Vol. 2 No 4
The refusal to imagine that things can get worse
does not prevent it from getting worse – Avrum Leib
The Future Has Arrived
“Potential” fascism has become “actual” fascism. In pure Nazi style, racialized characteristics are the criteria used to identify people for deportation and eventual extermination. Masked men snatch the human “vermin” from their homes, places of work, off the street, and in immigration courts. They are then swiftly “disappeared” into the Kafka-esque world of ICE detention, stripped of their rights and, Nazi-style, assigned an identifying number. To reduce the chance of them being located and possibly released under court order, they are shuttled from camp to camp. Eventually the human cattle are sent to a foreign country for disposal. In a fit of jealousy, and perhaps to bring back American jobs, Governor Ron DeSantis is building in Florida what some have dubbed “Alligator Auschwitz,” a prison surrounded by alligators who will devour any escapees. I’m sure Fox News will have a live stream of humans being eaten alive. But the fun doesn’t stop there.
Those concerned about the fate of a neighbor, friend, or loved one who was disappeared, can voice their opposition to this unconstitutional treatment. However, in a fascist regime that pretends to support free speech, there’s an inverse relationship between attaining freedom for the disappeared, and voicing opposition. Since fascists must always maintain the appearance of brute force and inhumanity, too much free speech can jeopardize the chances of getting someone freed, because fascists never want to be seen as having caved to public pressure. As a result, in order to save a life, the opposition alters its behavior. But when it does so, like when it silences itself, it places itself in a moral quagmire. If it truly believes that “silence is complicity,” then the opposition forces itself into complicity through its self-imposed silence. It justifies this complicity by telling itself that this one compromise, this abrogation of its own moral principles, is required to free a particular person from deportation. But this gets worse since the opposition itself has also been deported, metaphorically. Snatched from its moral bedrock, its decisions from that point forward will need to be weighed against the new moral order imposed by the regime.
It was the imposition of a new moral order that made the Nazi killings possible. In Robert Jay Lifton’s, “The Nazi Doctors,” he explained how the concept of health shifted from helping the sick to exterminating the sick. This definition of health portrayed society as an organism that could only thrive when the (human) vermin were eliminated from society. Thus Nazi Germany began killing Germans who were institutionalized for various physical and mental ailments, relying on professionals – doctors, nurses, and school teachers – to identify human beings for elimination. Our version of exterminating human beings takes multiple forms.
MAHA Eugenics removes access to life-saving vaccines, halts vital research to prevent future pandemics, and promotes quack theories over science. The Wizard of Bullcrap, Dr. Mehmet Oz, tells us that it’s life choices that cause us to succumb to disease, while conveniently ignoring the role of genetics, environment, and economic factors. In the recently passed budget bill, death comes in the form of massive budget cuts to health services, food assistance, and other life-saving (and life-preserving) services (NOAA, CDC, FDA, OSHA, National Weather Services, and much more). Currently we are building our first known killing center (for now, alligators will be the means of disposal), the government has been arresting only Democratic politicians, and doing little to prevent self-appointed storm troopers from hunting and killing them. To make it all much worse, the Supreme Court said that the president-king cannot be questioned when he is acting in his official duties as the king himself defines them, nor can any of the lower courts reign in the president-king when he is violating the US Constitution.
We have truly entered a new era in American history. Nothing can ever again be taken for granted. Repairing the damage will take a decade or more. We must think strategically, collectively, and long-term. We are the new American ancestors. Act accordingly.
by 
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.