How Actual Tyranny Begins
For 8 years we’ve heard screwballs, fueled by weird conspiracy theorists, rail about “tyranny” from the Obama administration. That “tyranny” was going to come in the form of gun confiscation, US Army invasion of Texas, and “false flag” mass shootings performed by actors. The “tyranny” also came in the form of the federal government not permitting social warriors to persecute people different from them. There were a lot more idiotic assertions, but you get the idea. None of those predictions came to pass, of course, but that didn’t stop the onslaught on BS pouring out of dozens of extremist websites and talking heads.
Since Cheeto Jesus won the electoral vote earlier this month, however, the threat of actual tyranny has begun to raise its ugly head, much of it fueled by His Orangeness himself, along with his talking heads like Kellyanne Conway, who has been issuing veiled threats against those who criticize her fearless leader. These threats and the frightening names he’s floating for his cabinet is giving every thinking non-Trumpist American pause, and is motivating journalism professionals to start ringing the alarm bells a month and a half out from the inauguration.
Last week in the Dallas Morning News Yale professor and historian Timothy Snyder published an actual guide on how to fight actual tyranny in our own government. Yes, you heard it right…an expert in Third Reich and Soviet totalitarian history issued a 20 point plan for YOU, yes, YOU to resist tyranny in the land of the free, home of the brave. Similarly, Christiane Amanpour of CNN published a piece last week expressing her shock that she is worried about the safety of journalists in THIS COUNTRY as Cheeto Jesus has incited physical attacks against those with whom he disagrees. The specter American totalitarianism should terrify everyone.
I came of age during the days of Viet Nam, watching protests and body counts every evening on the television. As a child, I was involved in the duck-and-cover drills during the nuclear crisis with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Living in close proximity to a Texas Air Force base, we were constantly reminded that we would be the first to be hit by nuclear missiles when WW III started. I grew up with a feeling of dread from one outside threat or another. I feel that same dread today, but it’s different from the past in one significant way –
This threat is from the inside, in our own government.
Jefe, I grew up in the same era you did (not in San Antonio, so duck and cover wasn’t as scary), and I feel exactly the same way.
1Never imagined I’d see people in this country doing the “Sieg Heil” for someone they’d managed to make president.
We like to think that civilization is making progress, becoming more tolerant, peaceful, and egalitarian. Then we get smacked in the face by the fact that it isn’t. We’ve slipped backwards before and look like doing it again, and not just in this country.
People say this was a rotten year and they can’t wait for it to be over. I don’t know why they think the next one is going to be better.
2Jefe, I was a pup during WW2. As young as I was I could understand how my parents and others were feeling. I well remember the front covers of LIFE magazine in my living room and even some of the inside pages filled with pix of horrors beyond description. In undergrad school, I had profs who declared that tyranny could take place here, in this country, and I remember how strongly I hoped it never would. Well, thanks to the people who were conned – and knew the guy was a total con – this might be something I cannot afford to look forward to. I would love to see copies of those LIFE magazines from WW2 airdropped on their damn double wides. They needn’t read a word. The pix say it all.
3@KellyannePolls Have Donnie lose the overcoat, or find one that fits him. He looks like those old newsreels of Vinnie the Chin in pajamas faking dementia.
@KellyannePolls Although, Donnie may not be faking.
4Trump is a stupid, soulless puppet. He is so busy kissing Putin’s ass, he can’t see how stupidly he’s being used. If he thinks he discards people no longer of use to him, the mangled apricot hellbeast will have his head spun off his fat neck when Putin discards him. And Putin’s discards don’t get up again.
5This is what we all fear: the gun-toting, confederate flag-waving, violence-threatening crowds empowered by their
6Fuhrer. Now we know where the FBI stands, so no help there.
Drumpf’s Justice Department will be anything but, and the Supreme Court will be in the pocket of the Repugs. Civil Rights will be a long lost memory and freedom of speech and expression will result in incarceration. In fact, the Bill of Rights will be nothing but an historical document with no court able to uphold it. We are witnessing the end of America and the beginning of the Fourth Reich.
I would never have believed it would turn out this bad. It’s a genuine nightmare. My poor children and grandchildren…..
7El Jefe, you and I grew up with almost exactly the same fears. The ‘almost’ part is because on Long Island, New York, where I lived, we had no escape plans. If Manhattan went up, no one was getting off the island.
I remember seeing Vietnam on the news. That kind of reporting changed when the Bush presidents chose to limit access and refuse photography of all kinds of seemingly innocuous events. The veil grew thicker and thicker, until Amanpour, who knows repressive regimes, recognizes what we have become. And how much worse it is likely to get. God bless her, and Dan Rather, and Timothy Snyder.
I’m still stunned at how many people swallowed Trump’s bullfeathers. And I am furious. I am not going to hand this place over so Herr Orangentrooper can make his Cadre rich while he drains the country.
8In 1983 when I was in the Texas Legislature, I was shown on the House floor, how to do a diminished version of the Nazi salute which would not attract the press like the full raised arm would. It was the other Rep from Ft. Bend County and one of his buddies from Central Texas. Ugly. Those guys are probably celebrating now : (
9In a recent facebook exchange, one poster asked me what Obama has done for me. Answer is simple, he didn’t give me anxiety. The country’s most “healthy” (!) Pudding Face has not even been inaugurated, and I need a LOT of SRIs to get through the day and night.
10I should reply to my own comment that I answered him with “why to Republicans feel they need to be ‘rewarded’ all the time”.
11Horse’s Grass-ley of iowa wants to push confirmation of racist Sessions as AG asap. Don’t have time to their job and confirm Scotus appointment for the last legally elected Potus, but having a white, virulent racist in charge of civil and voting rights sounds just peachy keen to wingnuts.
12Grew up same time, Atlanta, duck and cover, siren testing Weds at noon. Vietnam protests while boyfriend in Army. Feared a lot then. Never imagined where we are now!
13Juanita Jean – Your writing about this menace is particularly powerful and lucid. Thank you for keeping your head for the rest of us – I was about to extend my mourning period but now I’m inspired to get myself focused on refusing to accept this juvenile narcissist and move forward. Thank you.
Karen Rose
14Unfortunately, the Snyder article is behind the Dallas Morning News paywall so I can’t read it. I don’t want another subscription to another periodical from whom I want only occasional access…so can we encourage Prof. Snyder to publish the same on an open-access blog?
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