American patriotism just hit a 25-year low, and the country celebrated accordingly: a 56-year-old man we're calling the "MAGA Wanker" allegedly cranked it to some acrobats on a mostly empty field, and Michael Knowles spoke to a ten-year-old about the merits of burning women at the stake. 

Researcher and reporter Madeline Peltz returns to Posting Through It to relive America's 250th birthday party and take stock of the MAGA movement as of July 2026. Mike, Jared, and Madeline trace how a bipartisan congressional commemoration curdled America's anniversary into a freakish spectacle — funded by dark money and PragerU-supplied educational materials. This episode also features on-the-ground guest reporting from photojournalist Dominic Gwinn.

By now, you've probably heard that America's 250th birthday celebrations were a debacle. Now it's time to learn how bad it actually was.

Hide your communist flags, folks. Storm's brewing.