We Must Not Roll Out the Red Carpet for Totalitarianism

Your anger is deeply justified. It's also what the malevolent forces that got us here want.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

America. We need to take a deep breath and look with clear eyes into our future. It has the potential to be extremely dark.

22% of the US population voted to lead us further down the deadly political path of division and othering. We must not roll out the red carpet for totalitarianism.  

Many are extraordinarily upset right now, with complete justification, as they contend with the realities of a fully immune Trump presidency, guided by the twisted motivations of the powerful figures who put him back in the White House. Those powerful figures want you to be angry. It helps their plan go further.

Part One

Part one of the plan was to capture the minds of a large portion of voters so those voters could be convinced to hand billionaire elites the keys to the kingdom. This was accomplished by erecting a right-wing media ecosystem of charismatic figures spewing disinformation and hate, all in service to propping up a narcissistic man that they can control.

The plan also relied on mainstream media to legitimize the far-right disinformers by bringing them on their programs and giving them a platform to normalize their culture war bullshit that doesn’t actually matter to anyone’s lives except for the victims of culture war bullshit. 

Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, in league with Vladimir Putin, are now the puppet masters of our government. They divided us, they conquered. Much of America was totally in the dark, completely disinformed about the stakes of the choice before us.

Part Two

Part two of the plan is to destroy the United States economy, with no regard for any of us or how we might suffer, including the suffering of the voters who gave Musk and Thiel the keys to the kingdom. This plan further relies on a mainstream media system that does not sufficiently warn of these harms. For every TV news segment on how Trump’s plan would tank the economy there were hundreds of reports that treated him like a regular candidate whose plans might have merit, and hundreds more that pretended Harris had no policies. 

Part Three

Part three of the plan, building off of the successful disinformation campaign created in part one, is to further divide us. To fill us with rage and prepare us for violence and have us so at each other’s throats that we cannot fight back against the destruction of America, to render some of us so unrecognizable as fellow humans that when Musk and Thiel and Putin’s plans start to ruin the lives of Trump’s supporters, they’ll never consider blaming the responsible parties. They will blame so-called radical leftists, illegal immigrants, and unworthy minorities—the people they used to call their neighbors, friends, and co-workers. While Part 2 will only get started when Trump is inaugurated, Part 3 is happening right now. Overnight we are more hateful of each other than ever before. 

Though the actual story is the fall of America to malevolent interests, mainstream media is dominated right now by autopsies of the Democratic Party. Most of the discussion, arguing that the Democratic Party must tack towards a fascist right, will lead our nation further towards totalitarianism.

A Dem strategist was on cable news this week saying the party needs to be “normal” and not say “Latinx” or put pronouns after their names. To claim that pronouns lost the election for the Dems is a capitulation to the othering rhetoric the far-right has already adopted. Such an attitude evokes the famous post-WWII poem about rationalizing genocide. First they came for the trans people, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trans person. 

Blaming the Democratic Party, progressives, or bros of all ages will eat up all of our time and energy. As we defend each other we must forcefully place blame upon the mind-numbing information ecosystem we live in and the malevolent billionaires who created it for us. And fight like hell for our humanity. We are all swimming in the toxic soup of authoritarian disinformation and normalization that is meant to warp our morals. 

Though things are about to be so much worse for everyone, we must not harden our hearts to become what Musk and Thiel and Putin want us to become. Already people on the internet are sharing the home address of white supremacist and rape apologist Nick Fuentes in the hopes of inspiring retribution. He is a despicable person, but we must not become despicable.

We must bring Trump supporters into the tent of fact-based reality as best we can before some of them start committing violence for a dictator and his billionaire backers who lie to them. 

We are all on the cusp of hating each other so much. The flames of hatred are going to be fanned so deeply by our collective opponent – the billionaires who did this to America.

I am going to focus solely on spreading healthier information and bringing as many people into the informed tent as possible. Please join me.