# A Secular State of the Union

An episode of [TheThinkingAtheist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/412308695), 6 Mar 2025, 24 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/711/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/64700228/podcast791_secularstateoftheunion.mp3

Trump's big speech is this week. Seth Andrews offers his alternative. Substack version Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: The Thinking Atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
[0:09] Speaker 1: an idea.
[0:10] Speaker 2: The population of atheists in this country is going through.
[0:13] Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If
[0:18] Speaker 1: I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not.
[0:22] Speaker 2: Because I put my hand on a book and made
[0:24] Speaker 2: a wish.
[0:25] Speaker 1: And working together for a more rational world.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
[0:43] Speaker 1: Thinking Atheist podcast, hosted by Seth Andrews.
[0:56] Speaker 2: This is the audio of a Substack article and it
[1:00] Speaker 2: was borrowed from Monday night's live stream My Secular State
[1:05] Speaker 2: of the Union. Donald Trump gave a presentation last Tuesday,
[1:10] Speaker 2: and so I had some commentary in advance of it.
[1:14] Speaker 2: Of course, Trump's speech is already behind us, but I
[1:16] Speaker 2: thought this Secular State of the Union was still pretty relevant.
[1:22] Speaker 2: So I'm releasing it here as a bonus broadcast, and
[1:25] Speaker 2: if you would like the written version, the Substack link
[1:28] Speaker 2: is in the description box. Traditionally, in January or February,
[1:44] Speaker 2: the President of the United States stands before Congress and
[1:48] Speaker 2: gives the State of the Union speech. This thing uses
[1:52] Speaker 2: the same template every year, big claims about the economy,
[1:57] Speaker 2: a list of the president's achievements, and vacuous plays to
[2:03] Speaker 2: American patriotism. The speech is also conveniently vague and loaded
[2:09] Speaker 2: with applause lines. There will be a singling out of
[2:12] Speaker 2: at least one quote unquote great American somebody who is
[2:16] Speaker 2: sitting in the balcony. The cameras will look up and
[2:20] Speaker 2: focus on a first responder, a civil rights movement hero,
[2:24] Speaker 2: or some other everyday person, and the arena will laud
[2:29] Speaker 2: and applaud before, during, and after the State of the
[2:34] Speaker 2: Union speech. There will be smiles, but any outward expression
[2:38] Speaker 2: of goodness will actually be a rictus of contempt for
[2:42] Speaker 2: the other side. Tonight, as many Democrats are skipping the
[2:47] Speaker 2: event in protest, expect many empty seats. And of course,
[2:52] Speaker 2: this speech will change absolutely nothing by design. It's simply
[2:59] Speaker 2: re en forces who people were and what they thought
[3:03] Speaker 2: long before they walked into the Congressional chamber. Tonight won't
[3:08] Speaker 2: exactly be a State of the Union that is officially
[3:12] Speaker 2: scheduled for twenty twenty six, but it will be almost
[3:15] Speaker 2: certainly a big Republican zieghile of white Christian nationalism, cruelty,
[3:23] Speaker 2: and laws. If we're lucky, Trump will form a few
[3:26] Speaker 2: complete sentences as he verbally pleasures himself with the usual hyperbole, greatest, worst, always, never,
[3:36] Speaker 2: and the repeating of his favorite prepositional phrase in the
[3:40] Speaker 2: history of our country. He'll be petty and childish. He
[3:45] Speaker 2: will dehumanize and stoke fear, and he'll bask in the
[3:49] Speaker 2: ovations of sycophantic ass liquors who used to call him
[3:54] Speaker 2: Hitler but today call him daddy. And as usual, the
[3:59] Speaker 2: media will go badshit crazy over every scrambled syllable that
[4:04] Speaker 2: comes out of Donald's wordhole. I have this fantasy about
[4:10] Speaker 2: a lightning bolt of new life striking the graves of
[4:14] Speaker 2: founding fathers, who would crawl out of the ground, brush
[4:18] Speaker 2: themselves off, walk into tonight's event, and deliver commentary. I
[4:24] Speaker 2: suspect they'd look around and immediately began drawing up a
[4:28] Speaker 2: new declaration of independence. I envision Thomas Jefferson quoting from
[4:34] Speaker 2: his Notes on the State of Virginia from seventeen eighty eight,
[4:38] Speaker 2: when he said an elective despotism was not the government
[4:43] Speaker 2: we fought for, but one which should not only be
[4:46] Speaker 2: founded on free principles, but in which the powers of
[4:50] Speaker 2: government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies
[4:53] Speaker 2: of magicistry as that no one could transcend their legal
[4:58] Speaker 2: limits without being a fan actually checked and restrained by
[5:02] Speaker 2: the others. James Madison would be there and he would
[5:06] Speaker 2: ask the room, weren't you listening to the words I
[5:09] Speaker 2: wrote way back in seventeen eighty eight at my New
[5:13] Speaker 2: York Address. The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and
[5:19] Speaker 2: judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few,
[5:22] Speaker 2: or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may
[5:27] Speaker 2: justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Benjamin Franklin
[5:34] Speaker 2: would be there and he would reference his words written
[5:37] Speaker 2: back in seventeen seventy four. Equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges,
[5:44] Speaker 2: and advantages is what every part is entitled to and
[5:48] Speaker 2: ought to enjoy. And I have this fantasy that the
[5:52] Speaker 2: founders would pick a spokesperson among them to grab the
[5:56] Speaker 2: microphone and speak directly to the big copper comb over.
[6:02] Speaker 2: Perhaps John Adams would do the honors, defiantly telling Donald Trump,
[6:07] Speaker 2: we came here to escape a king. You tissue skinned
[6:12] Speaker 2: silver spoon draft, dodging, pussy grabbing, vendor, bilking, charity scamming,
[6:18] Speaker 2: dancing baby. The oxygen you breathe is a waste of trees.
[6:26] Speaker 2: We would explain our secular constitution to you, but we
[6:30] Speaker 2: don't have the time or the crayons. What you have
[6:34] Speaker 2: done and what you are doing, is a betrayal of
[6:37] Speaker 2: everything we intended. It's unequal, unconstitutional, Unamerican. So we are
[6:44] Speaker 2: going to write a fresh new declaration of independence from you,
[6:49] Speaker 2: Donald Trump, and its first words will be the door
[6:54] Speaker 2: is there off? You must fuck. Donald would not have
[7:00] Speaker 2: to walk far to find the exit because he would
[7:02] Speaker 2: be sealed in a soundproof dunk tank at the back
[7:05] Speaker 2: of the room. Instead of water, the box would be
[7:09] Speaker 2: filled with orange Fanta. Security would grab Trump by the arms,
[7:14] Speaker 2: escorting him out to a clown car in the parking lot,
[7:18] Speaker 2: and as he was being taken away, I would warn
[7:20] Speaker 2: the attendees, be advised people, tomorrow he will be selling
[7:25] Speaker 2: Trump and a clown car commemorative merchandise. And then my
[7:32] Speaker 2: actual speech would begin. I would say to the eighty
[7:37] Speaker 2: nine million eligible voters who stayed home in twenty twenty four,
[7:42] Speaker 2: the only reason I am not more pissed at your
[7:45] Speaker 2: absolute dereliction of duty is pity. Anybody motivated to be
[7:52] Speaker 2: unmotivated in a time of national existential crisis must be
[7:57] Speaker 2: critically ill or held hostage in somebody's dungeon. It's the
[8:02] Speaker 2: only reason that makes sense. It's the only explanation that works.
[8:07] Speaker 2: It can be that you weren't aware of the dangers.
[8:10] Speaker 2: It must be that somebody had tranquilizer darted to you,
[8:15] Speaker 2: making it impossible to reach the polls by seven pm
[8:19] Speaker 2: to do your part for the protections of democracy and decency.
[8:24] Speaker 2: Wherever you might have been incarcerated, or in whatever coma
[8:28] Speaker 2: you must have been in, I hope there are enough
[8:30] Speaker 2: people remaining in our defunded institutions to help you get
[8:36] Speaker 2: out next time. To the seventy seven million people who
[8:40] Speaker 2: checked the box by Trump's name last November, you used
[8:45] Speaker 2: democracy to destroy democracy. You let someone play to your
[8:52] Speaker 2: paranoia and prejudices. You believed a strong man who promised
[8:57] Speaker 2: to save you if you would just surrender pretty much everything.
[9:01] Speaker 2: You gave him the keys to the whole American house,
[9:05] Speaker 2: no matter who else it hurts. There was another guy,
[9:10] Speaker 2: not Hitler, but another guy elected in a similar way
[9:14] Speaker 2: his name was Benito Mussolini. Mussolini played to Italian nationalists
[9:21] Speaker 2: and notions of restoring national greatness. He was elected through
[9:26] Speaker 2: the democratic process, and then he splintered the process so
[9:31] Speaker 2: nobody could challenge him. A symbol of power for his
[9:34] Speaker 2: government was taken from ancient Rome. It was an axe
[9:38] Speaker 2: wrapped in sticks, called a fescio, which is where we
[9:42] Speaker 2: get the word fascism today. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and
[9:47] Speaker 2: the oligarchs are the axes. You are the sticks. That's
[9:53] Speaker 2: your legacy. You propped them up and fortify them, completely
[9:58] Speaker 2: blind to the iyer of being sticks that support an axe.
[10:04] Speaker 2: Of course, we know what often happens to dictators, don't we.
[10:08] Speaker 2: King Louis the sixteenth was dragged at the guillotine. Saddam
[10:12] Speaker 2: Hussein was hanged. Mussolini himself was violently executed. Other tyrants
[10:18] Speaker 2: in our history have been kicked out, imprisoned, or ruined
[10:22] Speaker 2: in some way. Now I have no illusions that a
[10:25] Speaker 2: guy as slippery and slimy as Donald Trump is ever
[10:30] Speaker 2: going to get officially caught. Thanks to you, Maga, he
[10:34] Speaker 2: has been able to avoid those legal limits referenced by
[10:38] Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson. Whatever else, history writes about you. It will say,
[10:43] Speaker 2: or it should say, that you deliberately roped the United
[10:47] Speaker 2: States onto your burning altar of zelotry, ignorance, ambivalence, or
[10:53] Speaker 2: outright stupidity. In today's climate, Trump is both cancer and
[10:59] Speaker 2: simp a black light at the crime scene. The rise
[11:03] Speaker 2: of American totalitarianism has exposed stains that we just didn't
[11:08] Speaker 2: see before. And those stains are you. That's your legacy.
[11:15] Speaker 2: You're all about freedom, yet you are uninterested in the
[11:18] Speaker 2: many responsibilities that come with freedom. To you, cooperation and
[11:23] Speaker 2: coalition sound a lot like evil socialism. The notion of
[11:28] Speaker 2: collectivist values makes you squirm. You bought into the lie
[11:33] Speaker 2: that we're not all in this together because Americans are individuals.
[11:39] Speaker 2: At some point, you'll hopefully come to learn that no
[11:42] Speaker 2: one is an island. Someone or something that you care
[11:46] Speaker 2: about will eventually get hurt, and you will scramble like
[11:50] Speaker 2: a bewildered child, wondering how it all went wrong. In
[11:54] Speaker 2: some places, this is already happening. Trump voter, will you
[12:00] Speaker 2: one day reach out to the Americans that you've harmed
[12:03] Speaker 2: when you lose your job, when you can't afford your
[12:06] Speaker 2: cancer medication, when you're broke and sleeping in your car.
[12:11] Speaker 2: Will others show you more empathy, grace, compassion understanding than
[12:16] Speaker 2: you showed them? What irony it would be if an immigrant,
[12:21] Speaker 2: a married gay couple, a transperson, a scientist, a public
[12:26] Speaker 2: safety worker and a government job, A foreigner or another
[12:30] Speaker 2: woke lib individual or group that you previously brushed off
[12:36] Speaker 2: donated to you from their savings because your vote killed
[12:40] Speaker 2: their social Security benefits. A lot of factors have gotten
[12:45] Speaker 2: us to this point. There are thousands of gears in
[12:48] Speaker 2: the machine, many of them installed by clever billionaires who
[12:53] Speaker 2: have been scheming for decades. America. The billionaires are not
[12:58] Speaker 2: going to save you, and it's unconscionable that three individuals
[13:03] Speaker 2: possess more wealth than the bottom fifty percent of this country.
[13:08] Speaker 2: The oligarchs aren't empathizing from their five hundred million dollar yachts.
[13:14] Speaker 2: They don't even see you. How could Elon Musk, worth
[13:18] Speaker 2: more than the value of one hundred forty world nations,
[13:22] Speaker 2: be connected to an everyday American. I saw an item
[13:27] Speaker 2: for sale on Etsy recently. It was a satirical poster
[13:31] Speaker 2: featuring one half Donald Trump the other half Elon Musk
[13:35] Speaker 2: in sunglasses. The caption said I'm with Elonald. Maga often
[13:43] Speaker 2: argues that Elonald is working for the public good because
[13:47] Speaker 2: filthy rich people couldn't be motivated by money. Trumpers, listen
[13:53] Speaker 2: to yourselves, watch the oligarchs, while yours is a life
[13:59] Speaker 2: of hard work, mortgage payments, medical bills, and the paycheck
[14:03] Speaker 2: to paycheck grind into an uncertain future. Elon Musk today
[14:09] Speaker 2: could lose three hundred and fifty eight billion dollars and
[14:13] Speaker 2: he would still be a billionaire. Perhaps this is the
[14:19] Speaker 2: greatness American conservatives are referring to. The ideal is to
[14:24] Speaker 2: become a wealth hoarder, and until Maga can become them,
[14:29] Speaker 2: it will worship them. Their naivety and ignorance boggle the mind.
[14:36] Speaker 2: If you really believe that the billionaire Donald Trump works
[14:41] Speaker 2: for you, you also likely believe the stranger in your
[14:45] Speaker 2: junk email folder has your inheritance check, the stripper really
[14:51] Speaker 2: is in love with you, and the Mara Lago Mango
[14:55] Speaker 2: stands ready with a swank guest room, gourmet Big Max,
[15:00] Speaker 2: and free rides for your family in his four hundred
[15:03] Speaker 2: thousand dollars rolls Royce. I suppose infantile thinking should be
[15:09] Speaker 2: expected in an America that has declared itself the greatest
[15:14] Speaker 2: while failing to other nations in almost every metric employment, education,
[15:20] Speaker 2: housing costs, crime rates, health care lifespan, overall happiness. Our
[15:27] Speaker 2: response to that data isn't to elevate our standards, but
[15:31] Speaker 2: rather to hold our flags a little higher in the
[15:35] Speaker 2: hopes that claims become true by mere declaration. What else
[15:40] Speaker 2: should we expect from a culture which has declared war
[15:43] Speaker 2: on science. Often more afraid of cures than they are
[15:47] Speaker 2: of diseases, Americans blink blankly at climate change. They're doubtful
[15:54] Speaker 2: we landed on the moon. They're unsure that the planet
[15:58] Speaker 2: is spherical. They scan the world for shiny objects, UFOs,
[16:04] Speaker 2: star charts, golden toilets. It's unsurprising they'd be impressed by
[16:10] Speaker 2: a Secretary of Defense who has denied the existence of germs.
[16:16] Speaker 2: How can anybody navigate the real world when they don't
[16:20] Speaker 2: believe in real things? The late cosmologist Carl Sagan wrote
[16:26] Speaker 2: these words in his book The Demon Haunted World. He said,
[16:30] Speaker 2: I have a foreboding of an America in my children's
[16:33] Speaker 2: or grandchildren's time when the United States is a service
[16:37] Speaker 2: and information economy, when nearly all the manufacturing industries have
[16:42] Speaker 2: slipped away to other countries. When awesome technological powers are
[16:48] Speaker 2: in the hands of a very few and no one
[16:51] Speaker 2: representing the public interest can even grasp the issues, when
[16:56] Speaker 2: the people have lost the ability to set their own
[16:58] Speaker 2: agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority. When clutching our
[17:04] Speaker 2: crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline.
[17:10] Speaker 2: Unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true,
[17:15] Speaker 2: we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
[17:23] Speaker 2: Then we have the hypocrisy of Christian nationalists who hoff
[17:28] Speaker 2: and poff about being followers of Jesus while adoring a
[17:32] Speaker 2: guy who refuses to turn the other cheek, who loves money,
[17:36] Speaker 2: who is an egomaniac, who lusts for women and commits adultery,
[17:41] Speaker 2: who steals from charity, and who finds glee in crushing
[17:46] Speaker 2: vulnerable people. I suspect if the best version of Jesus
[17:52] Speaker 2: Christ showed up in the United States today, MAGA would
[17:56] Speaker 2: shame him, shackle him and lock him, and get against
[18:01] Speaker 2: Trump cult cruelty. It is ironically often non Christians who
[18:07] Speaker 2: step up to love thy neighbor. In the last portion
[18:12] Speaker 2: of my speech, I want to speak to the other
[18:15] Speaker 2: free countries of the world. As you've seen, the United
[18:19] Speaker 2: States is a divided states, but there's hope to be
[18:24] Speaker 2: drawn from that division. Tens of millions of Americans are
[18:28] Speaker 2: proud to stand against the oligarchs, the bigots, and the opportunists.
[18:34] Speaker 2: It's true that we are disorganized and scrambling to find
[18:38] Speaker 2: our footing under Trump's horrifying blitzkrieg. We don't necessarily know
[18:44] Speaker 2: how to best derail the runaway train, but know that
[18:48] Speaker 2: there is a resistance. We are seeing demonstrations in the streets.
[18:54] Speaker 2: Lawsuits are piling up, Judges are pushing back against unlawful
[18:59] Speaker 2: executive of orders. Economists are sounding alarms about a Trump session.
[19:05] Speaker 2: Americans are learning how tariffs actually work. Senate offices are
[19:11] Speaker 2: fielding over sixteen hundred calls a minute. Elected Republicans are
[19:16] Speaker 2: feeling so much pressure from their constituents that they are
[19:20] Speaker 2: canceling town hall meetings and seeking shelter from angry voters.
[19:27] Speaker 2: Even Vice President JD. Vance saw a thousand demonstrators looming
[19:33] Speaker 2: over his ski vacation. It was beautiful. The arsonists are
[19:39] Speaker 2: beginning to get burned, and a percentage of former MAGA
[19:43] Speaker 2: loyalists are falling out of love with the man who
[19:47] Speaker 2: would be King Ukraine has been another rallying point for
[19:52] Speaker 2: the resistance, as a slim majority of Americans are demonstrating
[19:58] Speaker 2: solidarity with zeal Lenski. They're flying flags, marching in the streets,
[20:03] Speaker 2: declaring support on social media, etc. The message is clear.
[20:09] Speaker 2: Our White House may be currently putinized, but millions of
[20:13] Speaker 2: Americans understand that Vlad is bad. Trump's war on the
[20:20] Speaker 2: free press has been horrifying to witness, but as good
[20:24] Speaker 2: journalists are resigning rather than kowtow to Jeff Bezos and
[20:29] Speaker 2: his buddies, the United States is perhaps on the verge
[20:32] Speaker 2: of a zeitgeist change. Independent reporting from autonomous platforms like
[20:39] Speaker 2: substack in a cultural shift away from the Washington Post
[20:44] Speaker 2: and major cable networks. And then we have the satirists'
[20:49] Speaker 2: authors and artists eager to lampoon the self serious punks
[20:55] Speaker 2: of privilege, Trump, Elon and the others undoubtedly win that
[21:00] Speaker 2: Saturday Night lives. Most recent roast editorial cartoons have been ruthless,
[21:06] Speaker 2: and the meme verse has been wonderfully reliable with things
[21:11] Speaker 2: like images showing Putin walking Trump on the end of
[21:15] Speaker 2: a leash, a wild haired celebrity drunk elon musk wielding
[21:20] Speaker 2: his weapon at the Tesla Chainsaw massacre, and a tattoo
[21:25] Speaker 2: of Donald Trump on a maga arm under the caption
[21:29] Speaker 2: when sheep brand themselves and satire isn't mere fun. Ridiculing
[21:37] Speaker 2: power is a liberation exercise. The emperors have no clothes,
[21:43] Speaker 2: and so we draw them naked or in diapers. And
[21:47] Speaker 2: the more they whine and threaten, the more creative our
[21:51] Speaker 2: outlets become. Commoners know how to cook kings. This resistance
[21:58] Speaker 2: gives me hope. I hope it gives the rest of
[22:02] Speaker 2: the world some hope as well. I won't ask other
[22:06] Speaker 2: free nations to give the United States a pass. Our
[22:10] Speaker 2: government has broken trust. It's perfectly understandable that the countries
[22:15] Speaker 2: of Europe and elsewhere feel inclined to maneuver beyond us.
[22:20] Speaker 2: If punitive measures from former allies raise our prices, throttle
[22:25] Speaker 2: our industries, and limit our options. I understand many Americans understand.
[22:33] Speaker 2: But to anyone listening, please know that there are many
[22:36] Speaker 2: who are standing against the many. And if free Americans
[22:41] Speaker 2: survive this fiasco, if we can crush the oligarchy, overcome
[22:47] Speaker 2: the bigotry, and restore sanity. I hope we might one
[22:51] Speaker 2: day be given the chance to make things right again.
[22:56] Speaker 2: The United States doesn't and won't deserve bloe trust, but
[23:01] Speaker 2: if we one day extend a hand of friendship, I
[23:05] Speaker 2: hope it will be seen as an olive branch by
[23:08] Speaker 2: those who stood against hate and for our fellow travelers
[23:13] Speaker 2: in this world. The state of our Union is frightening.
[23:18] Speaker 2: We are possibly another empire falling or jumping to its death.
[23:24] Speaker 2: The Republic may not survive. Our future is unknown, but
[23:30] Speaker 2: whether or not we pull through, it is my hope
[23:34] Speaker 2: that history will remember the millions of Americans who refused
[23:39] Speaker 2: to go quietly, who stood for what is right, and
[23:43] Speaker 2: who demonstrated what true love of country really is. And
[23:58] Speaker 2: that is my secular state of the Union for twenty
[24:03] Speaker 2: twenty five. I hope you enjoyed it, or at least
[24:07] Speaker 2: I hope it resonated with you. Thank you for listening,
[24:11] Speaker 2: and I'll see you next time.

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