Because good people need a guide when the undead wear suits, wave flags, and drool power
Introduction
In the first weeks of the Trump regime, I called it: The MAGA Zombie Apocalypse. Back then, it felt like satire—a dark metaphor for a rising tide of authoritarian groupthink. But five months into Trump 2.0, the metaphor is no joke–we are living through not only the MAGA Zombie Apocalypse, but the Sadistic MAGA Zombie Apocalypse.
This point was made most powerfully by Noble Prize Winning economist on May 21, 2025: Paul Krugman.
And Paul Krugman is not the only award-winning economist raising alarm bells on what Trump and his renegade regime is doing to America’s economy and the global economy.
The images above are from Richard Wolff‘s latest video warning of the impending dangers of Trump’s unhinged ideas. This links to his video. Below is his bio.
A lifelong professor of economics, Richard D. Wolff is a well-known critic of contemporary capitalism and the leading proponent of an alternative economic system based on Worker Self-Directed Enterprises (WSDEs). He is the host of Economic Update, and has been interviewed on several popular television programs that include: Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Moyers’ Moyers & Company, The Charlie Rose Show, and Up with Chris Hayes. As the founding director of Democracy at Work (d@w), Wolff’s publications that advocate for making the workplace democratic include articles in Truthout.org, The Guardian, Common Dreams, as well as his recent book: Capitalism's Crisis Deepens The videos you'll find here also advocate for WSDEs as a key part of moving forward from the current model of capitalism to a new and better economy. For more information, please visit our websites: http://democracyatwork.info http://rdwolff.com
Another award winning economists who is raising Red Alerts on Trump and his MAGA regime is Jeffery Sachs. Both Wolff and Sachs are saying the same thing and that is the USA is an empire in decline. The new rising empire is rising even faster because of Trump and his shenanigans.
Who is the new empire?
Why it is China. Why else are political figures (on both the left and right) demonizing China? They need a boogeyman because they don’t know how to fix or stop America’s decline as the dominate super power in the world.
Listen to the experts. I am just the messenger of their insights and warnings of this moment in time.
Zombie Ideas Are the Vectors of the Zombie Plague
But, we are not there any more and no matter how hard Trump and his MAGA zombies wish it to be… America is not going backwards in time (this universe just doesn’t work that way). However, what we do have going on now is a full-scale infection of zombie ideas. Listen to Noble Prize Winning Paul Krugman describe to Larwance what a zombie idea is. In economics, this is an actual term used to describe destructive economic decisions. Paul Krugman doesn’t mince words, nor does he call what Trump and gang are doing populism. He hits much closer to the core of what is happening right now to ordinary, working class Americans. He calls it the work of sadistic zombies.
This isn’t just “authoritarian drift,” it is: sadism.
Sadistic MAGA zombies don’t just crave power—they relish in cruelty. They cheer at book bans, scream at school boards, and fantasize about revenge. They’ve been taught to believe that empathy is weakness and democracy is rigged. They’ve been fed a diet of fear and conspiracy until all that’s left is a shell of resentment wrapped in a red hat.
And while this madness unfolds in public view, a darker vision looms—one I explore in my book, Sapience: The Moment Is Now. It’s a near-future world where the zombie virus of unchecked greed and ignorance has finally run its course. Nation-states collapse under the weight of climate disaster and political rot. Mother Nature strikes back with rage: fire, flood, famine. But the super-elite? They’re safe. Sequestered in their billion-dollar Multis—fortresses of luxury, profit, and surveillance. Built on our backs. Funded by our suffering. They don’t just survive the apocalypse—they monetize it.
Surviving the Sadistic MAGA Zombie Apocalypse
So the question remains: how do good people survive this sadistic MAGA zombie apocalypse?
How do we navigate a world where cruelty is a badge of honor, truth is malleable, and the future has been auctioned off to the highest bidder?
Survival is no longer about hiding from the undead. It’s about refusing to become one.
Survival Guide
1. Don’t Try to Convert the Infected
In Sapience, I explore how mass manipulation hijacks apperception—the brain’s power to weave new experiences with old mental models. MAGA zombies have had their apperception hacked. They see cruelty as strength, lies as truth, and their oppressors as saviors.
You can’t decode a mind that’s been corrupted by a system that rewards delusion. So stop trying to “wake them up.” You’re not dealing with the uninformed—you’re facing the intentionally misinformed. Conserve your energy. Strengthen your own reality instead.
2. Fortify Your Moral Immune System
In a world unraveling—where sea levels rise while civility sinks—what protects us isn’t bunkers or bitcoin. It’s moral clarity. Sapience argues that individual awareness must evolve faster than the systems collapsing around us.
Survival means knowing what you stand for when everything else falls. Read real history. Nourish empathy. Reclaim archetypes of wisdom, guardianship, and creative rebellion. Build an inner compass the zombies can’t corrupt.
3. Find Your Survivor Tribe
The collapse is not coming—it’s here. As I describe in Sapience, nation-states crumble into irrelevance while the ultra-elite shelter in fortified Multis, profiting from engineered scarcity and division.
Meanwhile, the rest of us must rely on each other. The uninfected. The awake. The aware. Find your people. Your “Wisdom Guardians,” as I call them. Artists, truth-tellers, scientists, street-level organizers, and kitchen-table philosophers. Form pods. Trade skills. Share hope. The future will be rebuilt by tribes of sapients who remember how to feel and think at the same time.
4. Use Humor Like a Machete
Zombies don’t laugh. That’s your advantage. In Sapience, I argue that imagination isn’t a luxury—it’s a survival mechanism. Satire, sarcasm, irony: these are weapons against despair and disinformation.
Laugh at absurdity. Call it out. Use your wit to dismantle the systems that want you numb. If authoritarianism is a theater of cruelty, then humor is your standing ovation for sanity.
5. Stop Playing Their Zero-Sum Game
The MAGA horde, like the billionaires they worship, believes in scarcity. If they have rights, we lose ours. If they get help, we suffer. In Sapience, I trace this zero-sum thinking back 5,000 years—to the roots of empire, hierarchy, and manufactured division.
Survival means refusing to play this game. The future depends on a different model—abundance through awareness, not extraction. We build systems that care. We dream bigger than the dystopia sold to us.
6. Prepare Like It’s Real—Because It Is
The sadistic MAGA zombie apocalypse isn’t just metaphor. It’s psychological warfare, ecological collapse, economic sabotage, and civil decay—all rolled into a carnival of chaos. In Sapience, I call for preparedness not just in supply—but in spirit.
Yes, stock the pantry. But also stock your consciousness. Build mental models that help you adapt, imagine, and act. Prep not just for survival—but for post-collapse purpose.
Where Are the Best Places in the USA to Prepare & Weather All This Out?
Not many Americans can afford to move to another country. However, there might be some places in the US that can weather the coming chaos, economic collapse, tariffs, etc. etc. better than other places.
I asked ChatGPT this question.
And I asked it to factor in the impact of MAGA’s Big Beautiful Bill, Trump’s Big Beautiful Tariffs, and Elon’s Big Beautiful Cuts of the Federal Work Force.
Wait, you say, what exactly do these fired federal employees have to do with my economic wellbeing and security? Will we really miss them? Surely, federal employees weren’t doing anything that affects me?!
This is a massively important question — because most Americans don’t realize how deeply their everyday lives rely on federal workers and civil service infrastructure, often until it’s too late.
When Elon Musk and Donald Trump — directly or indirectly — push policies or appoint people who gutted, defunded, or demoralized the federal workforce, the effects don’t look like chaos at first. They look like delays, breakdowns, confusion, and crises without answers.
These cuts of federal employees are not only being done by Elon’s DOGE teenage team of hackers, but also Trump-era cabinet secretaries who are doing everything they can to hurry up attrition, hollowing out, or outright hostility to entire departments to get them to resign. These efforts combined with Elon Musk’s privatization fantasies and support for anti-government ideology, have real, painful consequences — especially during a high-stakes summer.
Here’s a powerful rundown of what Americans will miss, lose access to, or suffer from due to this sustained war on the federal workforce and public service infrastructure:
🌀 Weather and Climate Disasters: You’re on Your Own
- Fewer NOAA and National Weather Service meteorologists, leading to delayed or downgraded storm warnings.
- Less support from FEMA during floods, wildfires, hurricanes, or tornado recovery — especially in rural and low-income areas.
- Climate data suppression or manipulation, making disaster preparation harder for local governments.
🔥 Emergency Response & Disaster Relief (FEMA, NOAA, USFS)
- Slower response times to wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and heat waves, which are growing more frequent and intense due to climate change.
- Fewer trained staff at FEMA to process aid, rebuild communities, or coordinate rescue operations.
- Weather forecasting delays and reduced storm tracking accuracy as NOAA scientists are driven out or not replaced.
- Public lands left unguarded during fire season due to cuts to the U.S. Forest Service.
🥵 Extreme Heat Protections (OSHA, EPA, HUD)
- No federal heat standards enforced for workers in warehouses, fields, and construction — putting lives at risk.
- EPA gutted so fewer checks on urban heat islands, air pollution, and water safety.
- Public housing remains unprepared for heatwaves, with no upgrades to AC, insulation, or cooling stations.
✈️ Travel Chaos (TSA, FAA, National Parks)
- Fewer TSA workers = longer lines, more delays, and heightened security risks and greater risk of air traffic issues..
- FAA staff shortages = more flight delays and greater risk of mid-air incidents.
- National parks overwhelmed, under-maintained, and under-patrolled — risking both safety and ecological damage during peak summer visitation.
- Passport and visa delays due to underfunded State Department staffing and backlogs.
- Slower response times for air safety violations or airline consumer complaints.
🍔 Food Safety Risks
- Cuts to USDA inspectors and FDA staffing mean:
- Fewer food recalls.
- Slower response to contamination.
- More tainted food reaching grocery shelves — especially in meat, dairy, and produce.
🧒 Programs for Kids & Families (USDA, HHS, Education Dept.)
- Cut summer lunch programs for low-income kids who rely on school meals.
- Delayed child care subsidies and family health services from HHS.
- No staff to administer educational grants or summer learning programs — deepening the gap for marginalized students.
🔥 Public Lands and Firefighting
- Fewer park rangers, firefighters, and wildland emergency responders.
- Reduced protection for forests, wildlife, and endangered ecosystems.
- Delays in wildfire prevention programs, increasing the risk of massive summer fires.
🌽 Farmer & Food System Support (USDA, EPA, Labor)
- Fewer inspections for food safety, pesticides, and agricultural fraud.
- No support for small farmers as subsidies and conservation programs go unstaffed.
- Farmworker protection enforcement drops, putting vulnerable workers in harm’s way.
🏥 Health Access and Medical Oversight
- Cuts to CDC staff and public health departments hamper outbreak tracking.
- Medicare/Medicaid call centers and case managers are overwhelmed.
- Less oversight of toxic workplace exposures (via OSHA or EPA), which rise in summer heat.
😷 Public Health & Science (CDC, NIH, FDA)
- Slower outbreak response and tracking of new COVID, flu, or RSV variants.
- Cancer trials delayed, new treatments slowed.
- Fewer food and drug inspections, leading to more recalls and risks.
💼 Small Business and Economic Aid
- Delays or shutdowns in:
- SBA (Small Business Administration) loan approvals.
- USDA rural development grants.
- Housing programs (HUD) and energy assistance.
🏛️ Justice & Democracy (DOJ, DOL, USPS, Census Bureau)
- Delayed civil rights investigations, police oversight, and workplace discrimination cases.
- EEOC, DOJ Civil Rights Division, and labor board staffing gutted.
- Slower investigations into:
- Police abuse
- Discrimination
- Corporate exploitation
- Undermines voting rights enforcement in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
- Labor rights violations ignored due to DOL staff losses.
- USPS delays worsen, affecting medication delivery, ballots, and rural access.
- Census follow-up workers slashed, hurting planning, school funding, and representation.
💻 Tech and Infrastructure Cracks
- Fewer cybersecurity experts defending federal systems.
- Disrepair in federal IT systems, IRS help lines, Social Security portals, and more.
- Musk’s influence has led to privatized chaos at agencies like NASA and the FCC — where public-good missions have taken a backseat to private profiteering.
🌐 Digital & Infrastructure Access (FCC, NTIA, DOE, DOT)
- Broadband expansion stalls, leaving rural and tribal communities offline.
- Clean energy grants delayed or canceled.
- Transportation projects halted or badly managed due to DOT understaffing.
👵🏽 Elder and Disability Services
- Social Security Administration understaffed, leading to:
- Long wait times for claims.
- Missed payments.
- Errors with disability benefits and Medicare.
- Veterans Affairs delays for medical care and claims processing.
🚱 Environmental Protection Gutted
- EPA enforcement weakened under both Trump and Musk-aligned deregulation.
- Polluters operate with impunity in many regions.
- Less testing of water, air, and soil — disproportionately harming vulnerable communities.
🚸 Education and Child Protection
- Cuts to Head Start, school nutrition programs, and summer youth employment.
- Backlogs in child abuse investigations (in coordination with HHS).
- Less enforcement of IDEA (special education law) — hurting children with disabilities.
🎯 Bottom Line:
Federal workers are the invisible backbone of a functioning society. When figures like Trump and Musk wage ideological wars against “the deep state,” what they’re really doing is crippling the systems that keep everyday people safe, housed, fed, informed, and protected.
👨👩👧👦 In a Nutshell:
Americans will lose rescue, relief, safety, dignity, and time this summer — not because the government is inherently broken, but because it’s been systematically sabotaged from within. Cuts aren’t just budget line items — they’re broken bridges, burning forests, spoiled food, unpaid claims, and unanswered calls when you need help most.
Economic Hardship Map Due to Trump, MAGA, Musk
Factoring in impacts of the cuts to Federal Workers, Republicans Big Bad Beautiful Bill, Trump’s Rollercoaster Tariffs, rounding up and deporting immigrants (who are the economic backbone Americans stand upon), among other nonsense and authoritarian tendencies of Trump and his cronies, ChatGPT made this map.
It shows the worst, bad, good, and best states to weather the coming economic weather that promises to be very destructive to everyone living in the USA.
Everyone, except for the billionaires who are counting their billions once again thanks to the Republican Prime Directive to Make the Rich Richer!
And this pain that is coming is not short-term. It is how the billionaires are turning You and me into a permanent fixture of their glorious money machine. Unless we rise in numbers they can’t ignore, we are doomed to a lifetime of repetitive cruelty (dubbed efficiency).
It is efficiency only meant to benefit them! DOGE was the first bite… We the People are the next!
🔥 Conclusion: The Path of the Sapient
We are not merely surviving an election year. We’re fighting a mind virus. We’re fighting despair. We’re fighting a worldview that delights in the suffering of others. But we have what they don’t: compassion, clarity, and creativity.
As we navigate the toxic fallout of this mind virus—engineered by empires like the House of Trump, the House of Koch, and the House of Musk. These modern dynasties feed on chaos, feed on fear, and feast on the unraveling of the common good.
They offer fiery distraction, oily decay, and cosmic delusion, packaged as strength, wealth, and genius. But their apocalypse is not inevitable.
What they lack—and what we fiercely hold—is sapience: the rare, revolutionary capacity to stay human in the face of inhumanity.
They burn and extract.
We create and rise.
Yes, the MAGA zombie apocalypse is real—an infestation of cruelty, delusion, and decay.
But so is the Firebird: that fierce symbol of rebirth rising from ash, wings carved from imagination and resolve.
We are not here to be consumed.
We are here to outlast. To outlove. To outthink.
There is no magic savior coming. But maybe that’s the point.
In a world devoured by cruelty and delusion, choosing to remain fully human—aware, kind, imaginative—is the ultimate form of rebellion. In a world designed to dull us into obedience, simply choosing to be awake, compassionate, and creative is an act of defiance.
In Sapience: The Moment Is Now, I argue that it’s time to awaken the archetype of the Sapient Human: one who sees through illusion, transcends despair, and creates meaning even in rubble.
The sadistic MAGA zombies may be loud. They may be real. They may be many. But they are not the future.
This isn’t just resistance. This is transformation.
The sadistic zombies are drooling from their new found power.
The dynastic Houses of Economic Power are roaring as the ticker tapes measuring their richness ticks up and up and up.… like one of Elon’s rocket ships!
But they are not the future.
And, we have all seen what happens to Elon’s rocket ships to Mars!!!
You are!!
🧠🧟♀️ Download the Sapient Zombie Survival Guide
This is your field manual for surviving the coming storm.
And stay tuned… the Graphic Novel is coming—armed with satire, art, and deeper strategies to fight the mind virus and keep your soul intact.
Sneak Peak at Graphic Novel:
Archetypal Animation
Music: Dramatic Classical Halloween (Spooky Eerie Halloween)Various Artists
[1] The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto in G Minor, RV 315 “Summer”: III. Presto. Tempo impettuoso d’Estate 2:38
[1] The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto in G Minor, RV 315 “Summer”: III. Presto. Tempo impettuoso d’Estate 2:38