This is all happening too fast
make it stop make it stop make it stop
Last week, I had to listen to someone speak about why the future of technology is actually incredibly awesome and optimistic because of a new tool that could enable a person, via an AI Avatar, to attend “infinite meetings” at once - a dystopian nightmare so foul and unthinkable that not even George Orwell could have foreseen it’s coming.
Meanwhile, as you may have already heard, ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil and detained him hundreds miles away from his family because he lead protests against Palestinian genocide - an absolutely blatant violation against the right to free speech.1
Shortly after, a German-born U.S. green card holder, Fabian Schmidt, who has lived in the U.S. since he was a teenager, was detained by immigration enforcement with no explanation. Fabian was stripped naked, interrogated, and later denied food and water. He had to be hospitalized in order to recover from the flu as well as intense dehydration and exhaustion. Fabian is still being held despite the fact that no charges have been filed against him. Strike two and three against more foundational rights - the right to due process, and the right to be free of cruel and unreasonable punishment.
And now, Trump has made a bold move towards full authoritarian control. It’s becoming clear that Trump et al disregarded a judicial ruling by deporting a group of Venezuelan immigrants that Trump claimed (without evidence) were part of a Venezuelan gang. The government even admitted that many do not have criminal records. Hell, even the deportation itself was authorized under an archaic and constitutionally questionable law that has been invoked only three times since the bill was signed in 1798. These individuals are now in what is effectively a labor camp in El Salvador.
For the past two months, Trump has been telegraphing that he was going to start pushing back on the only existing check on his power (the judicial branch)2. I had personally hoped we had about two more months before we got to this point, but unfortunately, here we are. Not even sixty days and we are entering a full blown constitutional crisis (as if the last ones weren’t bad enough).
Perhaps our AI avatars could get together and have a group therapy session about our country becoming a dictatorship. Meanwhile, I can keep staring at a wall and spiral into despair.
I don’t really know what will happen next, but it can’t be good…
I gotta tell you, the alacrity of our descent into dictatorship has been bonkers. If January and February were a whirlwind, this last week has been whiplash. I’ve been having a really hard time wrapping my head around the whole idea of the U.S. being an authoritarian state. I mean, come on, this whole situation is just fucking asinine because we simply have to go one with our lives, even while our government collapses right in front of our eyes and AI robots try to take away our jobs. The engines of feudalistic capitalism are running harder and faster and oilier than ever and I don’t know if I can do anything about it. We have to keep going to work, no matter what. There is no other option. There is no escape. There is no escape. There is -
Ugh, sorry, there I go spiraling again.
Anyways, yes, things are moving very fast. But in retrospect, our democracy has been hanging by a thread for quite some time (like, maybe decades). The past few weeks have just been scissors cutting the last tenuous fibers. As a country, we are taking in the first shocked gasp as we feel gravity take hold and begin to fall.
If only it was a dream, because this is typically the very moment you wake up.
Even more painful is the realization that civilizations run on a different scale of time than individuals. This communal feeling of shock will last weeks, months, maybe a year, who knows. You won’t experience it every moment of every day, but in the middle of some seemingly innocuous task the feeling will grip you like a nightmare. Imagine that - a year of feeling like you are about to fall, and yet you haven’t even begun plummeting into the unknown.
Why? Well, as of today, Trump’s approval rating is surprisingly decent. What he’s doing, or more specifically the performance he puts on of what he’s doing,3 is resonating with a lot of Americans. It will take some time for people to feel the effects of crumbling democracy on a personal level, particularly because a lot of Trump voters don’t really pay attention to current events, and what news many do receive is blatant far right propaganda.
So, eventually, this about-to-be-falling-feeling will reach a societal level. The question is, will we be able to collectively catch ourselves before tumbling into the unimaginable?
Don’t get me wrong, I still hold an immense amount of hope for the future. I believe that someday we will have a fantastically functioning and equitable society. Many would call that belief foolish, but I’d like to think that the current moment is something that can be overcome.
Eventually.
As for now, the path forward for resistance is only just beginning to clarify. I’m encouraged by the solutions that are already being explored. I found this guide called “Looking for what to do? Some Actions to Stop Authoritarianism” very hopeful and helpful. I also came across a list of lower cost and more ethical alternatives to Amazon. It’s not much, but there are still some effective actions we can take on an individual level to combat billionaire interests and dictatorship.
As for the AI Avatars… well, I look forward to seeing all of you in the bleakness of infinity as we have useless meeting after useless meeting after useless meeting.
But in until then, I will continue to find pockets of joy between the spirals of despair. Right now, I am enjoying the quiet view out my living room window. A small bird has alighted on a branch on the big tree in my neighbors backyard. The bird is so small, and the tree is so big. It reminds me that Spring will soon be here, and with it, the growth of new things. And that at least is something I can take to heart.
(in case you forgot, this is a foundational tenet to any functioning democracy).
And even more specifically, what is being communicated to large swaths of the country of what he’s been doing…