Paramount+ & Michigan MAGAs

A horrible thing happened last night. Horrible.

Trump went to Michigan to speak to a packed crowd, well chosen by the way, and he played a tape. A video. A propaganda piece that rivals some of the footage we’ve all seen of Jews being beaten in the streets in 1930s Germany. We’ve all seen those newsreels. We look on in horror at the people wearing stars, being dragged, kicked, spat on. What we don’t often think about is that those scenes were filmed intentionally, by people working for the Nazi regime, to be turned into newsreels shown in theaters all across Germany. They were not rogue images captured by outsiders documenting atrocities. They were commissioned as part of a propaganda machine. And the reaction back then, in those darkened theaters, was the same as it was in that bright, packed arena in Michigan last night. Cheering. Chanting. A temporary sense of belonging born from someone else’s humiliation.

Are we so stupid that we don’t see it? And yes, I use the term “we” to include everyone. Even those who are certainly not part of my inner circle. This is all of us now. This is our moment of recognition, or our moment of surrender.

The video was clearly planned in advance. The men, rounded up as supposed gang members, had tattooed images Photoshopped onto them to “prove” it. They were paraded with their heads down, made to look subhuman. Then shown having their heads shaved and locked in cages. In a country that isn’t ours. With no explanation of due process. No justification for how or why they were sent there.

And the crowd cheered.

They screamed USA. USA. USA.

And they were happy. For a minute or two.

Please don’t click on the video. It’s going to be everywhere today, and I’m writing this before the news cycle takes off. If you click on it, you give it oxygen. You feed the fire they lit. You feed into their propaganda machine. It’s what they want you to do. You don’t need to see it. You do need to fact-check what I’m saying. That’s your job. But don’t give this any more ground.

This was not spontaneous. These videos were planned well before the arrests. This propaganda has been in the works for years.

In 1930s Germany, the people had lost hope. Just like America’s middle class has over the past few decades. The dream that MAGA had for their kids, that they would do better than them, is gone. They’ve worked three jobs with no healthcare, no stability. And now, blaming the collapse on so-called gangs, many of whom are now trafficked victims themselves, is the only way they can feel like someone is lower on the totem pole than they are. Shame on me and shame on you for letting our neighbor citizens get so lost. And shame on them for falling for it.

Now jump to Hungary. Because Orban has already run this playbook.

His big immigration moment was built around George Soros. Yes, the same George Soros who funded Orban’s university education in England. The same Soros whose foundation bought copy machines for Hungary and other Eastern Bloc countries when the Soviets fell, so people could gather and share information. Whatever information they wanted. The same Soros who gave thousands of grants to individuals across the arts, business, and other fields that strengthen open societies.

That George Soros.

Orban knew antisemitism could build his movement. So he made Soros the target. Posters with Soros’s face were plastered across subways, but the image wasn’t accurate. The nose had been exaggerated, made long and grotesque, like Nazi Germany’s caricatures of Jewish people. Riders would stomp on his face on the floor of the subway car as they boarded. And they felt better. Just like that crowd in Michigan screaming USA. What they were really screaming was, I am somebody. I am somebody. And for a moment, someone made them feel like it was true, even if it wasn’t.

And as long as someone else is going down, Michigan MAGAs won’t really care that they can only afford McDonald’s once a week. They won’t care that the country is being stripped of its resources. They won’t care that children aren’t getting fed in schools anymore. That their rights are curtailed. That the press is no longer reliable to tell us what is happening in the world. They won’t care because everyone is suffering and somehow that makes it feel fair. Misery loves company.

But yesterday, something else happened.

Paramount, which is trying to finalize its deal with CBS, is negotiating with Trump over his lawsuit against 60 Minutes. A lawsuit for billions that no credible legal mind believes has merit. And they’re going to settle. The president gets another rush, another win, because people around him keep caving. And we keep letting them.

Why isn’t Paramount afraid that every single person will cancel their streaming subscription? That people will turn off CBS for good?

Those people in Michigan, screaming USA as they watched the inhumane treatment of men they’ll never meet, aren’t so different from you and me. Because I am not taking actions to make accountable those who are bringing my country down.

I love Paramount+. I watch a lot of their shows. I’m in the middle of one now. The finale airs this Thursday night. It’s about a serial killer who is serving life but says he committed murder to win get his daughter to reconnect. I want to know how it ends. It’s three in the morning right now, and I’m lying here debating whether I can wait until Friday to cancel my subscription. Even worse, I have company coming, so maybe I won’t get to watch it until Saturday. That’s what I’m thinking about.

What is wrong with me?

That’s the wake-up call.

I can’t wait until Friday. I can’t wait another minute. I have to finish writing this. and I have to cancel my subscription. I have to write to Paramount and tell them why. I have to ask my friends to do the same. I have to post it on Screen Thoughts, where I review films. I’ll lose a few hundred followers. Some of them don’t agree with my politics, and I have never made a political statement there before. But I have to do it. Because if I don’t, then I’m just like the ones screaming USA. I hate this regime, but if I’m not willing to give up a little comfort, a show that wasn’t even that good anyway, then what does that make me?

It’s time for sacrifice. It’s time to walk the walk. No more Amazon. No more Paramount+ if they get this wrong. Hit them where it matters and hope they make it right.

This is about remembering who I am and what matters. And the irony? That show I’m watching? It’s based on a true story. I could just go read how it ends.

But how this ends? That ending is not written yet.