Renowned queer feminist theorist Judith Butler has issued a warning to Americans outraged by Donald Trump to stop missing the forest for the trees.

In an op-ed for The Guardian, Butler explained that we must focus on the Trump administration’s overall strategy rather than expressing shock at every single ugly statement, reprehensible policy, and potentially illegal executive order.

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“It has never been more important to avoid being captured by his obscenity and focus on how the issues are interconnected,” they wrote.

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“In each case, Trump makes the declaration as a show of power, testing to see whether it can take effect… Amassing authoritarian power depends in part on a willingness of the people to believe in the power exercised. In some cases, Trump’s declarations are meant to test the waters, but in other cases, the outrageous claim is its own accomplishment. He defies shame and legal constraints in order to show his capacity to do so, which displays to the world a shameless sadism.”

They explained that the media blitz about each outlandish moment of Trump’s presidency is, in many ways, the point. That his “sadism” has permeated American culture, with Trump and his followers basking in liberal rage.

Butler called it “a communal and contagious celebration of cruelty” and said, “the media attention it garners feeds the sadistic spree.”

“It has to be known and seen and heard,” they continued, “this parade of reactionary outrage and defiance. And that is why it is no longer a simple matter of exposing hypocrisy that will serve us now.”

“There is no moral veneer that must be stripped away. No, the public demand for the appearance of morality on the part of the leader is inverted: his followers thrill to the display of his contempt for morality, and share it.”

Butler warned that Trump’s actions are designed to paralyze us with anger and that the more we get caught up in each cruel executive order or horrific proposal, the more power we give away.

While we have a right to be outraged, they said, “We cannot let that outrage flood us and stop our minds. For this is a moment to grasp the fascist passions that fuel this shameless grab for authoritarian powers.”

“Those who celebrate his defiance and sadism are as claimed by his logic as those who are paralyzed with outrage,” Butler concluded.

“Perhaps it is time to stand apart from these passions to see how they work, but also to find passions of our own: the desire for a freedom equally shared; for an equality that makes good on democratic promises; to repair and regenerate the earth’s living processes; to accept and affirm the complexity of our embodied lives; to imagine a world in which government supports health and education for all, where we all live without fear, knowing that our interconnected lives are equally valuable.”

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