Originally published Feb 13, 2026 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor
“… the state cannot take authority over men that God himself has chosen not to. Free will must be preserved lest you be spitting into the face of God.” – Paul Gordon Collier
“Mr. Speaker, in 1848, Karl Marx said, a progressive income tax is needed to transfer wealth and power to the state. Thus, Marx’s Communist Manifesto had as its major economic tenet a progressive income tax. Think about it, 1848 Karl Marx, Communism…. I say it is time to replace the progressive income tax with a national retail sales tax, and it is time to abolish the IRS, my colleagues. I yield back all the rules, regulations, fear, and intimidation of our current system.” – James Traficant, former Democrat U.S. representative, one of the last American Democrats to serve in congress (maybe Senator John Fetterman of PA is the last?)
I had originally planned on listening to the “competing” Halftime Shows of this year’s Superbowl, the championship game of America’s premiere professional sport, football, and that sports’ premiere football league, the NFL (National Football League).
My original intention was to analyze the content of each performance, with the TPUSA halftime show taking up the space of “America” and the Bad Bunny OFFICIAL halftime show representing Progmerica (which the NFL also represents).
The fact that the Bad Bunny songs were all in Spanish made that last part a bit of a challenge. The fact that, even if you remove the political context completely, I have no interest to listen to the types of music being played in either halftime show, sealed my decision. I could not bring myself to watch the totality of either show. Therefore, I won’t be talking too specifically about the content of each show, but rather about the bellwether elements of both shows as they represent the zeitgeist of America today.
First of all, right from the start, the felt NEED for conservatives to have their own halftime show reveals the existential divide in this land between those who embrace the progressive nation and those who refuse to bend their knee to it.
The NFL highlighted that divide, as they have done again and again, by having TWO “national” anthems, one for the POC (Person of Color, the High Priests of Progmerica, the progressive nation) and one for the country they hate, the American nation.
They performed the American anthem not because they wanted to, but because they had to. They understand that Progmerica has risen from within America, that it has hijacked America’s symbols and terminology, and converted them into something wholly and completely unamerican, though Progmerica cannot as of yet stand on its own until the legal definition of America changes (and they’re working on that).
The word racism is the bellwether of their tactics. It is a word that is born from America’s rightly felt guilt for sub humanizing the African race and allowing them to be legally bought and sold as property. It is a word that helped us understand the nature of our sin, our willingness to sub humanize the other, and conquer the possible fatal flaw of our constitution, that it began with a wild hypocrisy.
As a matter of fact, our ideal of the divine right of self-stewardship is what made American slavery so vicious. Having a principle that protected ALL HUMANS from the tyranny of the state that JUSTIFIES that state’s very authority meant either slavery had to die, or the black man had to become a gorilla, or worse (anything but human).
The NFL has taken to use its space as political agit prop, and the Superbowl was no exception, though thankfully the NFL’s most violent slogan wasn’t used, “End Racism.” Instead, they chose the Motte in opposition to rounding up illegal aliens with “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us,” leaving out the violent looting Bailey, the fact that those who support the illegal aliens do so at the expense of their neighbors, who aren’t’ given a choice as to whether or not they want to sacrifice their wealth (and their lives, in many instances, especially the lives of their children) for the benefit of foreigners.
They are not advocating love, they are using the word love in replacement of what they REALLY support, CONQUEST. This is the punishment of the haves at the benefit of the have-nots, with the ultimate haves being WHITE American citizens, and the have nots being the poor POC from the “Global South,” their new victim class shield they’ve been developing these last few years.
Yet those slogans were nowhere near as bad as the slogan “End Racism” if you understand how the NFL terms racism. This bears taking a bit of a detour before we get back to our main point, because it clarifies the spirit of the NFL even better than the Superbowl Halftime show did (it also helps explain how an “American” institution could make such anti-American choices).
I asked Grok how the NFL defines racism, and in that answer Grok revealed it’s just as racist in its assumptions as the NFL is. Grok summarized its report to me with this paragraph:
“The NFL aligns its stance with recognizing both individual prejudice and systemic/institutional forms of racism, as seen in condemnations of discriminatory practices (e.g., hiring biases, racial tropes, or policies disadvantaging Black players/employees). This mirrors broader contemporary understandings (e.g., post-2020 dictionary updates emphasizing systemic oppression and power imbalances), but the league frames it through commitments to equality, inclusion, diversity, and anti-discrimination policies rather than a precise dictionary-style definition.”
I asked Grok what the definition of racism is post-2020, and it revealed dictionary definitions that don’t go as far as progressive definitions, but most of these definitions prepare the ground for them. They also don’t contradict the progressive definitions.
The closest they come to the progressive definition is in Merriam-Webster, which makes “racism” social, not individual, calling it “the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another.” That definition is JUST about where the progressive definition is, the one that would be used by Progmerica.
Grok did tell me, “The prevailing definition of racism in major American dictionaries today (as of February 2026) emphasizes both individual beliefs/prejudice and systemic or institutional aspects, reflecting updates made around 2020 in response to evolving usage.”
Let’s make this clear, this isn’t evolving usage, it’s nudging. The dictionaries aren’t reflective of common usage, they’re reflecting Academia’s WILL for common usage. They’re engaging in political information terrorist action intended to overthrow America’s justification for existence, INDIVIDUAL justice, not SOCIAL justice.
There is no individual racism definition in the progressive lexicon. Grok’s answer on what the progressive academic definition of racism is reveals EXACTLY what racism is to Progmericans, living while being white.
Grok wrote, “The prevailing definition of racism in progressive academic scholarship – particularly in fields like sociology, education, critical race theory (CRT), ethnic studies, and anti-racism activism-centers on racism as a systemic phenomenon rather than merely individual prejudice or hatred. This view, dominant since the late 20th century and especially post-2010s in progressive circles, often frames racism through variations of ‘prejudice plus power’ (or ‘power + prejudice,’ sometimes stylized as R = P + P) …
Racism requires the combination of such prejudice with social, institutional, or structural power to enforce it systemically, resulting in oppression, unequal outcomes, and advantage for the dominant racial group (typically white people in Western contexts) …
It is a system of advantage/oppression based on race, often described as a ‘white supremacy system’ or hierarchy that benefits whiteness at the expense of people of color.”
If you walk out that definition, you realize the ONLY PEOPLE CAPABLE of being racist are white people in America, and the progressive will tell you the white man can’t HELP but be racist (since they invented racism in the first place, according to Progmericans), perpetually.
When the NFL puts out that label on their endzones, “End Racism,” they are creating a violent heuristic against the white race, engaging in ACTUAL systemic racism, by sending the subtle message “End the White Race,” because, to the progressive, so long as the white race lives, so does evil.
The NFL also represents the tactic of a virus that invades a cell, clones its structures, but uses them to attack the body itself. It’s red-white-and-blue American shield remains unchanged, but the principles of the league are no longer American. The NFL was an American institution, born from American values, coopted by progressives who turned the vehicle of power that is the NFL, the richest sports league in the world, bar none, and turned it into a violent vehicle of power intended to overthrow the very country that gave birth to it.
This brings us back to the Superbowl Halftime Show.
Building an American answer to the Progmericans’ hijacked NFL (the national part is Progmerican, not American anymore) is impossible, especially because many Americans, including this writer, still enjoy NFL games (though this might be the last straw for me at this point). But building an alternative to the NFL’s halftime show is NOT impossible ESPECIALLY if you have a central rallying point, which Americans thought they did in TPUSA.
We thought we had an American rallying point in Donald Trump as well, though this writer never fully supported that assumption. TPUSA is a perfect symbol of the type of power President Trump truly represents, thin Americanism, which is no real Americanism at all.
The headliner for the TPUSA halftime show was a talent-broke has-been named Kid Rock who has revitalized his dead career making thin pandering “Murica” songs that exploit hot headlines. His songs are built to make money now and never be played again (and I doubt 50 years from now ANY of the songs he wrote in this era will be remembered by anyone).
Kid Rock contrasted against Bad Bunny, a man who has genuine fans and real talent. Bad Bunny’s music isn’t remotely my cup of tea, but my gauge of the culture is he is respected as a real talent, an innovator in his genre. Kid Rock has none of that cultural power, and justifiably so.
As a result of this halftime show, Bad Bunny has a lot of political fans now as well, like Kid Rock, people who would otherwise not like his music one iota but now see it as a social power signal that needs boosted by their public displays of fandom.
Bad Bunny put a middle finger up to America and called it “love.” He sang in Spanish to symbolize the eventual conquering of white America by the global south. He did this as an American citizen, which makes this treasonous in spirit, at the very least. I doubt Bad Bunny understands this is essentially what he did, heuristically, for he’s more an instrument of propaganda than the actual propagandists are.
Kid Rock lied to his audience right from the start by letting them believe he was performing live when he later revealed his performance was prerecorded and parts of it were even lip-synced. Hearing snippets of his songs, I heard what I expected, cartoon-simple chord progressions designed for cliched emotional effects, with lyrics a 10-year-old child of average intelligence could write.
He didn’t create art, he created art-like structures designed to give his political supporters enough suspension of disbelief that this is an art they are purchasing because they enjoy it and not what it really is, AI-music-level quality slop they’ve purchased to own the progressives at the benefit to only Kid Rock and his bank account.
I listened to excerpts of Bad Bunny’s performance, and, while it isn’t my cup of tea, I recognize art, craft, excellence in his work I doubt I will ever see again in Kid Rock’s.
The halftime shows were competing social power signals that were followed up by pushes to sell the songs connected to the shows. Kid Rock “won” that race, allegedly, and made tens of thousands of dollars (or more) I am sure will be used to fight Progmericans (note the sarcasm I intend in this sentence).
TPUSA is leaning into the cartoon-simple Murica spirit to grift off the well-meaning Americans who somehow believe if we get more views on our low-quality halftime show we will beat the progressives. If Kid Rock outsells Bad Bunny and outranks him on the music charts, AMERICA WINS, only it doesn’t. For every TPUSA halftime show viewing, the heuristic is being sent to the viewer who saw both, Progmerica is more real than America.
As a result, America’s credibility continues to decline as young people can clearly see Progmericans offer art and Americans offer Kid Rock, only Kid Rock and TPUSA are only as American as Donald Trump, which is “just barely,” and “not enough to end Progmerica.”
While TPUSA had a stage and a few dancers with the performers, Progmerica had a grand epic stage with a cast of thousands working in complex, organized, aesthetically pleasing harmonies with one another. One was slapped together; one took months to perfect. To the young, Progmerica offers a better future.
The problem as I see it is progressivism is the default moral code of MOST PEOPLE in America, including self-identifying conservatives, and DEFINITELY among self-identifying MAGAs. The most powerful counters to Progmerica today are progressive-Americans at best. Few self-stewarded Americans have any real power in this land today.
While they intellectually value individual liberty, individual rights, they operate under social justice moralities all the time. Think of how President Trump is ready to ban ALL Somalis from coming to America because of what’s going on in Minnesota. This is social justice, not American justice.
American justice would mean we assess individuals based on their individual experiences, not their social identities. President Trump is a social justice warrior, in part, though unlike Progmericans he walks more inconsistently in that he still also genuinely acts in an American justice spirit as well, as does TPUSA.
The reason for this is few people in this country fully understand what Americanism is, why it’s being threatened as a bridging standard for diverse peoples with unity, and what might be done to restore this bridging standard. Individual liberty was justified by the shared belief that an external creator has limited the power of the state to respect that creator’s sacred creations the way the creator intended.
The sacred creations are us, and self-stewardship is what the creator endows in all of us (grants us, allows us). This is free will, this is so men come to Christ consensually in love, not as automatons responding the only way they can.
This is the heart of our unity, and without it, Progmerica is fully unbounded and unmasked, and America and all its symbols will be burned, blown up, and buried, her history erased, her people forgotten (should the Progmerican project come into full fruition).
These battling Superbowl Halftime shows reveal the paltry state of America and what Americans’ next tactics should be to attempt to stem the tide of the ready-to-burst Progmerican nation that has been gestating within us for the last 100 plus years.
Americans are un-stewarded in their beliefs and thus are unaware of the progressive spirits that guide their thoughts. Progmericans can sense the time is soon for them to fully throw off the old cell their virus hijacked, and openly declare this land their own, come what may, for they may never have the chance they have now to make that happen.
COUNT THE COST OF YOUR BELIEF! Be Self-Stewarded:
‘“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and COUNT THE COST, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”- Luke 14:26-30
The concentration of oppositional power is currently in the hands of grifting opportunists like TPUSA and narcissistic madmen like Donald Trump, who equates American greatness with material bounty, not spiritual soundness that binds authority, so the individual does not disappear in the social.
If you agree with that assessment, then you might agree that it is time for Americans to give up the institutions (for now) they cannot duplicate, including the ones that only Progressive-infested “conservatives” can duplicate. Sponsoring the pallid progressive-American imitations only supports Progmerica in the end.
It’s time for Americans to recognize what “social justice” really means so they can understand when they hear it in the mouths of conservatives like Trump, who slips into social justice spirits all the time.
Ideally, the Holy Spirit delivers us through a great revival of the fear and love of the Lord. This miraculous delivery would preserve Americanism under the previous justification, that the state cannot take authority over men that God himself has chosen not to. Free will must be preserved lest you be spitting into the face of God.
Outside of that, our bridging standard can only be justified pragmatically, amongst competing groups that agree they will limit their efforts to make their neighbors in their own image in exchange for being allowed to openly be wrong in public space. This agreement can only be made among groups that have no mandate to use violence to win converts or punish the unbeliever. It cannot include the groups that cannot come to this agreement.
We should remove ourselves from fellowships from groups and individuals that reject our Americanism, in whole or in part (as TPUSA and Trump do) and seek out fellowships with groups and individuals brave enough to allow themselves to lose a fair war of ideas against their neighbor.
This means we simply must sacrifice our pleasures, our joys that cannot be met by Americans. This includes America’s college and NFL football entertainment, for both are now vehicles of power of Progmerica, enemies of our republic, a republic that still lives within the hearts of we remaining Americans.
We cannot give up necessities provided by Progmericans or Progressive Americans, but we CAN give up the pleasures, the joys they alone provide us.
Bad Bunny and Kid Rock are competing for personal power disguised as causal power. They are both exploiting emotions, but Bad Bunny is providing the better product because, in part, his art is aligned with his Progmerican values while Kid Rock walks in both Progmerica and America, equally, completely oblivious to his un-stewarded habits of being that operate in progressive values, not American ones.
Neither man represents the rock of Americanism, individual liberty, but the Progmericans are TRUER to themselves than the “Americans” are, and as such are bound to produce a better product. Passion alone makes them better. They are both bad rocks performing bad rock (with Kid Rock’s being far worse).
This is not to say there aren’t Americans out there producing great art reflective of self-stewarded American values, it’s only to say that these Americans have been frozen out of the top slots of entertainment power by the Progmericans on one side, and the Kid Rockians on the other side, the progressive Americans (which are BARELY American at all).
