If you’re reading this, congratulations: you made it to the conclusion of the 2024 election. Even if you’re understandably upset about Donald Trump’s victory, just arriving at this point with your cognition intact is a genuine achievement that you should be proud of.

Your eyes are probably burning and your brain is foggy, but don’t fret: that’s natural after forced Clockwork Orange–style exposure to television ads, mailers, texts, emails, phone calls, tweets, door knocks, and other assorted nags from friends, family, and celebrity influencers — all selling you on the idea that this phantasmagoria was about the survival of democracy.

For those who still sense that it may have been a scammy sales pitch from both parties, that’s because some part of your brain withstood the agitprop and noticed that the 2024 campaign torched much of what was still left of the actual democracy.