The Thug's Playbook: Why Civilization's Main Job Is to Stop Bullies

Let's get one thing straight: the entire, tedious point of civilization has always been to keep the thugs from running the show. It’s a simple, almost boring concept, yet one we seem determined to forget. Unless we consistently and forcefully stop the strong from savaging the weak, the idea of a "safe society" is a pathetic fiction we tell ourselves between crises.

A civil society that quaint notion where the powerful aren't allowed to brutalize the vulnerable for sport or profit is the ideological opposite of the world being built by so many of today's leaders. The goal is supposed to be moving away from brutality, not embracing it as a legitimate political tool. It's about protecting the weak, not empowering the strong to do their worst.

And don't kid yourself; it’s all the same tired, predictable playbook. The names and places change, but the strategy is identical.

Whether it’s Trump’s flunkies bullying immigrants, white supremacists menacing minorities, corporations price-gouging customers into poverty, the wealthy bullying the public for yet another tax cut, Elon Musk gutting programs the poor rely on, police brutalizing Black citizens, powerful men harassing women into silence, Netanyahu wiping Palestinians off the map, or Putin trying to swallow Ukraine. It’s the same rotten core.

The script never changes:

1. Stoke Fear: Make everyone afraid of their neighbor.

2. Exploit Desperation: Turn their pain into your power.

3. Suspend the Rule of Law: Declare yourself the exception.

4. Fan the Flames of Brutality: Unleash the cruelty.

This isn't a bug in the system; it's the feature. Unless the bullies are stopped cold, an entire society and eventually the world, will inevitably descend into the chaos they crave. It's not complicated. It's a choice.