There Aren’t Three Types of Americans. There’s One Choice
By Tom Hicks - The Unredacted Bastard | Independent Journalist • Democracy’s Fire Alarm • Professional Shit-Stirrer
Composite photo illustration by Tom Hicks | The Unredacted Bastard
Bastard’s Law
It’s not what you believed that defines you. It’s what you refuse to admit now.
There’s a meme making the rounds claiming there are three types of Americans: those who saw it coming, those who regret it, and those still defending it. It’s neat, it’s tidy, and it spreads like wildfire because it gives people the illusion they’ve already figured something out, like they’ve been sorted into a category and can move on with their day.
That’s exactly why it’s dangerous.
Because it lets people off the hook, it turns a live, ongoing moral decision into a static label, like history handed out badges and said, “Congratulations, you’re done thinking.” And that’s bullshit. This moment isn’t about what group you landed in. It’s about what you’re willing to confront right now, with everything sitting right in front of your face.
Reality Check: This Was Never Subtle
The people who “saw it coming” didn’t have some mystical insight into the future. They weren’t prophets. They were paying attention while everyone else treated this like a reality show with real-world consequences. When Donald Trump told you who he was, he wasn’t being subtle or strategic or misunderstood. He was about as subtle as a drunk guy kicking in your front door and announcing he’s about to wreck your house.
And a whole lot of people heard it and decided it either didn’t matter or wouldn’t apply to them, like ignoring a hurricane warning because the sky looks “mostly fine.” That’s not confusion. That’s willful blindness with a side of arrogance. It’s sticking your head in the sand and acting shocked when the tide comes in and punches you straight in the face.
The Regret Crowd: The Moment That Actually Matters
This is where things get real, because this is where the illusion breaks. These are the people who voted for him and now feel that shift—that slow, creeping realization that something is off, that the promises don’t match reality, that the excuses are getting harder to justify.
Here’s the part that actually matters: realizing you got played doesn’t make you the villain. It makes you human. People get sold bad ideas all the time. What defines you is what you do the moment you realize it. That’s the pivot point.
You can own it and adjust course like an adult, or you can start bending reality to protect your past decision. And once someone starts down that second path, it doesn’t stop at one excuse. It becomes a habit, then a reflex, then identity.
That’s how people end up defending things they would have called batshit insane ten years ago, doing it with a straight face like it’s perfectly normal. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s incremental. One rationalization at a time until you wake up parroting talking points that would’ve made your past self say, “What the fuck happened to you?”
The Diehards: Where Reality Gets Rewritten
The third group isn’t just wrong. They’re committed. Facts don’t land. Evidence doesn’t stick. Every new piece of information gets filtered through a mental bouncer that throws out anything that threatens the narrative before it even gets through the door.
Facts show up and get treated like fake IDs at a shitty nightclub. Evidence knocks and gets told to fuck off. Reality itself becomes optional, like a subscription they canceled because it hurt their feelings.
At that point, you’re not arguing politics anymore. You’re watching someone defend their identity in real time. And identity is a hell of a thing to protect, because once people tie their sense of self to a belief, admitting they were wrong doesn’t feel like growth. It feels like destruction.
So they double down. Harder. Louder. More aggressively. Not because they’re winning the argument, but because losing it would mean confronting something they don’t think they can survive.
That’s not loyalty. That’s fear dressed up in a cheap suit, screaming “I meant to do that” while the whole building burns down behind it.
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The Lie Inside the Meme
The biggest problem with the “three types” framing is that it treats these categories like they’re permanent. Like, once you’re in one, that’s where you stay.
That’s not reality.
People move between these states constantly. Some who saw it coming stop paying attention and drift into complacency. Some who regret their vote find the courage to admit it and change course. Others feel that same realization creeping in and slam the door shut, choosing denial because it feels safer than admitting they were wrong.
Because admitting you fucked up is hard. It takes humility. It takes spine. And for a lot of people, that’s a bridge too far, so they torch reality instead and call it consistency.
That’s the real divide. Not what you did then, but what you’re doing now.
Danger Pivot: This Was Never Just About One Man
Focusing this entire conversation on one person is how you miss the bigger picture. Trump didn’t invent denial or tribal thinking. What he did was refine it, weaponize it, and make it socially acceptable to cling to a narrative no matter how detached from reality it becomes.
He turned admitting you were wrong into betrayal, like changing your mind was some kind of moral failure instead of the bare minimum requirement for being a functioning adult. He built an environment where doubling down is rewarded and self-reflection is punished.
And once that system is in place, it doesn’t disappear when the headlines change. It sticks. It spreads. It becomes the operating system.
Now you’ve got millions of people running on that operating system like it’s the latest upgrade, when in reality it’s a corrupted, glitchy piece of shit that crashes the second reality tries to load.
That’s the part that should worry you, because it means this doesn’t end with one election cycle or one political figure. It becomes the default way people engage with reality itself.
It’s not about who you voted for. It’s about what you’re willing to admit now.
Verdict
So no, there aren’t three types of Americans. There are only two that matter: the people willing to confront reality, even when it’s uncomfortable as hell, and the people willing to tear reality apart just to avoid admitting they got it wrong.
That line isn’t drawn by your past. It’s drawn by what you do next. And right now, a whole lot of people are standing on that line, staring straight at the truth like it just insulted their mother, and choosing to look the other way because facing it would mean admitting they backed the wrong horse and rode that motherfucker straight into a wall.
💣 TRUTH BOMB
Denial isn’t loyalty. It’s fear with better branding, wrapped in bullshit and sold like it’s courage.
Coming Next Week: The Political Party Autopsy Series
Before you scroll off and argue with strangers on the internet, here’s what’s coming next—and yeah, it’s going to piss off just about everyone equally.
Starting Monday, we’re launching The Political Party Autopsy Series. No team jerseys. No safe spaces. Just a full teardown of every major political faction in this country—their strengths, their failures, and the shit they don’t want you looking at too closely.
Republicans aren’t the same thing as MAGA. Democrats aren’t the same thing as progressives. And pretending otherwise is how people keep getting played.
We’re pulling each one apart, piece by piece, until what’s left is the truth.
If you’ve ever wanted politics without the propaganda filter, you’re going to want to be here for that.
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