The Chaos You're Feeling is by Design

How Bezmenov’s Warnings and Durkheim’s Anomie Explain The United States in 2025

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the constant stream of divisive headlines and relentless political drama, you’re not imagining it. The chaos is real and, in many ways, it’s intentional.

As President Donald Trump began his second term, his administration wasted no time. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich declared, "Now, comes SHOCK AND AWE." This signaled a strategy to dominate public attention. Former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, described what we are experiencing now as "days of thunder."

And they were right. January 2025 in the United States feels engulfed in absolute chaos that seems anything but accidental.

How did we get here?

Perhaps, it’s helpful to revisit the insights of Yuri Bezmenov, a Soviet defector who warned about the dangers of ideological subversion, and Émile Durkheim’s concept of anomie, which explains the moral and psychological toll of social breakdown. These combined ideas help us to understand how U.S. propaganda has fractured the country by eroding trust, shared values, and social cohesion.

What Ideological Subversion?

Bezmenov identified four stages of ideological subversion:

1. Demoralization: Undermining a society’s confidence in its institutions, values, and culture by infiltrating education, media, and cultural spaces with divisive ideas.

2. Destabilization: Attacking the economy, government, and social structures to create division and unrest.

3. Crisis: Orchestrating or capitalizing on events that push society to the brink of collapse, whether through political, economic, or social upheaval.

4. Normalization: Introducing a new system or ideology as the "solution" to the chaos, often under authoritarian rule.

Although rooted in Cold War tactics, Bezmenov’s warnings feel uncomfortably familiar in the United States today. Misinformation spreads unchecked, propaganda saturates public discourse, and our division deepens with each and every news cycle.

Anomie: The Breakdown of Social Norms

In conjunction with Bezmenov’s framework, Émile Durkheim’s concept of anomie adds another layer of understanding. Anomie describes a state of normlessness, where shared values break down, and people feel disconnected from the world around them.

In 2025, many U.S. Americans experience this daily. Institutions no longer seem reliable, community bonds feel even more frayed, and shared moral frameworks have eroded. People are left feeling disconnected, disoriented, and vulnerable to manipulation. These dynamics are painfully evident in today’s deeply polarizing cultural debates. Issues like abortion, transgender rights, and critical race theory reflect deeply held values.

Further, U.S. propaganda weaponizes differences by framing every. single. debate. as the ultimate battle of right versus wrong. Instead of encouraging dialogue or education, it drives hostility and makes it nearly impossible to find common ground, even where some may exist. And worse, the absence of shared norms makes individuals more susceptible to propaganda because it fills the void by offering simplistic answers and scapegoats.

How Bezmenov’s Ideas Relate to U.S. Media in 2025

1. Demoralization

The demoralization phase was evident. Trust in media is at historic lows, with only 34% of U.S. Americans expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” This lack of trust was created by media dominated by echo chambers - we all consume news that reinforces our worldview. Social media platforms amplify this divide and show us only videos that align with what we expect while spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories that further erode public confidence in facts.

2. Destabilization

Destabilization followed, with the media playing a central role in stoking political division. Cultural flashpoints like book bans, gender identity, and immigration dominate headlines and deepen the divide. Hyper-partisan coverage ensures that both sides see the other as the enemy. Conservatives decry progressive policies as un-American, while others ring alarm bells against authoritarianism. Collectively, we ensure a climate of perpetual division and dysfunction.

2. Crisis

In January 2025, the United States is experiencing a full-blown crisis. From the fallout from the 2020 to the 2024 presidential elections, there are deep and lingering doubts about election legitimacy, which further erodes trust in the electoral process. Fear of economic instability increases the tension as we hear report after report about rising inflation, housing crises, and growing inequality. This fuels widespread fear and anxiety. The pervasive sense of chaos makes it difficult to focus on solutions, as public discourse leans toward apocalyptic predictions.

4. Normalization

This crisis has now given way to normalization. For many, division and dysfunction are no longer exceptional but are viewed as inevitable. Populism dominates political rhetoric. We offer simplistic answers to complex problems and alienate those who don’t align with our side. Years of turmoil have left many U.S. Americans fatigued and disengaged. Events that once would have shocked us are now met with a collective *shrug*. People retreat into their private lives or bubbles and declare that dysfunction must just be an unchangeable reality.

Institutions, meanwhile, struggle to function. Federal agencies are defunded or repurposed to align with partisan priorities and leave long-term societal challenges unaddressed. Courts are criticized for becoming politicized, which erodes faith in impartial justice. Collaboration feels impossible, and the idea of meaningful resolution seems like a distant memory.

Conclusion: Lessons from Bezmenov and Anomie

The United States in 2025 reflects Bezmenov’s ideological subversion framework and Durkheim’s anomie. The demoralization of trust, the destabilization of shared values, and the normalization of division create a society where dysfunction feels permanent. Bezmenov’s warnings remind us how fragile societal cohesion can be, how crucial it is to hold media accountable, and how we must foster critical thinking. Without efforts to rebuild trust in institutions and counter U.S. propaganda, the cycle of division will continue and it will function to justify policies that benefit the few while eroding any sense of democratic norms.

To counter these challenges, U.S. Americans must demand accountability from media outlets and work toward policies that rebuild trust in institutions. Without these efforts, U.S. propaganda will continue to exploit ongoing crises, real or imagined, to justify extreme measures or policies. Division and instability become the default state of U.S. American life, with future generations seeing dysfunction as unremarkable.