The Cybertruck Bomber's Notes: Cognitive Dissonance Amongst MAGA
Examining the letters the cybertruck bomber, Matthew Livelsberger, left behind. (Opinion Piece)
This news is kind of old, but if you haven’t heard: On News Years Day, 37 year old Matthew Livelsberger drove a cybertruck full of explosives and fireworks in front of a Las Vegas Trump hotel, shot himself, and then the truck detonated. The explosion was mostly contained due to the steel frame of the vehicle, and thankfully only caused minor injuries to a handfull of people.
Livelsberger served in the army since 2006, and was a decorated Green Beret, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo.
Since the attack, the FBI has identified two pieces of writing from Livelsberger: One is an email sent to podcaster Shawn Ryan, and the other are notes found on the subjects phone. The notes found on his phone are what we will be diving into, and, in my opinion, exemplify everything wrong with the current discourse around American politics.
The Letters:
If it’s not obvious based on the talking points and bad spelling, Livelsberger is a republican. But this note exemplifies something I want to highlight: the complete disconnect between the political opinions MAGA holds, and the political realities of the politicians they support. If you pay attention to the new populist movement within the republican party, a lot of what they are saying sounds fairly leftist, at least the part about us being cattle to the top 1%. Interestingly, there is a prominent streak of anti-corporate and anti-establishment sentiment in this new republican party, something I’m sure the old guard like McConnell don’t care for.
But therein lies the cognitive and political dissonance of conservative populism: How is it possible to claim to be anti-establishment while voting for a man that already served as president, and who’s ideology has well and truly taken over the party? Trump is no longer the outsider that he was in 2016; him and his band of fascist sycophants have become the new establishment. Fox News is by far the most watched “news” network on telivision, Joe Rogan has the most popular podcast in the world, almost all of the most popular political pundits are conservative, and the richest man in the world bought one of the largest social media platforms and used it to spread MAGA propaganda.
If you voted republican, I’m sorry to break it to you, but you voted not only for the establishment, but for an oligarchy. Trump’s proposed cabinet of loyal MAGA stooges is the richest in history. Trump himself is a trust fund billionaire from New York. It doesn’t get more establishment than that. But, like most republicans, Livelsberger completely misses the point, and instead appeals to some loss of family values and traditional masculinity.
The dissonance continues, as he calls for the end of the war in Ukraine while simultaneously supporting the far more pro Russian candidate. Next, he lays out some redpill TikTok drivel about being more masculine and winning, as if hitting the bench press is going to bring down house prices or something. He then says to weed out anyone who doesn’t believe in that vague sloganeering, which is an unsurprisingly fascistic thing for him to say. Unfortanately, Trump has stated before that he wants to weed out those that opposed him the first time arround, so that just might end up happening.
Then we dip into some leftist territory again for a few sentences. Livelsberger brings up the cost of living and housing crisis, and the number of homeless in the streets. However, once again, he fails to mention how that can be accomplished by supporting the party trying to cut all social programs, and who’s tarriffs will likely raise the price of building new homes. Not to mention the deportations, which will cripple the construction industry.
Back to the MAGA brainrot, he mentions DEI, which is just code for minority or woman, so there’s no substance there. I find it ironic that Kamala Harris, no matter what you think of her politics, is called the DEI candidate when she is exponentially more qualified to be president by serving as DA, AG, Senator, and VP then Donald Trump will ever be.
The last few paragraphs are shockingly unaware of reality in the slightest. The only thing I have sympathy for is the comment about fighting endless wars, something that seems to have contributed to his mental health leading up to this act. He’s also not wrong that the only thing America listens to is specticle, as indicated by our president-elect.
All that said, I don’t quite know what he wanted to accomplish with this. He seems to be satisfied with the incoming administration winning; and I must once again comment on the ignorance of claiming to be anti-establishment while cheering on the previous president, the richest man in the world, and a career politician from a dynasty family. He declares 2025 the end of our “sickness”, which is painfully hilarious to me because I consider 2025 the exact opposite.
This new year is the metastisis of a cancer, one that has propogated all over the western world. We as a country have chosen oligarchy over liberty, hate over inclusivity, and regression over progress. Much of why we have gone down that path is precisely because of discourse like this, which completely misses the forest for the trees in favor of bigotry and “traditional values” (though I suppose hatred of minorities is quite traditional in America). It may sound strange because this guy shot himself in the head and then blew himself up, but I almost envy that ignorant dissonance he had. It would at least put my mind more at ease. Then again, someone has to be vigilant, for those that are opressed and can’t defend themselves.
Ever vigilant, your eyes in the sky,
~ Minerva