All I could say — after my jaw dropped to the floor — was “Wow. What utter insanity! WTF?!”
My next thought was, “Right. Of course, they would do this.”
Here’s the catalyst for my jaw-drop: I just read a Reuters article titled “Trump’s war on ‘woke’ forces community lenders to cut services or close.” The ugly phrase ‘just kick ’em while they’re down’ comes to mind.
Apparently, the furious MAGA ‘war on woke’ intends to strip all support and funding from any program or policy that supports and assists poor people, Blacks, Hispanics, female entrepreneurs, and all other underserved or ‘minority’ groups. That is… any American who isn’t part of the wealthy White elite, the top 5% that Trump always favors and venerates.
According to the cruel dictates of the ‘war on woke’, the vast majority of Americans can all just screw themselves — and are SOL for the foreseeable future.
Caring about and helping others is now ‘Verboten’
You’ve undoubtedly noticed the pattern, since it’s been in our faces daily for the past 10 months of Trump 2.0. Demonize some vulnerable ‘out-group’ like transgender folks, and then sic the MAGA hordes on them. Next, pick another ‘out-group’ to target and vilify, like the homeless, and again sic the MAGA maniacs — um, purists — on them.
It’s happening all around us, and it’s steadily intensifying. It happened to pregnant women seeking an abortion, gay folks, transgender kids and their families, illegal immigrants, brown-skinned people in general, homeless people, the mentally ill, and now… the nation’s poor.
Due to the prolonged government shutdown, 42 million Americans have now lost their monthly SNAP benefits (aka ‘food stamps’) simply because the Trump administration doesn’t want to use emergency funds to fully fund November benefits. The USDA announced that “The well has run dry.” Clearly, Trump 2.0 doesn’t care one bit if 42 million Americans — many of them young children, elderly, or disabled folks — go hungry.
I guess helping people — our fellow Americans — to just survive is now ‘too woke.’ It’s far better to cut them off and let them suffer… or even die. Who gives a damn, really… since they’re just useless kids, frail oldsters, undeserving poor folks, or disabled freaks!? Let ’em suffer and die!
The ‘war on woke’ is ramping up
Scarily, I am not exaggerating. Trump 2.0 has shown that its entire MO revolves around two themes: ‘slash and burn,’ and ‘punish/oppress the weak and the poor.’ The goal is to ‘move fast and break things,’ as tech moguls like Elon Musk are fond of saying. And the things Trump 2.0 seeks to ‘break’ include liberal democracy, voting rights, abortion rights (that’s already occurred), any ‘liberal’ policies and public programs, and especially, any public assistance programs (aka ‘welfare’) that help the poor, sick, or needy. Which brings us right back to the ‘war’ on community banks and lending.
This facet of our financial system isn’t as ‘sexy’ as food scarcity, starvation, and losing SNAP benefits — since it’s far less visible or ‘in our faces’ — but the burgeoning loss of most community lending will have far-reaching and disastrous effects. To quote the above-mentioned article:
“A year ago, Karlene Sinclair-Robinson was writing loans and hosting education seminars for small businesses and entrepreneurs as finance director of Community Business Partnership, a community development financial institution, or CDFI, in northern Virginia.
Now, she’s helping shut it down for good on December 31. [emphasis mine]
The non-profit has been in business for nearly 30 years, but the Trump administration withheld $324 million in funding appropriated by Congress for the nearly 1,400 CDFIs across the country, targeting them as part of a “woke” program that promotes a “partisan agenda,” “gender extremism” and “climate radicalism”….
Congress created the CDFI Fund in 1994 to establish institutions to serve the economic development needs of low-income, rural and minority communities with limited access to traditional banking. The institutions — non-profits, credit unions, and small banks — rely on a mix of federal funding, grants, and corporate philanthropy….
The concern among CDFI leaders isn’t just that federal funding goes away, but that the “entire architecture” of support which spans government, philanthropy, and private funds starts to unravel, said Nate Schaffran, executive director of the California Coalition for Community Investment, a statewide coalition of CDFIs.”
[Note: Clicking the above link, or this one, takes you to a horrifying, official White House document titled: “Cuts to Woke Programs.’ The subtitle reads, “President Trump is committed to eliminating radical gender and racial ideologies that poison the minds of Americans. The President’s FY 2026 Budget upholds the Constitution by eliminating funding for cultural Marxism.” Read it and weep.]
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Photo by Yaopey Yong on Unsplash
We’re being set up to suffer and LOSE, big-time
Trump and his loyal MAGA devotees are frighteningly good at promoting and pursuing their maniacal ‘anti-woke’ agenda. In their zeal to undo all ‘liberal’ policies that actually help poor or minority Americans, they employ radical deception and fascist propaganda techniques.
They’re not ‘against’ helping the poor and downtrodden (they say), they are just ‘patriotically’ ensuring that “radical gender and racial ideologies that poison the minds of Americans” are attacked and eliminated. They’re not racist — heaven forbid — they just want to make sure that unfairly targeted, oppressed Whites get a fair shake!
It’s all unbelievably sneaky, underhanded, and… effective. Tens of millions of Americans have bought the MAGA ‘anti-woke’ propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Yet hardly anyone is talking about the long-term consequences of all these cuts, eliminations, and the accompanying hateful rhetoric. The truth is, millions of Americans are already suffering under these draconian ‘improvements,’ and millions more are being ‘set up’ to suffer greatly over the next few years.
And I don’t say ‘set up’ lightly. The poorest, sickest, and neediest among us are being singled out for persecution, oppression, and ongoing hatred, and are literally having the props (social, economic, and political) kicked out from under them.
Will it really be a surprise when millions of Americans get fed up, rise up, and resist? We’re being backed into a corner, and you know what cornered creatures do. They fight back, out of pure fear and desperation.
Hurrah for White Christian nationalism! Bring it!
What is the bottom line of all this ‘anti-woke’ oppression and persecution? I’d say it is intended — all of it — to affirm and promote a renewed White supremacist culture and push the US toward (White) Christian nationalism.
To accomplish this nefarious, backward goal, Trump and MAGA must vilify and negate positive human qualities like empathy, compassion, interpersonal caring, and love, and instead drum up intensifying hate, racism, ethnic resentments, and cruelty. They must also dismantle the basic principles, goals, and policies underlying our modern ‘liberal democracy,’ and work to overturn and undo all of it. Every bit.
The (White) Christian nation they envision and pine for will not be a democracy, or even a semi-democracy. It will mark a return to the bad old days of racism, mass oppression, voter suppression, and suppression of ‘intellectuals’ and anything remotely ‘liberal.’ And it will be led by a xenophobic, hateful, and devious demagogue: Mr. Trump, or some other vengeful, hate-filled SOB.
Will the US ever promote learning and growth — and combat widespread ignorance and hatred?
As we watch the supposed ‘land of the free’ fade into oblivion, it might be helpful to remind ourselves about the former promise of America — you know, the one that says we believe in and promote ‘liberty and justice for all.’
If we truly believe in that promise — which the US has hardly ever kept — then we can easily see that the entire Trump/MAGA ‘anti-woke’ agenda boils down to one major effort: getting rid of the ‘for all’ part of that promise. They are quite happy to make that promise to White, male, Christian, Republican-leaning folks — but are equally happy to break that promise for liberals, Democrats, Blacks, Hispanics, other immigrants, the poor, and even women in general.
As we watch the unfolding, horrendous results of all this depravity and callous cruelty, we may be forgiven for asking: what the hell is so wrong with being ‘woke’? Isn’t it far better to be awake and aware than asleep, unconscious, and UNaware? Isn’t it far better to seek understanding and awareness, and fight for social equity and justice, than blindly fight for intensifying anger, hate, racism, misogyny, and greed?
Instead of a hateful, idiotic ‘war on woke,’ wouldn’t it be far better and healthier to wage ‘war’ on hate, ignorance, and stupidity? Wouldn’t a public ‘war’ on ignorance, racism, and hatred lead to far better, far saner consequences?
Of course it would! It actually makes sense and might vastly improve our society. But alas, we all know by now: such a sane, sensible ‘war’ is not in our near future. No, for the foreseeable future, the US is locked in a hate-riddled, idiotic, and endlessly stupid — and dangerous — ‘war on woke.’
At this point, it looks like the US may never see a smart, widespread ‘war’ on ignorance, racism, and hate. In fact, many Americans are grimly holding on to our beloved stupidity, racism, and hatred — and no one is ever, ever going to take them from us!
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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