How Americans claim to be a caring society, but they do not really care at all.
If there is one thing this election proved, it is that Americans don’t really mean what they say. They have proven beyond a doubt that they:
- Don’t care about anyone or anything other than themselves.
- They do not understand how their own government, or theirs and the world’s economy, works — nor do they understand the forces that are working to shape their future.
- Most importantly, they don’t care about the suffering of others.
The motto of America is now the same as it was since Ronald Reagan came to power. I got mine, fuck you.
With this week’s election, America has chosen to Groundhog Day, its future through a past it can’t yet shake. Donald Trump’s unfitness was clear-cut. He did not try to hide it. Yet about 1% more of the country than did not, think that having a megalomaniac in charge of the nuclear codes was just fine with them. Worse yet, 37% of our population sat on their fat, lazy asses and did not vote.
Wedded to nostalgia for a past that DID NOT exist and not understanding what was actually happening in the economy at large, America collectively decided, “ What the hell, let’s commit national suicide.”
The result is that we’re face to face again with not just Trump but also the peril of what he promises to do and what an election will deliver to him. It will not be a pleasant experience for anyone, including the folks who think they are immune to the plans the authors of Project 2025 have made. Plenty of other countries have been down this very same road. It did not end well for them. It will not end that way for us.
Having spent this weekend talking to many folks on the other side of the political aisle, one theme comes through over and over again. They just do not care. They will be fine ( they think), so fuck everybody else. They looked at Donald Trump, ignored his genuine flaws, and said, “ I’ll have more of that so long as gas is cheap, the stock market rises, and I can watch sports. “
I despise them for who and what they have become. I should not be surprised that people who I thought were actually decent souls have morphed into selfish pigs, indifferent to the suffering of others. American history is full of examples of collective indifference and downright cruelty. Internment camps during World War II, our refusal to take in Jewish refugees during that same conflict, the century of Jim Crow, and, of course, our bloody Civil War, which was fought between the states for the right to enslave other human beings.
There are many more examples. However, if you ask your average American, they will give you the standard pat answer that Americans give more to charity than any other nation. The truth is, they don’t, and more importantly, it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison because many other nations have governmental services that make such a high level of charity unnecessary.
Over our history, the collective level of indifference has risen and fallen. The 1960s saw large, well-needed protests. One of the fascinating things to me is that now, when there is injustice on a far greater level than then, Americans can’t seem to be bothered to take to the streets.
It’s the indifference index. Sometimes, it lowers; all too often, it raises. On November 5th, it went off the charts. Sadly, it appears that it went off the charts. It will not come back down any time soon.
There are all kinds of explanations for last Tuesday’s disaster. Some I agree with, some I think are not correct at all. But so far, the majority of pundits cling to the idea that Americans are somehow, collectively, decent people. News flash, they are not. They are terrible souls who hide their selfishness and cruelty behind the veneer of their mundane daily lives.
But make no mistake, they are comfortable with evil. I sense that, in this era of the Internet, there are millions more fascists in this country than people think, young men in particular. And I believe that many more millions are fascinated by Trump not for his supposed business prowess but for his transparent wish to hurt others. He is an evil guy, a villain — and many Americans are excited by it. Harris and the Democrats, by contrast, are dull, boring, boring. In this sense, the election was like a choice between four more years of church or four years of violent entertainment. Nihilistic consumerism, as much as authoritarianism, prevailed.
These worthless souls have no idea what level of violence their choice ACTUALLY entails, and the propaganda machine has done its damndest to keep them from seeing it. Hopefully, they will see it in two ways. 1) When someone close to them loses their green card or, worse yet, their citizenship ( and make no mistake about it- people will).
The average American voter does not consider themselves a fascist. Not a fascist, no. A moron, probably, but not a true believing fascist. The problem is, they don’t know what fascism is, even as they voted for it—the everyday voter doesn’t pay any attention to any details at all. About the economy, the law, public policy, anything. It’s completely fine to be angry with these voters. It’s completely fine to be outraged that these people chose Donald Fucking Trump for a second time after seeing how worthless he really is.
The indifference index will remain off the charts for years to come. The indifference of our fellow citizens is contagious, too, and it’s too easy to give up now that the worst calamity has befallen America as a nation. It’s been 10 years since this monster first appeared on the political horizon, and people have repeatedly ignored his treason and thievery. Those who did not are tired. We must rest during this interim, then pick ourselves up and resist this monster well into the future. There has to be a unified opposition to what will surely be a draconian governmental overreach. As Joseph O’Neill said, “ It is our job to make him pay for his overreaches. It is not our job to help him “succeed.” It’s not our job to “unite the country” or, as President Biden has suggested, “turn down the temperature.” It’s our job to make Trump fail, fail again, fail worse.”
In so doing, we can make our apathetic population see forcibly the consequences of their indifference.