It doesn’t start with a press conference, a public announcement, a gathering of dignitaries who formally inaugurate the coming reign of coercion and injustice.
It starts instead with a subtle nod, a wink, a mischievous grin. It starts with hats and flags and patriotic rallies beneath the banner of populism. It starts with a hint of anger. A subtle slur. An innocent lie cleverly crafted to give an entire nation a common enemy on which to blame its woes.
If you were waiting on the Death Star to suddenly appear in the sky or “The Imperial March” to blare ominously from every speaker across the country, you might want to rethink your expectations. That’s not how our newfound American tyranny is making its entrance. Instead, it’s arriving under the guise of “homeland security.” It’s arriving through the intervention of “federal agents.” It’s arriving with an excessive amount of capital letters on a rambling social media post from a narcissistic demagogue telling us that we cannot believe what we know to be true despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Sure, our songs and slogans still speak of liberty and the glorious ideals of freedom and independence. But today, the warm blood on our frozen streets tells a different story.
Welcome to our dystopian future. It’s no longer lurking around the corner. It’s here. And with it has come a wholesale attack on the only thing we once held in common: a shared sense of reality itself.
In this brave new world, you are only allowed to know what you’re told to be true. Did you think your brown-skinned neighbor was a friend? She’s not. She’s the reason you can’t afford decent housing and the most basic level of healthcare. Did you think you witnessed a murder caught on video? You didn’t. You saw a potential terrorist attack neutralized by the defenders of our well-being. Did you think you had the right to live and move about your own city without harassment? You don’t. Have your papers ready and keep your hands where we can see them.
Gradually, we have become the villains that our films and novels have so long warned us about. In this version of America, dissent is an act of terror. Protest is a threat. Empathy is unpatriotic. And anyone who dares to criticize the supreme leader and his army of loyalists will soon find themselves on the wrong end of a deadly firearm brandished by a uniformed gang of bullies whose authority remains unchecked and unquestioned.
While 77 million of us were busy salivating over the prospect of greatness, dominance, and a vision of American exceptionalism that supposedly echoed the halcyon days of our distant past, our overlords have snuck up behind us and put a gun to our backs. It was their plan all along. There was never a chance that they’d actually take us to some long lost Eden where happiness and prosperity abound. They simply distracted us with a deluded memory that only ever existed in the imaginations of those privileged enough to ignore the oppression upon which their dreams are built.
Don’t believe what they tell you. We’re not making America great again. We’re being played as fools by a soulless regime that has shown itself more than willing to leave any of us dead on the streets.
Drew Thomas Humphrey 