Bogeymen and Trojan Horses: How Fear and Deception Shape Our Politics
It’s easy to want to turn away from the news these days. Every headline feels like another blow: Trump invokes the Alien Enemies Act! Medicaid gutted! Green card holders deported! Migrants vanished in El Salvador! DOGE infiltrates federal systems! Social Security at risk! Mass federal layoffs announced!
The sheer volume of chaos is overwhelming. Even more frustrating is the passive capitulation of many Democratic leaders and mainstream media outlets. With their silence or half-hearted responses, they leave us questioning whether they have the strength or will to fight back. In this void, only the courts and the people themselves stand as the last line of defense.
In moments like these, when attacks seem to come from every direction, the best strategy is to take a step back and gain perspective. From a higher vantage point, patterns emerge, revealing the opposition’s tactics. And at the heart of it, Trump and Musk aren’t as original as they’d like to seem. Their strategies are nothing more than timeworn ploys: the creation of bogeymen to stoke fear and the deployment of Trojan horses to mask their true agendas.
The Bogeyman Playbook: Fear as a Weapon
From the moment Trump descended his golden escalator in 2015, he began constructing bogeymen. He painted Mexican immigrants as rapists, murderers, and drug dealers, triggering two common reactions: outrage at his blatant racism and impassioned defenses of the Mexican community.
While both responses were understandable, one crucial question was often overlooked: Why? Why was Trump demonizing Mexicans? Why was he making statements that, at the time, seemed like political suicide?
The answer is simple: demagogues thrive on fear. By creating enemies, they tap into primal emotions, overriding rational thought and dividing people into “us” versus “them.” Had we collectively asked why more often, we might have recognized Trump for what he was early on—not a political sideshow, but a would-be fascist weaponizing hatred for power.
Still Falling for the Same Trick
Years later, the same playbook remains in use, and we keep falling into the same trap. Trump continues to manufacture bogeymen—this time targeting transgender individuals, particularly athletes in female sports. As the election nears, he has invested heavily in demonizing this already marginalized group.
And yet, instead of asking why he’s doing this, many have engaged in debates over the validity of his claims, inadvertently legitimizing the very problem he fabricated. By engaging on his terms, the left amplifies the narrative, making it seem as though transgender people are everywhere, infiltrating every locker room and every public space. In reality, the NCAA president recently testified that there are exactly ten transgender athletes in college sports. Ten. Yet Trump has managed to turn this non-issue into a national crisis.
Trump himself admitted that this is nothing more than an election tactic:
“They’re fighting like crazy about ‘men’ being able to play in women’s sports… I think it’s a 95 percent issue. But I wanted to keep doing it because I don’t think they can win a race. I tell Republicans, ‘Don’t bring that subject up because there is no election right now. But a week before the election, bring it up, because you can’t lose.’”
The strategy is clear: invent a problem, manufacture outrage, then present himself as the strongman who will “fix” it. Meanwhile, Democrats, instead of calling out this manipulation, often stumble into reinforcing it. Texas Senate candidate Colin Allred, for example, responded to Ted Cruz’s attacks by releasing an ad insisting he does not support “boys in girls’ sports,” playing directly into the Republican trap. Similarly, California Governor Gavin Newsom, in an interview with far-right commentator Charlie Kirk, agreed that transgender athletes in female sports represent an issue of “fairness.”
This is how Democrats lose. Instead of pushing back against the framing, they reinforce it. The correct response to these manufactured crises is not to debate them but to call them out for what they are: cynical attempts to distract and divide.
“I see right through you, and so do the American people. You are targeting a vulnerable group to stoke fear and division for your own gain. It’s bullying, it’s dishonest, and it’s beneath the values of this country.”
We must expose the tactic itself. Otherwise, the cycle will never end. The bogeymen will change, but the game will remain the same.
The Trojan Horse Deception: Beware of “Gifts”
If the citizens of Troy had known the legend of the Trojan horse, they would have been far more skeptical of the “gift” left at their gates. Today, we should know better—but we don’t. We still accept shiny offerings without questioning their true purpose.
Enter Elon Musk. We are told he simply wants to “help” the government eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. Who could argue with that? But under the guise of efficiency, Musk is positioning himself for unchecked influence. By embedding himself within government operations, he now has unparalleled access to sensitive financial data, the ability to dismantle regulatory bodies that oversee his businesses, and the power to redirect lucrative government contracts to his own companies.
Had we been more skeptical when Trump first gave Musk this authority, we might have seen the real game plan. Musk didn’t become the world’s richest man by being charitable. Every move he makes is about consolidation—of wealth, power, and control.
Falling for the Trap Again
Musk’s takeover of Social Security “reform” is a case in point. Under the guise of eliminating fraud, he has spread false claims that millions of dead people are still receiving benefits. His real goal? To convince Americans that Social Security is broken beyond repair—paving the way for privatization and profit extraction by corporate interests.
Similarly, Musk is leveraging his Starlink satellite network to expand his influence. While pitching it as a solution for rural broadband access, his true aim is to secure billions in federal funding and establish monopolistic control over internet infrastructure. If successful, he will not only reap massive profits but also wield unprecedented leverage over American communications.
The lesson of the Trojan horse is clear: don’t take gifts from self-interested oligarchs. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Recognizing the Patterns Before It’s Too Late
Once you see the game—bogeymen to create fear, Trojan horses to consolidate power—you start recognizing it everywhere:
- Migrant gangs like Tren de Aragua → A bogeyman to justify mass deportations.
- No tax on Social Security or tips → A Trojan horse for tax breaks for the wealthy.
- Fentanyl traffickers and border invasions → A bogeyman to justify extreme tariffs and border crackdowns.
- Make America Healthy Again → A Trojan horse to dismantle vaccine programs and public health funding.
- The “woke mind virus” in universities → A bogeyman to justify dismantling higher education.
- DOGE savings for taxpayers → A Trojan horse for further government cuts and privatization.
The most dangerous escalation of this strategy is the Reichstag Fire moment—a false flag event used to justify authoritarian rule. Trump has already invoked national emergencies to justify sweeping actions. If he regains power, we must be prepared for a staged crisis that will serve as a pretext for dismantling democracy itself.
But these outcomes are not inevitable. If we and our leaders develop the discipline to call out these tactics immediately, we can stop them before they take hold. By exposing the fearmongering and rejecting false gifts, we can turn the tide.
It starts with one simple question: Why?