It's what I've called the Outrage Cycle. It's a simple, effective formula.

Trump says something outrageous and provocative designed to excite his base and rile his critics.

Each time he does this, he accomplishes four things . . .

1/ https://twitter.com/strychninelove/status/1252985299501801473

He keeps his base excited
He enrages his critics
He batters democratic institutions, and
He fulfills his campaign promise to “protect” his followers from their “enemies”

To make this even more effective, he includes in the outrageous statement lies and nonsense. . .

2/

Including lies, nonsense, and errors makes the technique more effective because his critics spend time unraveling the nonsense, pointing out the mistakes, and disproving the lies.

This keeps his critics busy.

It also keeps them spinning, which wears them out.

Win-win.

3/

Wearing out the opposition causes them to give up.

Keeping them spinning keeps also them in the moment. It's what Timothy Snyder calls the Politics of Eternity. You forget that the future can be different. You feel powerless to break out of the cycle.

4/

Because Trump is dangerous and doesn't care if people die, this creates a genuine dilemma.

If you get outraged you feed the beast: The more outraged you are, the more euphoric his base feels because they're socking it to the libs.

It's a self-fulfilling cycle.

5/

If you don't get outraged, you are "normalizing" what he does.

He wins if you react. He wins if you don't react.

See how effective it is?

I think the solution is to do just what I'm doing: Talk about his tactics.

Make people aware that the playbook is effective.

6/

I do hope you all take notes.

All of this material will be included in the policy portion of the Twitter Bar Exam. https://twitter.com/historydude74/status/1252986930100416525

Confession: I have never listened to a Covid-19 Trump press briefing.

I have thereby greatly enhanced the quality of my life. I've probably also added a few years to its length. https://twitter.com/saneandreal/status/1252990271588978689

The best solution I know is to volunteer in a way that helps save democracy. This allows you to (1) help save democracy which will take millions of people doing their party and (2) save your sanity by lifting you out of the crazy news cycle . . . https://twitter.com/MattRGate/status/1252987877832654852

The only times in the past 4 years when I have literally ignored the news for more than a full week at a time was when I volunteered in a detention center in Texas offering legal assistance to asylum seekers (through @RAICESTEXAS)

I felt no guilt in tuning out the crazy. . .

. . . because I knew I was pushing back in a tangible way. Also I was literally too busy working with my clients to follow the news.

I have writing deadlines now, which keeps me close to the computer but I also do volunteer voter protection legal work.

Funny error: I meant to type "millions of people doing their part" and ended up with "millions of people doing their party."

Disclaimer: All errors are entirely the fault of keyboard gremlins.