I was (Still am, actually) listening to a Spotify playlist of music by The Bobs. No, you haven’t heard of them unless I have mentioned them to you in the past; this a cappella group is one of my longest-lasting musical obsessions, surpassed only by the Living Legend Weird Al Yankovic. The Bobs were great singers — especially their bass, who is amazing — but their real gift was for songwriting: they were strange, oftentimes, and they were sometimes overly cheesy or too experimental — but there are a huge number of beautiful songs, catchy songs, clever songs, impressive songs, and, most importantly, meaningful songs in their catalog.

This is one of my first favorite songs by them. And no, it is not a coincidence that one of my formative memories was having a winter hat that my mother made for me, which I wore throughout elementary school, which was fashioned to look like a space helmet. I wore that thing every cold winter day in Massachusetts; and I was mocked for it pretty much every cold winter day in Massachusetts.

I love that: first because it talks about both living as your authentic self with gusto, even when people (your own mother, for instance) think you’re strange just because you put a colander on your head; and also about being protected from the exigencies of the world, how common it is for us to put on armor — which is, of course, the opposite thing from being your true self, because armor is how we hide ourselves. The song is about someone being weird: but it is also about how so many people do the same thing in so many ways; and it asks the question — which is the path to serenity? Is it safety, partly represented by fitting in with the crowd (and the image of rows of shining hairdryers at the beauty parlor as a sort of helmet is fantastic for showing us this) and partly represented by the fact of a literal helmet, which protects your head? Or is it being who you want to be, represented by the main character’s desire to wear a helmet because his heroes were firemen and astronauts? It’s a great question, honestly; and it’s interesting (especially because it creates a theme that continues into the main song I want to discuss, below) that a possible solution the song offers is to ask other people to join in with your particular weirdness: because if other people try it, and find that they like it, then it’s not weird — and then there’s nothing wrong with wearing a helmet.

And the whole time, it’s just so freakin’ jaunty! How do you not love that??

I know, I know; not everybody loves that. But I do, so — come try it on, nothing can do you wrong.

Anyway, I was listening to a playlist (Which also let me enjoy several of their covers, which are AMAZING: here they are doing a Jimmy Cliff song, “Sitting in Limbo:” Sitting in Limbo) and their song The Deprogrammer came on. Here it is:

So this is an interesting story song, which is one of The Bobs’ specialties, and for the same reason why “Helmet” is interesting: it starts with an unusual situation — a deprogrammer, a guy who kidnaps cult members and un-brainwashes them, which is a pretty wild concept, but also it was something of a fad in the 80s when the song was written (I remember a storyline from my favorite 80s comic strip, Bloom County, in which Milo tried to deprogram — I think it was Opus?); people at the time were understandably terrified by the mass suicide of the People’s Temple, ordered by their cult leader Jim Jones, and they wanted a way to save their family members from a similar fate — but then the story takes a surprising twist. Just like “Helmet” beginning as a celebration of being strange and quirky, and then turning to an insightful criticism of society in general, “The Deprogrammer” turns into the brainwashing/kidnapper building a sort of grudging respect for the cultist he is trying to “save,” and the interesting choice of words when he says, “Maybe this time, I’ve met my Master.” Does this mean the deprogrammer is now being drawn into the brainwashing? Since he joins into the repeated chorus that closes the song, it seems so. And that repeated chorus becomes a celebration of the cult’s mantra and the power of it, and the attraction of being part of a group, which seems to be what defeats the deprogrammer. The cultist he kidnapped, whom he can’t deprogram, just keeps saying “We are the light of a beautiful world,” and the song turns into a singalong, with a crowd joining in on that refrain, along with the alternating lines “The mindless words you are repeating” and “Logical thoughts are self-defeating.” The song adds echo effects and fades out on that repetition, turning into something of a hymn, repeating what is actually a lovely thought: We are the light of a beautiful world.

Who would want to be deprogrammed of that belief? Wouldn’t we be better off with that understanding of the world implanted deep in our psyches, so deep that nothing could pull it out? And too, as “Helmet” maybe indicates, if we can get people to try, to join in and recognize the pleasure and goodness of our subjective experience, then we can all be as one, and no one will have to feel left out or ostracized or marginalized. The world could be a utopia.

Except. Except there’s not a practice, not a worldview or paradigm, with which everyone can agree. Not one. Which means there has to be conflict, when we think like this. There will always be an In-group and an Out-group, even if the Grinch does decide to join in with the Whos’ Christmas celebration. And not only because the Grinch can never be a Who, but also because sometimes the In-group, the common majority mindset, decides to cut down all of the trees: and then not only does that choice necessitate conflict with the Lorax, it needs the Lorax, to speak for the trees.

Not sure why I went full Seuss there, since I was talking about the Bobs. Mainly because most of you don’t know the Bobs: but everyone knows Seuss, especially the ones that have been movified.

But we also have all seen, firsthand, the intentional creation of an In-group and an Out-group: and it has been accompanied by incessant, and profoundly obnoxious, invitations to those of us in the Out-group (One of them; there are actually several Out-groups, with differing levels of ostracism, hatred, or persecution attached to each) to just join the In-Group, and then everything would be fine. Except the In-group was created as a means of consolidating and wielding power, apparently mainly for the prosaic but profoundly insidious goal of stealing as much wealth as possible. Donald Trump chose his In-group, his Star-Bellied Sneetches, and he has been telling them for more than ten years now that they are the bestest: that they are the real Americans, the true patriots, the good people, the only ones who use common sense. And for ten years, I have listened to those same people turn around and tell me that I should want to be a real American, a true patriot, a good person, and a person who uses common sense, and they tell me that all I have to do is: follow Donald Trump. They say it in various ways, depending on the context of the actual conversation: they tell me I should “accept” that Donald Trump is my president, which actually means I should join their group and act exactly like them, including focusing all of my fear and anger and hatred on the Out-groups; they don’t say that I am only given this opportunity because I am a white cis-het man who speaks English and possesses legal American citizenship, but we all know that that is true. I have been told that I should “support” Trump and his actions because he “wants what is best for our country;” though he actually wants to take what is best in our country, and destroy everything good that he can’t take. And, of course, we’ve all been told that we must comply with the those who use force to impose obedience on us, or else we will somehow earn the violence that will be inflicted on us, and which will get no more sympathy than a shrug and a smirk and some variation of “Fuck Around and Find Out!” from the members of Donald Trump’s gang.

This was where my mind went when I heard “The Deprogrammer” again for the first time in probably a decade. (Now I’m listening to “Dictator in a Polo Shirt,” and I want to make a Trump reference about that, but I’ll hold off until I finish my current point. I’m trying to quit tangents, and though I can’t go cold turkey, I can lower my daily consumption.) I’ve been listening to the national conversation revolve around what it will take to turn Trump’s followers against him at last — I mean, it seems like it’s been the conversation for the same ten-plus years that Trump has been in power, largely owing to his iron grip on his base, and the utter spinelessness of the Republican party when it comes to disobeying him. And I admit that I try to kick that football every single time the Lucy of the media hold it for me: they tell me that Trump’s popularity is waning, that it’s lower than it’s ever been before, that his most recent actions or policies are unpopular according to national polling, and every single time, I get excited by the possibility that, this time, at last, Trump will lose his power, and we’ll be able to rein him in, and maybe even achieve the ultimate dream of impeaching him (for a third time) and this time, removing him from office — and maybe even putting him on fucking trial for his goddamn crimes. I don’t even care if the Supreme Court voids his conviction on appeal (That’s not true, I care enormously, but there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’m trying not to care. I can’t go cold turkey on caring: but I’m trying to reduce my daily consumption of caring.), I just want him to face a jury that tells him he’s guilty, and a judge that sentences him to fucking jail time. That’s what I want. Actually, I think that’s what the country needs: because if Trump can go through that process and be held accountable to that extent, given the real and actual punishment of prison time, then it will help to show his would-be imitators and replacements that they can’t just get away with literally everything they want to do, as he has done. We need to go back to having norms, and following them, and that requires Trump to pay,

But it’s never true. Trump won his primaries just this last month: he wanted Thomas Massie out, and Massie is out; he wanted Ken Paxton to run against the Democrat, and Ken Paxton is running against the Democrat. This is terrible strategically for Trump, because he is making enemies among the current Congress (NPR is, adorably, calling them the YOLO Caucus, the ones who are leaving Congress at the end of this term and so don’t have to fear Trump ending their political careers) — but also, the courts are giving him all of the gerrymandered maps he could possibly want, and his voters are still supporting him. And I go flying and land on my back, as the football is pulled away from me. I did it again with the Anti-Weaponization fund, and the news reports that Republicans in Congress “weren’t happy” with Trump’s attempt to steal $1.776 billion in order to pay off his brownshirts from January 6th (I’m sure most of that money would go directly to the Trump family, but that’s a different conversation: all of the bribes for his violent minions would be just as bad as the direct theft of more taxpayer money by Trump himself, and maybe worse depending on how much it would embolden the next crop of rioters before the next election), because the Senate passed his fucking ICE funding without any amendments even limiting how that stolen money can be spent. Even the YOLO caucus failed to vote on amendments in alignment with the Democrats: they gave Trump the bill he wanted. 1.776 billion dollar bills. And 70 billion more dollar bills for ICE. Still no investigations of the killings of Renee Good or Alex Pretti, by the way. Because Trump doesn’t want them, and his government does what he wants.

The reason I keep thinking Trump’s control is ending is because it doesn’t make any sense to me. Not even a little bit. But see, that’s because I’m not in the In-group: I’m not in the cult. I have not been taught to obey the Master in all things, to surrender my will to the Leader. I have been given multiple offers to join, just by accepting that Trump is my master and that everything he says is true, just as I have been told many times that I can save my life if I just comply with the gun-toting thugs in masks who enforce Trump’s control. I recognize that if everyone — everyone allowed to, at least, which would not include trans people or immigrants or those who have incurred Trump’s childish, violent wrath — just joined the In-group, and if we all helped to eliminate the presence of the Out-groups within the US, then we’d all be happier, especially Trump, as he would have both the adoring fans he craves, and the opportunity to steal even more money even more openly (Though I don’t know what would be more obvious than settling a lawsuit with yourself, using your own personal attorney as the currently-un-Senate-approved Attorney General as the one “making the decision” to hand you $1.776 billion, but I’m sure there is more money that Trump could steal, and he would: and he will, because while courts are currently trying to put a stop to the “Anti-Weaponization Fund”, the Supreme Court will surely overturn those lower court decisions and let Trump have anything he wants. Because they’re in the cult, too. At least six of them.); and as long as we don’t mind our world being destroyed by this worthless sack of shit, then we could all be happy together, cheering while we comply, thanking Big Daddy Trump while we do whatever he wants.

Nope. Don’t understand it. Doesn’t make any sense to me. But it doesn’t need to: just like particle physics, which I don’t understand either, the Trump cult is a fact of our world, whether we understand it or not. And even though I won’t be joining it, I also recognize that no deprogrammer is going to be able to save us from them. I think we’ll be partly saved by the unavoidable, and likely imminent, death of Donald Trump (I’m still going to hope that it will come after his trial and conviction and sentencing, even if he never serves a day in prison: escaping a prison sentence by dying would not reassure his imitators that they could get away with the same shit he did: and that might make our country a better place. Not as good as if we managed to pass laws that prevented this from happening again, no matter who tries to do the same shit; but it’s a start.), but I don’t doubt that this madness that happened once could happen again. I don’t believe Donald Trump’s ability to create a cult was due to his unique and unmatchable skills at manipulating people; I think Trump is the result of a perfect storm of events that created a political base hungry to become a cult, and he stepped right into that role: but if that perfect storm happened once, it can happen again. [Keep an eye on Spencer Pratt.]

I don’t know how we can prevent this from happening in the future. I’m not even sure how we can change the situation from becoming as dire in the future as it is now: that is, there are a hundred ways we can fix the American political system in order to keep a future Trump-imitator from doing the same things, but I have lost pretty much all faith in our political system to solve these problems. Our political system could have, and should have, solved this problem in 2021, when they should have convicted Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, found him responsible for participating in an insurrection, and banned him from ever running for office again: and our political system chose not to do that. Our political system chose to continue participating in this madness, presumably for the same reason the Republican senators voted to pass ICE funding without limiting the theft of $1.776 billion: because this way they can retain their power, and maybe steal some of the money themselves. I have been shocked, but not really surprised, that not a single principled Republican remains in Washington; the last principled Republicans were primaried in 2024 (I’d say it was Massie, who does stand on at least two principles in opposition to Donald Trump, but as he does agree with Trump on every other point, he is not in fact a principled man. Just like anyone who has actually turned on Trump — and I know there are voters who have, genuinely, recognized what Trump is — because of the war in Iran and the economic apocalypse he is building for us: because that means nothing before now was sufficient to turn you against him, and that makes you unprincipled. I’m glad for people who manage to break free of the cult, but their participation in the cult until now is hard to forgive, because again, I don’t think it is Trump’s genius manipulations that created this cult: I think people put themselves in it, and he took advantage. Same with Thomas Massie, who’s a MAGA asshole who just doesn’t like the war in Iran or the Epstein coverup.) I still want to think about and talk about reforms to our political system which would help make the situation better in the future; but I don’t think that’s the answer to the Trump cult, unfortunately.

But this is what I want to say: this is why I wanted to write this post, why I wanted to share the Bobs’ song. Because another way to hear “The Deprogrammer” — not one that fits in the original story the song is presenting, but a way to think of it translated into our context — is as a refrain focused in two different directions: if we imagine the song describing our attempts, as the actual rational people in this country, trying to break the Trump cult free of their absurd willful ignorance, I think the story the song tells is accurate, because I don’t think we can deprogram them. We have met our masters, in the sense that we have met a challenge we cannot overcome — one we cannot master, and which therefore might master us. Hard to say that is not the situation we have been in for the last ten years: we could not overcome the first Trump campaign, and so it took us over; and then we couldn’t actually end Trump’s threat while he was out of office, and so he has mastered this country since January of 2025. I don’t think we are falling under his spell, as I think the song depicts: but picture the ending refrain this way. Imagine it is us saying to the Trump cultists: “The mindless words you are repeating!” just as an expression of outrage and disbelief: how could anyone keep repeating this mindless nonsense? How could anyone still think that Trump is good for this country, that he is fixing our economy, that the tariffs are going to bring back American manufacturing, that the rest of the world respects Trump’s strength and therefore the country is safer with him in charge — and so on, and on and on and on. Mindless words! They are repeating! And we say this to them, and they — deny, or refuse, or curse and spit at us. Even after a concerted effort, with everything at our disposal, to deprogram them. So we take a breath, remind ourselves of who we are and what we are doing, why we are there and working to save these people from the cult that has swallowed them: We are the light of a beautiful world, we whisper to ourselves. Then we grit our teeth and try again: “Logical thoughts are self-defeating,” we say to the cultist, quoting them (Because these are the mindless words they keep repeating) and how they have responded to the clear evidence and logic we have presented to them, over and over again: but it doesn’t work this time, as it hasn’t worked before, as it won’t work the next thousand times we say it, even if we manage to continue finding the energy and the optimism to keep trying, to keep talking to them. What keeps us going, in the face of that obstinacy, that unshakeable grip that the Trump cult has on its members, even today, when he has done everything he said he wouldn’t, and nothing he said he would? We whisper the refrain again, and again, it is lovely, and inspiring, and calming.

We are the light of a beautiful world.

Even if we can’t win this fight, even if we can’t change the cultists, even if they will always be the enemy, will always be a threat.

We are the light of a beautiful world.

Even if the Republican party keeps trying to push the same agenda, in some way or other, for the next generation, because it worked this time and politicians have no actual ideas to create positive change (at least not establishment politicians), and the establishment Democrats keep letting them, because establishment politicians have no actual ideas to create positive change.

We are the light of a beautiful world.

Even if JD Vance, or Marco Rubio, or Donald Trump Jr., or Spencer Pratt, or someone we have not even thought of — like Trump himself in 2014 — manages to recapture power. Even if the Supreme Court remains controlled by rabid ideologues for the next generation.

We are the light of a beautiful world.

We are the light of a beautiful world.

We are the light of a beautiful world.