Skin Suits And Skin Walkers

Yesterday’s post ended up causing me to think a bit about David Burge’s take on progressives and institutions. Once they identify a respected institution, they take it over, kill it, and wear it as a skin suit while demanding respect. That led to some additional thought on my part in regards Skinwalkers (Naagloshii if you are into the Dresden Files).

Navajo folklore has the skin walkers as wizards who can change shape into animals, always with the goal of doing harm. This is in opposition to healers, who have the goal of doing good. Simplifying a bit, but it is a rich bit of legend and I think it applies to the current situation.

Looking at what has come out of USAID so far, quite a few institutions appear to be skin walkers. That is, they have been taken over, gutted, and used to attack freedom, liberty, and the rule of law. They dance around grandly, hiding that they are being paid to push not just misinformation, but lies, and to attack those who oppose the progressive intent (power, power, control). It’s not just corporate media, but a variety of institutions that profess to be for the good even as they seek to do harm.

Which brings us to Trump and his team. I noted that it really wasn’t the old Republican party, but instead a new coalition of libertarian, conservative, and progressive. In thinking on that some more, I realized that in many ways, this new coalition was using the skin of the old Republican party as a convenience. Let’s face it, the previous sunken-chested owners had long ago abandoned it as they became the bought-and-paid-for opposition-in-name-only. They were not even truly trying to fill that skin anymore, pretending the big robust figure it had been was still there, as it lay in a wrinkled heap in the corner.

Trump and his team looked at that pile of skin and saw it as a means to an end. That robust character could be revived, and filled with something better than the old. Much easier, in fact, than in creating an all new figure/party/etc. Cuts your development time and cost down considerably.

Which is why the never-Trumpers hate him. He not only disturbed and and imperiled their grift and graft, he did something far worse. In taking up that skin suit, refilling it, and giving it new life, he showed them for the pathetic things they are and they could see clearly what they could have been if they had tried. He showed their view of themselves to be flawed, horribly so, and they can never forgive that.

It is much the same as with Elon and DOGE and the skin suit they are wearing. It was a beautiful bit of legal maneuvering to take an obscure and not terribly important bit of Obama bureaucracy and turn it into one of the most important facets of the new Trump administration. In fact, they didn’t even have to change the acronym as they did so. However, instead of the elderly asthmatic Chihuahua it had been, the new suit holds as much wolf as it does Shiba Inu.

Those skin suits are not worn to harm, but to heal. That is the difference between the two sides. One side lives up to Navajo folklore, while the other works to heal and do good.

Which I find highly amusing on several levels. This unlikely group of heroes came very close to never existing. Both Trump and Elon were democrat, and pushed the standard causes. Both, however, had their eyes opened. I wonder how often Obama regrets doing this:

Elon probably would have been happy just to keep doing all he is already doing (and we need him to do it so we can get humanity off this mudball and out to the stars) but the progressive need to have absolute power and control struck yet again.

It wasn’t the defining moment, I suspect, but it is a good representation of what happened to change Elon’s course. I wonder if she ever regrets what she did, but I’m not sure (as with Obama) that introspection can overcome the sheer narcissism that is a hallmark of the modern progressive.

Both questioned, which is not allowed. Both then put up some mild challenges, and were attacked because they dared go off the reservation. I find it interesting that both have picked up unused/under used skin suits and are using them to do good. That may be the hallmark of the new Republican party.

Just some musing for a Friday. Enjoy your day and weekend.