Over the past decade, an ominous, insidious trend has intensified across the U.S. I’m referring to the now-common threats, harassment, bullying, ‘doxing,’ and open revenge-seeking that we hear about almost daily. And the immature, rageful perpetrators range from teenagers to scorned lovers to Internet trolls to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
It’s vital to recall: ten years ago, none of this public behavior would have been accepted or tolerated for long. Sure, there have always been bullies, haters, and vengeful types around — we used to call the teenage ones ‘J.D.s’ or Juvenile Delinquents — but they were always a small minority, and were usually quickly shut down, publicly shamed, or somehow cut down to size.
But today, hate, threats, and vengeance have been ‘normalized’ and have metastasized and gone mainstream — which has sent our hapless society into a tailspin.
Here’s the ‘quiet part’ no one wants to talk about: this is exactly how authoritarian and fascist regimes are born. This is the exact, necessary groundwork that allows authoritarian and fascist regimes to blossom and rise to power.
A presidential campaign based on ‘retribution’
One of the prominent features of Trump’s re-election campaign was his frequent, loud insistence that he’s seeking ‘retribution’ against his political and media ‘enemies’ — and if re-elected, he affirmed he absolutely WILL enact revenge against them ASAP.
This is astounding and deeply frightening rhetoric, coming from a presidential candidate — marking yet another horrific ‘first’ in a long string of norm-busting Trumpian ‘firsts.’ And it’s gotten even more frightening, now that Trump is our president-elect and has started to assemble his Cabinet and staff federal agencies. His vengefulness is fast becoming… our reality.
What we’ve witnessed over the past month, since Trump won re-election, is a bizarre parade of unqualified, boot-licking sycophants whose main ‘qualification’ is that they are die-hard Trump loyalists who will support all his vengeful desires and plans.
His Cabinet and agency-head choices strike me as a deliberate, defiant ‘Fuck You!’ to America and especially the rule of law. In effect, they scream “I’m going to do whatever the hell I want, to whomever I want — and I dare you to try to stop me!”
Coming soon: the REAL ‘weaponization’ of our justice system
Think I’m exaggerating? Consider Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel. This man has openly stated that he wants to dissolve and ‘reform’ (castrate) the FBI, turn its priorities inside-out, and use the FBI to go after Trump’s perceived ‘enemies.’ Talk about ‘politicization’ and the ‘weaponization’ of our justice system!
For years, Trump and the GOP loudly proclaimed that Biden and the Democrats had ‘weaponized’ our justice system and used it to unfairly ‘persecute’ and go after an ‘innocent’ Trump. Of course, there is no actual evidence to support these assertions (and plenty of evidence against Trump) — but simultaneously, they’ve been slyly preparing to do that very thing themselves, and fully ‘weaponize’ our justice system to go after Trump’s opponents and ‘enemies.’
MAGA loyalty tests? Soviet-style or STASI-style ‘secret police’? Neighbor spying on and reporting their neighbor(s)? That is exactly where we’re heading — at lightning speed.
Both Trump and Patel have turned paranoia and public vengefulness into an art form, and lace their public statements with overt threats and promises of vengeance against ‘liberals,’ political opponents, and the ‘fake news’ media. In what world is such openly threatening behavior acceptable?
Answer: Our world. Today. These horrid attitudes and behaviors have now been ‘normalized,’ and if this trend continues to intensify — as it shows all indications of doing — we can kiss our nation and any remaining ‘civil society’ goodbye.
We’ll be left with a violent, paranoid, uncivilized horror show that still pretends it’s a ‘functioning democracy.’
Vengeful, hate-filled domestic terrorists are taking over
All these new forms of social craziness are just that: c-r-a-z-y. Yet we glibly ‘adapt’ to them, accept them, and start to embrace them. WTF!? Even worse, these trends, properly understood, mark the rapid spread of domestic terrorism and a destructive ‘might makes right’ attitude.
It’s true: under the malign influence of Trump and his MAGA cult, a relatively new form of domestic terrorism has proliferated: stochastic terrorism, or indirect threats and incitement that often and predictably lead to violence — but don’t directly call for violence.
Trump (and Fox ‘News’ as well) is a master at this and has taken public threats and stochastic terrorism to a whole new level. The problem — and it’s huge — is that open threats and revenge-seeking are not illegal under our absurdly lax ‘free speech’ laws unless specific targets and plans are detailed and imminent attacks are directly incited. Trump and MAGA have gotten very good at going right up to that line — but not crossing it.
Thus, what Trump and MAGA are often doing and saying is not technically illegal — but it inevitably leads to a host of nasty, dangerous, and potentially nation-destroying consequences.
That’s what inevitably happens when guardrail after guardrail and norm after norm are shattered. And these horrifying consequences are becoming more visible and alarming by the day.
Blame ‘we the sheeple’
How the hell did we get here — to this absurd and very dangerous place?
Blame social media, blame our spineless politicians, blame Trump, blame our weak societal guardrails — blame anyone or anything you choose, but in the end we the people are to blame. All of us — including the individuals and groups listed above.
We the people — or should I say, sheeple — have bent over backward to accommodate, excuse, and ‘adapt to’ Trump, MAGA, and our seditious, Trump-dominated GOP. We have allowed this toxic, antisocial mess to grow, fester, and spread like wildfire — and now we’re face to face with the dire and intensifying results.
Now we’re facing several incoming abominations: a second Trump presidency squarely focused on revenge and extorting semi-dictatorial power from our Trumpified, GOP-controlled government… and a spate of ridiculous, super-aggressive Cabinet picks and agency heads whose foremost desire is to tear down our system and burn it to the ground… and who fully support Trump’s mad, ego-driven plans to persecute, prosecute, and severely punish anyone who ever had the temerity to oppose or question him.
We’re this close — imagine a thumb and forefinger held 1/32″ apart — to collapsing into outright autocracy, real ‘weaponization’ of the justice system, and overt persecution of immigrants, liberals, the media, any remaining RINOs who dare stand up to Trump, LGBTQ+ folks, and women who seek abortions.
We’re already collapsing into autocracy and the ‘weaponization’ of our governmental system
Oh, wait — I forgot: we’re already there, in many respects.
Plans are already afoot to round up, detain, and deport millions of ‘illegals’ and other ‘undesirables.’ A few may be criminals — but most are just ordinary, hard-working people seeking a better life.
Trump and his allies are already salivating about actively punishing his many political and social ‘enemies.’
They’ve already trashed and discredited the mainstream (‘fake news’) media — and they’re eager to weaken it even further.
They’ve already passed multiple laws persecuting transgender kids and their families.
They’ve already passed multiple laws targeting and punishing women who seek abortions.
Who’s next on their hit list?
These seditious ‘patriots’ have made their intentions crystal clear. For them, it’s all about power, revenge, and total domination of the United States and our collective future.
Will we let them get away with their ugly, dangerous power plays? Will we?
The hour is already very late. Can we, will we ‘wake up’ in time to prevent the total failure and collapse of the United States as we know it?
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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