The Wacko Paradox: Power Held, Rage Sustained
Not long ago, when people still listened to the radio in their cars, you could tune into some freaky talk late at night. “We know a third of us are star children, implanted by the visitors,” the anchor might drawl matter-of-factly. “What we’re learning now is, there’s two groups of star children — two tribes of visitors — and they’re butting heads.
Trump is in power. Somehow, the wackos aren’t satisfied.
Even a populist presidency can’t stop the online right’s slide into irrationality.
Washington Post October 9, 2025
Trump is in power. The populist prince presides. His movement has captured the executive branch, reshaped the judiciary, and cowed much of the party apparatus. Yet the online right remains unsatisfied. They’ve won the crown, but still demand the guillotine. Even with power, they howl of persecution. Even with policy, they pine for prophecy. Even with the bully pulpit, they prefer the bunker. It’s not governance they crave—it’s grievance as gospel.
They chant “we’re winning,”
But act like they’re losing.
They hold the megaphone,
But scream like they’re silenced.
This isn’t politics—it’s performance art with a persecution complex.
This paradox—of power held and rage sustained—has metastasized into a new performance of persecution. The populist presidency was supposed to be the catharsis. Instead, it’s become the stage for a deeper descent into delusion. The movement that once claimed to fight elites now devours its own, chasing ever more elaborate conspiracies to explain why victory still feels like victimhood.
Even with the crown, they demand the gallows.
Even with the stage, they rehearse rebellion.
Even with the script, they improvise betrayal.
The populist court has its king,
But the jesters want a coup.
Enter Michael Shellenberger, the eco-heretic turned censorship Cassandra. Once a climate activist, he now brands climate anxiety as mass hysteria and environmentalism as a pseudo-religion—Shellenberger called it “a faux religion” during his keynote at MCC Feszt 2025. He argues that solar energy is land gluttony, requiring “300 times more land than nuclear”. He warns of digital ID dystopias in Brazil and Spain, conjuring visions of a “Black Mirror” future where vaccine passports become shackles—Shellenberger testified before Congress that centralized digital IDs could enable surveillance and censorship. In his telling, Europe is no longer a partner but a parasite—he described it as “a continent of dependents” in a 2025 interview with The Free Press.
He’s the bard of backlash,
The prophet of panicless doom.
He sees censorship in every login screen,
Apocalypse in every solar panel.
Europe? A parasite.
Climate? A cult.
Moderation? A muzzle.
Even with Trump in office, Shellenberger insists the real enemy is still out there: in Brussels, in Berkeley, in the algorithms. His gospel is not about solutions but about suspicion. Not about policy but about purity.
Then there are the star-child anchors, a term coined by Abe Greenwald to describe the new breed of right-wing media avatars. These aren’t journalists. They’re performers. Candace Owens leads the constellation, spinning tales of betrayal, spectral enemies, and conspiracies so convoluted they collapse under their own contradictions. She recently accused Charlie Kirk’s widow of silencing him, misread UTC as “Utah Time,” and insisted that her confusion was proof of a cover-up—Owens’s Egyptian Air Force theory was debunked after she confused UTC with Utah time. She claimed Kirk’s ghost whispered betrayal, and called it evidence—Owens said Kirk visited her in a dream and told her “he was betrayed”.
She dreams in conspiracy,
Wakes in accusation.
UTC becomes Utah.
A timestamp becomes treason.
The widow becomes the silencer.
The ghost becomes the witness.
These figures don’t want truth. They want theater. They don’t want facts. They want followers. They don’t want to govern. They want to grieve—loudly, performatively, perpetually. Even with Trump in office, they act like exiles. Because grievance is the only glue that holds their audience. And reality is the only threat that can break it.
They perform persecution,
Monetize martyrdom,
And livestream lamentation.
The movement is not a coalition.
It is a content stream.
Its currency? Paranoia.
So where is the right headed? Not toward coherence. Not toward conservatism. But toward a kind of ideological entropy, where every victory is suspect, every ally is a traitor-in-waiting, and every fact is a false flag. The movement that once promised to drain the swamp now swims in a sea of its own delusions.
The populist prince presides.
The prophets preach panic.
The anchors orbit outrage.
And the audience? They want the show to go on.
Sources:
Shellenberger’s “faux religion” quote: MCC Feszt keynote, 2025
“300 times more land than nuclear”: Shellenberger, Public Substack post, 2025
Digital ID dystopia testimony: U.S. Congressional Hearing, March 2025
“Continent of dependents”: Interview with The Free Press, April 2025
Abe Greenwald’s “star-child anchors”: Commentary Magazine, August 2025
Owens’s UTC confusion and Kirk conspiracy: FactCheck.org, September 2025
Owens’s dream quote: Owens’s X (formerly Twitter) post, September 18, 2025
FTS
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