetary positions, zodiac signs, and houses with conviction, you suddenly think this study is based on facts when, in reality, the only truth is that reflection helps.

Your preacher? F**k off.

Your holistic Instagram guru? Obviously knows more than every PhD in medicine.

You put these people on a pedestal, eat up whatever they say, and only question it when it emotionally upsets you. Guess what? You’ve outsourced your brain to someone else who’s cashing in on your blind faith.

But the biggest joke? You all think you’re part of some exclusive club. That’s in-group bias. You’re all about “us vs. them.” Trump’s army of “real Americans” against the “libs.” The populists fighting the “corrupt elite.” Astrologists, religious zealots, influencer gurus—all of you pat yourselves on the back, acting like you’ve found some secret truth, while anyone who disagrees with you is just too dumb or close-minded to get it. No, the real problem is that you’ve huddled together in your little bubbles, scared shitless of studies and concepts you don’t understand.

Then there’s pattern recognition—or, more accurately, seeing patterns where they don’t exist. Trump supporters think he’s single-handedly fixed the economy. Populists link every problem to immigrants or the elite as if they’re behind everything. Astrologists? If a planet moves, your relationship is in a potential crisis. And religious fanatics? Every random event in your life gets chalked up to God’s plan. You’re all stringing together random dots and convincing yourselves it’s fate, destiny, or some grand conspiracy.

And man, do you love to wallow in negativity bias. You feed on fear. Trump supporters? You're obsessed with crime, immigration, and the fall of Western civilization. Populists? You cling to this victim narrative that “the system” is always screwing you over. Astrologists and holistic folks, you’re convinced everything natural is holy, and anything from Big Pharma is the devil incarnate—okay, OK, it often is, but a bunch of you fall back on anxiety meds when the essential oils don’t work. Religious fanatics? You see sin, moral decay, and Armageddon around every corner, although your belief in man being separate from nature is the route of our destruction.

Oh, and let’s not forget the sunk cost fallacy. You’ve all invested so much time, energy, and emotion into your beliefs that you’re too scared to admit you might be wrong. Trump supporters can’t walk away now, even when the lies pile up. Populists stay angry and bitter, even when the solutions never come. Guru-like influencer followers? You’ve bought into so much woo-woo that backing out now would mean accepting you’ve been duped. Religious fanatics? Same story—years of faith mean admitting doubt would unravel your entire sense of self. You’d rather double down on delusion than face reality.

You think you’ve got the answers, but you’re all locked in the same mental prison, driven by fear, fueled by emotion, and held captive by the same cognitive biases. Whether it’s Trump, the planets, God, or some holistic miracle cure, you're using the same flawed thinking to justify your beliefs.

When a lack of rational thinking is coupled with distrust in one another, authoritarianism thrives. We all have reasons to distrust scientific and academic institutions riddled with corporate funding and ideological-driven decisions, but even here, in the land of intellectual circle jerks, people are more likely to admit when they’re wrong than the Astrologer who says, “You’re just not open enough” or the Trump supporter or guru who says, “I follow my gut.”

I’m wrong all the time, and some of you may have noticed I fell victim to the same arguments and various cognitive biases I warn you about. Plus, we all know this “letter” might stay in an echo chamber.

In reality, this letter isn’t to you. It’s to us. I want to connect to something greater than myself, just like you do.

I might come crawling your way for some essential oils, chakra healing, and a word from God next time I get a panic attack. Every man who thinks he knows he knows doesn’t know a damn damn thing at all. Except for those who know the combination of tech billionaire Elon Musk and Donald Trump is a techno-feudalistic dystopian nightmare.

We’re all susceptible to the same cognitive biases and belief systems, but please, put X and your conspiracy theorists away for a bit.

Join Substack!

Joking. The spread of misinformation happens here as well. But not on Born Without Borders, of course…

Born Without Borders is a reader-supported guide to the craft of nonconformity, cultural psychology, travel writing and how to salir de las fronteras que impone tu mente. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. If you want to support my work and help me upgrade to more than one cabin bag, the best way is to take out a paid subscription.

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