Why I’ve Stopped Taking Potshots at Trump and Musk

Maybe You Should Too

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Let’s be real — taking shots at Donald Trump and Elon Musk has become a national pastime, right up there with binge-watching Netflix and doom-scrolling Instagram.

It’s a reflex at this point. They do or say something outrageous, and we pounce, keyboards ablaze, memes locked and loaded.

And honestly? It feels good. Like a verbal exorcism of all the frustration we carry about the state of the world.

I’m not gonna lie—I’ve done my fair share of dunking on Trump, especially when he serves up those juicy, can’t-miss, self-inflicted blunders. It’s cathartic, like stress-eating a whole pizza. But just like inhaling a double pepperoni at 2 a.m., there’s always that inevitable moment of regret.

Let’s step back for a second. What if—just hear me out—what if we’re playing right into their hands? What if every sarcastic Substack Note, every impassioned takedown, every shared headline confirming our worst fears is actually reinforcing the very power structures we claim to oppose?

The I Ching, that ancient Chinese wisdom text that’s basically a Taoist Magic 8-Ball, drops a truth bomb on this:

“When all under heaven know beauty as beauty, already there is ugliness; when everyone knows goodness, this accounts for badness.”

Translation?

The second we decide someone is pure evil, we set ourselves up as the noble, righteous opposition. And boom—just like that, we’ve locked ourselves into the exact kind of binary thinking that keeps people divided, keeps power centralized, and keeps us all locked in a never-ending cycle of outrage.

And nobody thrives in a culture of outrage quite like Trump and Musk. These guys don’t just survive on controversy—they bathe in it, sip it like a fine bourbon, marinate in it like a perfectly aged steak.

Moreover, they have mastered the art of divide-and-conquer. The more they stir the pot, the more engagement they get. Every insult, every fiery think piece, every viral takedown? Fuel for the fire. More clicks. More influence. More dominance over the conversation.

So what’s the alternative? Because I’ll tell you what isn’t working….. yelling louder, posting crude stuff, or just being more “right” than the other side. That’s like trying to put out a house fire with a flamethrower.

The Bhagavad Gita, that ancient Hindu classic that’s part philosophy manual, part existential crisis hotline, offers a wild idea:

“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”

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Now, I know what you’re thinking—because I’m thinking it, too. Are you telling me I need to look at Trump and Musk and see myself? As in, the same species, the same flawed human essence, the same consciousness wrapped in different packaging? Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m saying.

And I hate it, too.

But here’s the kicker — the second we stop seeing them as larger-than-life villains, they lose their power. If we stop feeding into the drama, stop treating them as the final bosses of democracy’s death match, what happens? The energy shifts. The outrage loses steam. The cycle of division starts to break down.

And what if—just what if—we went even further? Instead of meeting chaos with chaos, we met it with something radical. Something actually disruptive.

What if, instead of pouring our energy into anger, we directed it toward something healing? Not just for them—because let’s be honest, they probably won’t feel it—but for the collective consciousness as a whole.

The Tao Te Ching reminds us, “Striving for an excess of praise, one ends up without praise. Know satisfaction and you shall not be imperiled; then you will long endure.”

In other words, all this chasing, all this fighting, all this trying to “win” against them? It’s an illusion. The real power lies in stepping back, in refusing to engage in the battlefield they’ve built.

This doesn’t mean we let harmful policies slide. It doesn’t mean we don’t push for justice. It doesn’t mean we sit around singing kumbaya while democracy smolders in the background. What it does mean is that we stop letting them dictate the terms of engagement.

We recognize that they are not the cause of the chaos—they are just symptoms of a deeper cultural sickness. And we do something that actually breaks the cycle — we focus on transcending the polarity.

Because the real war isn’t Trump versus liberals, or Musk versus regulators, or us versus them. The real war is between consciousness and unconsciousness. Between fear and love. Between division and unity.

And if we’re going to win that war—not just for this election cycle, not just for the next few years, but for humanity’s future—then maybe it’s time to fight differently. Maybe it’s time to put down the flamethrowers and start sending some damn love.

Because nothing terrifies them more than a world that no longer needs them as villains.

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