If you want to really understand what is going on, listen to Noam Chomsky. Chomsky is, without a doubt, one of the leading thinkers of our time. As he discusses here, Donald Trump can be seen as merely a distraction: we are supposed to get angry with him while, backstage, the Republican Party set about completely dismantling the American State. Chomsky says the Republicans are the biggest threat to human civilisation ever, due to their attempt to destroy the environment.

Part of me thinks that what he says is a bit too much like conspiracism and the bollocks conspiracy theorists spout, but there is a lot of truth in what Chomsky says. Whereas most conspiracy theorists are just egotistical nut jobs who crave attention, Chomsky bases everything he says on evidence. He knows what he is talking about, and we ignore him at our peril: there are forces at play in the world out to keep power in the hands of the white, rich and privileged. The problem comes when others try to usurp the credibility of analysts like Chomsky to forward their crazy worldviews, which sound similar to begin with, but then often stray into racism, antisemitism and bigotry.