For the first time in my life, I am genuinely afraid. Afraid to speak my mind. Scared to express my feelings in public. Afraid to title this post the way I wanted to title it.
This is not due to any radical change in my beliefs. I do not condone violence in any form. I have always been and continue to be opposed to hatred of any kind. My America is one where freedom of speech, faith, and identity are paramount to who I am as a person. As Reagan so eloquently put it, “America is the shining city on the hill.” Or at least it was—a utopian example for every other nation to aspire to. The Founding Fathers’ vision for this country was that of a new world, where humanity had evolved beyond the tribalism of past generations and the horrors of kings and the cruel greed of aristocrats, a world where ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL and are guaranteed certain INALIENABLE RIGHTS.
Now, I fear, all of this is falling apart before our eyes. Now, it seems, the worst aspects of human nature —greed, hate, egotism, and anti-intellectualism — have taken hold. Perhaps I was naive to believe people were better than this, to have had faith in humanity’s basic goodness.
Maybe it was always going to be this way. Maybe this collapse into madness and dictatorship was inevitable. I was raised in the ’80s by He-Man, GI*Joe, and Star Wars. He-Man taught me to accept others’ differences (even going so far as to befriend a demon). The same He-Man urged his sister, Adora (who was kidnapped as an infant and brainwashed by an evil regime called the Horde), to examine how the Horde treated its citizens. In this reality we call Life, we should challenge ourselves to do the same thing: observe how our team, whether Democrat, Republican, or Independent, treats other people. It is reductive at this point to throw around terms like NAZI, Antifa, patriot, or freedom, because their meanings often become hijacked by dishonest agents. They are reduced to little more than buzz terms to win arguments, make accusations, or label someone “the enemy.” How we treat our fellow human beings, regardless of race or immigrant status, is all that really matters. Look at how ICE (ICE? Really? Are we living in a Stephen King novel?) deals with immigrants, and Americans of color, and ask yourself who are the good guys in this story.
In GI*Joe — the terrorist organization, COBRA, is led by the egomaniacal Cobra Commander, and later, Serpentor. The leaders of COBRA sought power, wealth, and unwavering loyalty. Their organization did not allow dissent among its ranks, and all COBRA troopers wore masks to hide their identities. GI*Joe, by contrast, was led by Duke, but he was a leader, a “first among equals,” never an outright ruler. He listened to the advice of his men and encouraged and valued their input. In Star Wars, we see the same thing: a faceless enemy and an emperor who rules with absolute impunity. So I am left asking myself: did my generation forget ALL OF THIS? Or were half the kids watching Westerns, where the white cowboys were always the good guys and the dark skinned Indians/Mexicans were the enemies?
I have heard it said time and again that it’s a mistake to escalate the rhetoric. We must strive to understand the opposition and reach across the aisle to find common ground. These are lofty notions, to be sure, predicated on the belief that everyone is genuinely decent and holds to the same basic values that we do. And yet, I have been sickened to see ICE agents on YouTube throwing children to the ground before kneeling on their necks as viewers in the comments section write, “Go, ICE! Go!” Much as I am loath to admit it, many German people cheered when the Jews were rounded up and killed. At the DNC Convention, Michelle Obama told us, “When they go low, we go high.” Despite my best efforts to follow this advice, however, it simply DOES. NOT. WORK. A significant portion of the population couldn’t care less about their fellow human beings. Half of Americans think, “I am not black/gay/trans/poor, so why should I care?” You cannot convince someone to feel empathy when they don’t. You cannot appease someone whose politics are based on hate and greed. And that’s what we are facing here. A dictator’s desire to “Rule the World” and the nameless/faceless legion who want a part of it.
How innocent we were, believing this kind of thing was only for cartoons, that it could never happen in real life. Yet here we are in a battle for the nation’s soul against The Forces of Evil. Still, maybe the ’80s were preparing us for this all along. Maybe, like He-Man, Duke, and Luke Skywalker, we’ve been training for this moment since childhood in learning what we’re up against. And like Duke always told us, “Knowing is half the battle.”
The Art of Storytelling 
Yes, ask yourselves who ARE the good guys in that story?
America (sorry, USA,) once a powerful nation, built on noble intentions and seen as ‘the place to be’ for all kinds of people, from all over the world, has become a laughing stock, led at the moment, and quite fittingly, by a clown.
The USA has seemingly appointed itself the police force of the world, poking it’s nose into others’ business and then wondering why it has so many enemies around the world. Taking the assets of other nations for its own use, and wondering why it has so many enemies around the world. Deliberately starting or provoking wars in foreign nations, and wondering why it has so many enemies around the world.
Most of this antagonism is over resources. If a country has oil, gas, gold, diamonds, silicon etc etc, you’ll find the USA there, exploiting the locals while insisting that in order to do business with the USA the locals must pay huge tariffs, under threat of war or other consequences if they refuse to let the USA machine squander their assets.
The USA, in short, is a parasite.Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the PEOPLE of the USA are bad people. I’m talking about the USA government and military machine, whose crimes against humanity make the Nazis look like mere amateurs.
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Hi Dan,
I came here for an argument but ended up agreeing with most of what you have to say. When I called America “the shining city on the hill,” like Reagan did, I was talking about the founding principles this country was based upon, which I maintain are aspirational. Unfortunately, the good ol’ USA also has a long history of ignoring or outright suppressing those same ideals. We see it in the way slavery became so prominent in the south, possibly the worst example of slavery in human history, and the basis of the entire southern economy, and also in the way the American Indian was nearly wiped from existence. America has always been at odds with itself in this regard, between its principles and its actions.
More to your point, what most worries me about Orange Hitler is that, unlike Hitler, nobody could stop him. This country isn’t Germany. We aren’t sandwiched between the English channel and Siberia. If an America tyrant decides to impose his will on the world, I fear there is nothing that could stop him. The only thing that *could* stop this is a second Civil War, and that would be very bloody, possibly world-ending given our current technology.
In short, I am worried. Let’s pray the crazy author who came up with this ridiculous timeline gives us a happy ending.
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There certainly seems to be a lot of division at the moment. I feel it’s increasing. I think this sort of thing is common after worldwide disasters. We had the covid pandemic followed by economic disruption. In the UK the poorer, more vulnerable factions of society are being demonised, such as those who are disabled. This will pass, as things go in cycles. But I don’t know how long it will take, or how much suffering will be incurred in the mean time. I feel all I can do is keep going and try and do right.
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These are dark days indeed. Perhaps the darkest days in our history since the Japanese internment camps and the McCarthy era. I do agree that, given the long trajectory of history, we may come out of this OK. Civilization tends to lean toward greater freedom and equality over time, but there are often dark periods of many years where people suffer. I don’t think Russia has ever been a happy place since the time of the Czars, and I’d hate to live the last few decades of my life fighting fascism, knowing that my kids have to live in fear due to the color of their skin, or who they marry, or how they choose to identify themselves. I can only hope that all of this will be over in three years when the Orange Guy is booted out. But if he doesn’t go — if he violates the Constitution and remains, then I think it’ll be time for us to flee the country.
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