This is the greatest danger.
Trump was the battering ram, showing people of evil intent exactly what will be permitted.
Authoritarianism isn't going anywhere after Trump unless as a nation we resolve to become rigidly anti-authoritarian, and to change our systems accordingly.
Trump was the battering ram, showing people of evil intent exactly what will be permitted.
Authoritarianism isn't going anywhere after Trump unless as a nation we resolve to become rigidly anti-authoritarian, and to change our systems accordingly.
I don't know if anybody needs to hear this, but this isn't "the big question."
You don't need to get everybody on board before you decide to oppose authoritarianism.
And if you have 66% support then you have a landslide that no candidate has seen in 40 years.
You don't need to get everybody on board before you decide to oppose authoritarianism.
And if you have 66% support then you have a landslide that no candidate has seen in 40 years.
But more than that, you should determine to oppose authoritarianism even if 90% of people weren't on board. Even if 99% weren't.
You don't need a majority to determine to do the right thing. If you do, then you're not actually interested in doing the right thing.
You don't need a majority to determine to do the right thing. If you do, then you're not actually interested in doing the right thing.
Presently we have a majority authoritarian country, because when proto-authoritarians are in power, they don't need everyone to be actively authoritarian. They just need to go unopposed. They just need people to believe the false equivalency that "both sides" are just as bad.
This has been the true horror. It really has been devastating.
It's also important to remember, if like me you're a non-marginalized person, is that this is only a revelation to we people of privilege.
Marginalized people have known these truths about our sick national soul for their whole lives.
Revelatory to us.
For them, just life.
Marginalized people have known these truths about our sick national soul for their whole lives.
Revelatory to us.
For them, just life.
To live in the US the last 4 years has been to be creeped out by what I now know about the foundational moral structure of hundreds and thousands and millions of regular everyday people around me ... and to realize how many have experienced that creepy feeling their whole lives.
